button in SafariLucas Jumalon Has World Title Within His Grasp With Commanding Lead at the WSOP Main Event Final Table
“Ju-Ju-Jumaloo”
That chant echoed throughout the Paris Las Vegas ballroom throughout the day on the road to the World Series of Poker Main Event final table. The man it was directed at is a 22-year-old from Spokane, Washington, who found himself in a spot that most poker players can only dream of.
Lucas Jumalon will take a commanding chip lead into the game’s biggest stage when the final nine return on August 3 to determine the next world champion. Jumalon, a recent business and data analytics graduate from Grand Canyon University whose biggest career score prior to the Main Event was for just $23,000, controls more than a third of the total chips in play with 194,000,000.
“It still hasn’t sunk in, and I don’t know if it ever will. It’s just a surreal experience and I know this may never come around again, and I’m just soaking it all in and it’s really incredible,” Jumalon said after his elimination of Malcolm Trayner brought Day 8 to a close.
2026 WSOP Main Event Final Table chip counts
| Rank | Player | Country | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Lucas Jumalon | United States | 194,000,000 | 129 |
| 2 | Rami Hammoud | Canada | 79,000,000 | 53 |
| 3 | Jamie Shaevel | United States | 56,000,000 | 37 |
| 4 | Greg Mueller | Canada | 48,500,000 | 32 |
| 5 | Michael Gagliano | United States | 46,500,000 | 31 |
| 6 | Mario Boos | France | 44,000,000 | 29 |
| 7 | Lauri Saaskilahti | Finland | 37,500,000 | 25 |
| 8 | Han Feng | United States | 25,000,000 | 17 |
| 9 | Evagoras Evagorou | Cyprus | 22,500,000 | 15 |
Jumalon and Trayner were competing not just on the felt. They sported the two biggest rails of the day, the traditional “Aussie, Aussie, Aussie. Oi! Oi! Oi!” being countered by Jumalon’s creative songs. His passionate friends and family, including his father, watched along from the rail as Jumalon went on the ride of a lifetime today.
“They mean the world to me. Any time I get down, having them there, it’s just, it’s actually incredible,” he said. “All the support, all the love from here and from back home and from, like, all of the messages that I’ve gotten. It’s just tremendous, and I’ve been trying to respond to them all, but there’s a lot.”
Well before Jumalon hit running nines to counterfeit Traynor’s flopped pair and set the final table, it was a pot against the Aussie bracelet winner that changed Jumalon’s day. He fired out a massive bet of 35,000,000 on the river of an ace-high board, and Trayner tanked for a few minutes before calling with pocket queens. Jumalon, though, sparked an eruption of cheers when he turned over a set of jacks to win the pot and become the first player to climb over 100,000,000.
Rami Hammoud Answers His Own Self-Doubt on His Way to the Final Table
Following far behind, Jumalon’s closest challenger is Rami Hammoud, who at times seemed like he had the support of his entire native country of Canada behind him. Hammoud, a regular at Playground Poker Club just outside Montreal who made the final table of the Salute to Warriors event in 2024, sits in second place with 79,000,000.
Hammoud grew up watching the Main Event on television, dreaming of one day competing on that same stage, but always wondering whether he would have what it takes. The money and guaranteed $1,000,000 he’s already locked up are part of the perks of being a Main Event finalist. But money comes and goes, and for Hammoud, the legacy his run will leave will last the rest of his life.
“Financially, I haven’t thought that far through. There’s still a lot of job to be done, right? So that part, I don’t really think about. But, like I said, I’m always going to be a Main Event final tablist. No one can take that away from me. That’s it. I am a Main Event final tablist. It’s most poker players' dream, if not all, right? And I’ve accomplished that. So what an accomplishment,” he said.
“The younger version of myself would always watch the Main Event and would ask himself, like, can we actually pull this off? Would we be able to play, you know, like stress-free? Will we be able to pull off the bluffs? And I’m so happy to say that young Rami would be so proud of where I am right now. And so, a shout out to young Rami. This one’s for me.”
