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Who Will be Crowned Champion of the 2026 Jamul Poker Open Main Event?
The final and most exciting day of the 2026 Jamul Poker Open has arrived as the sun peeks over the stunning mountains in Southern California, just outside of the San Diego area. The Jamul Casino Resort is playing host to the week-long series that concludes with Day 2 of the $600 Main Event where 39 players will be battling for the title and the beautiful trophy that goes with it.
A total of 327 entries were recorded over the four starting flights, creating a prizepool of $170,040, which will all be distributed today. This is the largest Main Event at the Jamul Poker Open in its short tenor, proving that poker is thriving in the San Diego area. The winner will be walking away with a hefty payout of $36,015 later tonight.
It was a surprise chip leader that emerged from Day 1d in the final flight as Alexei Racila dominated the smallest of the starting flights. Racila went on to bag 715,000 chips in just over six hours. He has given himself the best chances at making a deep run today, one that would be his first recorded cash since 2023 and just his sixth overall.
Day 2 Chip Leaders
| Rank | Player | Country | Chip Count |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Alexei Racila | United States | 715,000 |
| 2 | Nan Chen | United States | 612,000 |
| 3 | Rip Fritzer | United States | 541,000 |
| 4 | Scott Downey | United States | 494,000 |
| 5 | Tyler Hatchel | United States | 488,000 |
| 6 | Di Wu (US) | United States | 464,000 |
| 7 | Leslie Autenreith | United States | 396,000 |
| 8 | Michael Hindi | United States | 392,000 |
| 9 | Francisco Anzar | United States | 382,000 |
| 10 | Daniel Lujano | United States | 343,000 |
The cards are scheduled to go in the air at 12 p.m. PST on the West Coast and players are to make their way downstairs inside the poker room for the final day. The blinds will be rolled back to 3,000/5,000 with a 5,000 big blind ante, that being the level that Day 1d completed. The levels will also be increased to 40 minutes today with a 15-minute break after every three levels.
There is also expected to be a live-streamed feature table throughout the day that can be viewed on the Jamul Casino Resort YouTube channel. The PokerNews updates will still be live throughout the day until the final table is reached. Each player has locked up a min-cash of at least $1,102 thus far but the short stacks will have their work cut out for them should they want to ladder up.
The PokerNews live reporting team will be here to bring you all of the live updates throughout the day en route to the final table and eventually crowning a winner later tonight.