Three ways to the K♥5♥4♦ flop with around 8,400 in the pot, Sarkis Akopian checked from middle position and Jiafeng Lin fired an overbet of 10,000 from the cutoff. Scott Seiver was next to act on the button and committed all of his 53,900 into the middle. Akopian folded, but Lin put in the call for most of his stack.
Scott Seiver: A♠K♦
Jiafeng Lin: K♣7♣
Seiver was at risk but held a huge lead with his ace-kicker, and only a brutal runout would end his Main Event quest early.
Lin was drawing dead after the A♣ turn gave Seiver two pair, making the 7♠ river irrelevant as it improved Lin to the inferior two pair.
Seiver doubled to almost two starting stacks, while Lin was left with around 10,000.
The hand was recounted to PokerNews by multiple players at the table.
Following an open, Anthony Marini three-bet to 1,500. Ryan Sands then made it 3,500 to go, only for Marini to make it five bets with a raise to 7,500. Sands moved all in, and Marini made the call.
Anthony Marini: A♦K♦
Ryan Sands: A♠A♣
According to the table, the flop came KxXxXx, giving Marini two outs to crack the rockets. Unfortunately for him, he couldn't do so on the brick-brick runout, and he became the first casualty of the 2026 Main Event.
Kicking off July 2, 2026, with four starting flights, the prestigious event returns once more to the WSOP schedule, ready to crown poker's next world champion.
The $10,000 buy-in freezeout format is synonymous with this event, as is the chance of winning life-changing money and being immortalized among the poker greats.
Each Day 1 will kick off at 11 a.m. and will play five 120-minute levels. A 20-minute break is scheduled after each level, with a 60-minute dinner break after Level 3 (~5:40 p.m.).
Remaining players will return for their respective Day 2s, with late registration open for seven levels (2 levels into July 6 & 7). The fields will combine on July 8, with play continuing for five levels each day until a final table is reached.
2026 WSOP Main Event Schedule
Date
Time
Event
Thu, July 2, 2026
11 a.m.
$10,000 WSOP Main Event Day 1a
Fri, July 3, 2026
11 a.m.
$10,000 WSOP Main Event Day 1b
Sat, July 4, 2026
11 a.m.
$10,000 WSOP Main Event Day 1c
Sun, July 5, 2026
11 a.m.
$10,000 WSOP Main Event Day 1d
Mon, July 6, 2026
11 a.m.
$10,000 WSOP Main Event Day 2abc
Tue, July 7, 2026
11 a.m.
$10,000 WSOP Main Event Day 2d
Wed, July 8, 2026
11 a.m.
$10,000 WSOP Main Event Day 3
Thu, July 9, 2026
11 a.m.
$10,000 WSOP Main Event Day 4
Fri, July 10, 2026
11 a.m.
$10,000 WSOP Main Event Day 5
Sat, July 11, 2026
11 a.m.
$10,000 WSOP Main Event Day 6
Sun, July 12, 2026
11 a.m.
$10,000 WSOP Main Event Day 7
Mon, July 13, 2026
11 a.m.
$10,000 WSOP Main Event Day 8
TBD
$10,000 WSOP Main Event Final Table
World Series of Poker Main Event History
The World Series of Poker Main Event traces its roots back to 1970, when Johnny Moss was voted the winner by his peers in a small gathering at Binion’s Horseshoe in downtown Las Vegas. Moss went on to win two more titles, in 1971 and 1974, making him one of only two players to win poker’s world championship three times. The other is Stu Ungar, who famously triumphed in 1980, 1981, and 1997.
The Main Event has long been poker’s proving ground. In 1989, a 24-year-old Phil Hellmuth ended Johnny Chan’s bid for a third straight title, defeating him heads-up to win $755,000 and his first bracelet. That victory kickstarted a career that has since produced a record 17 WSOP bracelets and earned Hellmuth a spot among the game’s most iconic and polarizing figures.
Back then, the field had just 178 players. It hovered around 200 through the late '80s before gradually rising again in the 1990s. By 1998, when Scotty Nguyen took the title, the field had grown to 350. From 1992 through the early 2000s, participation climbed steadily every year.
Then came 2003. Chris Moneymaker, a Tennessee accountant who qualified online, beat 839 others and won $2.5 million. His story lit the fuse for the poker boom and made the game's showpiece event feel truly accessible to anyone.
The very next year, Greg Raymer rode that momentum and beat a field of 2,576 to win $5 million, marking the biggest year-over-year jump in Main Event history. Joe Hachem followed with a win in 2005 over a field that had more than doubled again. Since then, the Main Event has consistently drawn over 6,000 players each year, with the exception of the pandemic-impacted 2020 edition.
In 2024, Jonathan Tamayo added his name to the record books by outlasting the largest field in WSOP Main Event history.
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