Hammoud’s best career score prior to the Main Event came from a $1,150 event at Playground in 2023. That’s his home. It’s where he learned to play, where he made his friends in the poker community, and the place that shaped the player that he is now on the cusp of poker immortality. That community from Montreal was there to support him today, and he returned it right back to them.
“It’s amazing, man. It’s amazing. I feel like I have the support of the city. But, look, listen, I think at the end of the day we’re just playing cards, man. You know, it’s just cards,” he said.
“But still, regardless, it’s cool to have all the support. You know, my game was born in Playground. I owe everything to Playground in terms of my skill set, my experience. My biggest score prior to this was at Playground. It would not be right for me to not mention Playground. Shout out to them. Shout out to them for making me the poker player that I am today.”
Hammoud was already expecting a significant change in his life, even without his Main Event run. He’s supposed to start a new job in just a week. Preparing for the final table is just part of what he expects to go through over the coming weeks.
“Step one, sleep. I am lacking so much sleep. Step two, go back home. I really have a flight to catch now. Step three, I’m in between jobs. I left my old job on June 19, and I’m supposed to start my new job July 20. But I have some preparation to do. Thankfully, I am surrounded by poker players who are significantly better than me from a technical ICM point of view. So I’m definitely gonna leverage their help. And, yeah, just take it from there.”
Final Table Run Helps Mueller Fall Back in Love With Poker
The WSOP Main Event is making its return to ESPN this year, and it’s only fitting that a mainstay of the poker boom finds himself at the final table after decades of trying. Greg Mueller, the Canadian ex-hockey player turned three-time WSOP bracelet winner, is the most accomplished player left in the field. Mueller often seems like the life of the party whenever he’s at a poker table, constantly chatting and telling jokes with his opponents. That didn’t change today, either during play or right after.
“Let me put on my shades so I look cool,” Mueller said while preparing for the first of what will likely be many media appearances over the next few weeks.
“It feels unbelievable. I mean, it really does. Like, it’s surreal. I keep asking, am I dreaming here? Like crazy,” he said.
Mueller’s spot at the final table was put in jeopardy when he was involved in a massive flip for 26,500,000 with queens against Michael Gagliano’s ace-king. Mueller’s pair held on to earn him the double up, and despite that tension-filled moment, he still found a way to joke about it after bagging up 48,500,000, good for fourth place on the leaderboard.
“Biggest flip I’ve ever been through, yes. And it was nice to be on the right side, I’ll be honest. I wore flip-flops. Sometimes you gotta run in flip-flops,” he said.
Mueller admitted earlier in the event that his enthusiasm for the game had waned over the years. He was ready to be done with poker for good, but his run here has rekindled his passion, at least for a little while. “For this tournament, absolutely. I don’t know after the tournament if I’m gonna love poker again, but I’ll tell you right now, I love it,” he said.
Mueller has one guarantee for the final table in August, besides his pledge to lose 20 pounds between now and then: it will be a lot of fun. “10 out of 10. We’re gonna have a rail. All my boys from White Rock and Vancouver. Everybody is coming. Going to be a big party."
Shaevel Proving a Main Event Crusher
Cash game pro Jamie Shaevel admits he hardly ever plays tournaments, but when he does, he usually makes it count. Shaevel has cashed eight times in the WSOP Main Event, his best previous result being 100th place in 2011. He’s far exceeded that this year, and the California native will take 56,000,000 into the final table.
The Main Event, with its deep structure, perfectly suits his experience in cash games, even if tournaments are a vastly different game. “I’m numb. I’m completely numb. I’m sure it will hit me at some point. I just keep feeling like I’m going to wake up from a dream. It hasn’t set in at all,” he said.
“It’s night and day. Obviously, two very different games, different formats. This is really the only tournament I generally usually play. It’s similar to cash games in the early stages, and the slow structure is more similar to cash games. That plays to what I am more familiar with. But it’s completely different, obviously,” he said.
Shaevel was one of the smaller stacks during the closing moments of the day, but a double up off Evagoras Evagorou with a full house gave him new life. Shaevel then took out Tolga Karakaya in 11th after picking up two jacks against Karakaya’s ace-ten.
Gagliano Helped Along By Some Good Karma
Gagliano decided earlier this summer to help out the community by creating the Summer Poker Calendar, a mobile app that can be downloaded for free with information on every tournament happening throughout Las Vegas during the series.
Gagliano, whose career earnings of more than $2 million include winning the $2,500 No-Limit Hold’em event at the 2016 WSOP and three online bracelets, was rewarded with good karma and sits in the middle of the pack at the final table with 46,500,000. “I’ve been saying for many days that it feels like Groundhog Day. Like, the more people that bust, it just feels like the number just doesn’t go down. And my friend asked me, I think there were like 100 or 80 people left, ‘When are you going to be happy?’ And I said, well, when there’s nine left. I feel like it’s finally done,” he said.
“I got to shout out Daniel Strelitz. He’s been here all day for the last couple of days. I got a bunch of friends who have been watching. My wife and kids at home. She said to me that they watched poker all day yesterday, and she never thought that it would be so much fun just watching poker all day with the kids who basically know nothing about the game.”
Grinder Han Feng Survives His Only All-In to Make It to the Final Table
Han Feng will represent the tournament grinders in the biggest tournament of them all. The 2024 GPI Mid-Major Player of the Year was the shortest stack left in the field coming back from the extended dinner break and came to terms with the fact that, if his run should end here just short of the final table, he would still be content. But he then found a double up when his king-high beat Trayner’s jack-high, and Feng suddenly found himself back in contention on his way to finishing with 25,000,000.
“I was on the dinner break and kind of just, like, accepting, okay, if I die, I die. And that king-six versus the jack-eight hand, that was the first time I was all in for my tournament life, actually, this tournament, which was pretty crazy. But from then on, once I had 20 blinds and some breathing room, I was pretty confident,” the Texas native said after reaching the final table.
Making it to the final table did, however, disrupt his plans for the remainder of the year. “It’s funny, because after WSOP, I was just kind of planning a one-way trip to Europe and was probably going to spend, like, the rest of the year abroad playing or just travelling around. But, well, now it’s cut short,” he said.
Boos, Saaskilahti, Evagorou Bring International Flavor to Main Event Final Table
Five different countries are represented at the final table among the remaining nine players. Mario Boos of France, Finland’s Lauri Saaskilahti, and Cypriot Evagorou will each try to become the first Main Event champion from their native countries.
Boos won a coin flip with two tens against Feng’s ace-king at the unofficial final table to end up with 44,000,000. He admits he contemplated laying down his pair, but decided that a chance at becoming world champion was more important than the pay jump between 10th place and 9th. “It was amazing, because Malcolm was short, I had to make a decision: take a pay jump for $250K or play for the win. I chose the bracelet,” he said.
Saaskilahti, who now calls Spain home and had a deep run in last year’s EPT Barcelona Main Event for his biggest career score, looked back at a moment from yesterday’s Day 7 as the one that helped him reach this stage with a stack of 37,500,000. He was all in with ace-high against Brock Wilson’s flopped top pair of kings, but Saaskilahti spiked an ace on the river to double up. Today on Day 8, he took out Daniel Savas over the course of two hands, first picking up jacks against Savas’ tens to double, and then calling Savas’ shove with ace-nine to end Savas’ run in 14th place after he qualified in a $585 landmark satellite on the Fourth of July holiday.
“I feel surprisingly relaxed. I don’t have any super big emotions. I mean, obviously, I’m super happy. But there is no big wave of emotions going through me. Maybe it will hit me a little bit later,” he said.
“When that Barry Greenstein hit yesterday on the river, the ace on the river, that was like a pretty, pretty big moment. And I felt like, yeah, maybe it’s meant to be.”
Evagorou rounds out the final table lineup as the short stack with 22,500,000. The amateur was playing in his first Main Event and had just one recorded win on his resume, a $100 event at Caesars Palace more than a decade ago.
He was already having a solid series, making a deep run in a $600 Deepstack event, and says his native Cyprus is behind him the entire way as he chases the bracelet. “It’s amazing. I am so, so happy, and it’s a dream come true. I was dreaming of this moment. This is my first Main Event that I played, and it’s a great feeling. I feel so happy. I cannot describe with words,” he said.
“My phone doesn’t stop. They send me messages, they take my picture, everybody is happy for me.”
Big Names Fall Short of the Final Table
The eyes of the poker world will be on these nine players come August, but at the start of the day, a different batch of players held the spotlight. The 21 players who returned for Day 8 included nine-time WSOP bracelet winner and reigning Player of the Year Shaun Deeb. There was Dylan Smith, a tournament crusher who had just broken through with his first WSOP bracelet earlier this series. Brock Wilson was establishing himself as one of the top tournament players in the game over the past few years and had already won four tournaments this year to add to his $13 million in career earnings.
Hall of Famer Todd Brunson was making his deepest Main Event run in three decades as he tried to join his legendary father, Doyle, as only the second father-son duo to each make the final table. And there was 2019 champion Hossein Ensan, trying to pull off the impossible and win his second Main Event title in seven years.
All of them, though, fell short of their ultimate goal. Brunson earned a fortunate early triple up when his ace-king rivered a pair of aces in a three-way all-in to crack Wilson’s kings and Trayner’s queens. But he then fell victim to a cruel river himself, with Trayner rivering a flush to beat Brunson’s aces and send him to the rail in 20th place.
Smith was the first player to fall during the day after Jumalon hit a runner-runner flush. Will Givens, the loud and gregarious WSOP bracelet winner, then had a chance to take the chip lead when he had Jumalon all in and dominated in a pot worth nearly 60,000,000, but Jumalon spiked trips on the flop to double up. Givens was left short and finally silenced shortly afterwards, having to settle for 19th place.
Ensan took the chip lead after rivering the nut flush against Hammoud. Thomas Clack then called Ensan’s turn shove with aces and fives, but Ensan had turned aces and sevens to win the pot and bust the reigning UK Player of the Year in 18th place as he continued to ascend the leaderboard.
French pro Romain Lewis was eliminated in an aces-over-kings cooler against Mueller, while Wilson, unable to recover from losing to Brunson’s rivered ace earlier, eventually fell in 16th. Deeb had Gagliano all in in a race with ace-jack against tens, but Gagliano’s pair held up to earn him the double up and leave Deeb nursing a short stack. Deeb then shoved for 13,600,000 on the flop with a straight draw, while Hammoud showed top pair. The turn and river were no help to the POY front-runner, and Deeb quickly headed off to fire a bullet in the $500 Summer Saver after finishing in 15th place.
Ensan, meanwhile, had dwindled down from his previous heights to just 26,400,000 when he three-bet shoved. Gagliano, though, woke up with kings in the big blind, and Ensan got no help with ace-queen as his hopes of a second bracelet came up short in 13th place.
On the last hand of the night, Trayner, left with just 7,500,000 after doubling up Evagorou on the first hand of the unofficial final table, shoved the flop with two pair. The turn and river counterfeited his fours, though, and Jumalon took the pot with his king-high to bust Trayner in 10th place.
That left the stage clear for the nine who will return for the Main Event final table on August 3. The action will pick up in a few weeks with 56:40 remaining in Level 39 with blinds of 1,000,000/1,500,000 and a 1,500,000 big blind ante. Everyone left has already been crowned a millionaire, but the $10,000,000 first place and glittering diamond bracelet await just one of them.
One of these nine will be immortalized forever in the WSOP record books, their names always associated with the title of world champion. But first, they have a few weeks off to prepare for the biggest moment in their poker lives.
The final table is set, and PokerNews will be back in August to follow all the action up to the crowning of a new champion.