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The sixth and most action-packed day so far of the 2026 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event wrapped tonight with just 62 players remaining and American Tyler Gaston in front with a stack of 21,000,000 as he looks to win his first bracelet and improve on his $781,918 in live earnings. But the maiden bracelet hopeful will have to deal with a murderer's row of elite players remaining, including 2019 Main Event champ Hossein Ensan (17,775,000) and reigning Player of the Year Shaun Deeb (8,725,000), who is looking to bring his "Team Lucky" another Main Event victory after Daniel Weinman's feat in 2023.
Poker Hall of Famer Todd Brunson, meanwhile, is looking to follow in his father's footsteps with a Main Event victory after bagging 17,000,000. Other players who survived Day 6 include recent Aussie Millions champion Malcolm Trayner (17,200,000), popular streamer Patrick "Pads" Leonard (6,100,000), red-hot high-stakes pro Brock Wilson (12,650,000), French pro Romain Lewis (13,900,000), and Will Givens (10,175,000), who prioritized avocado toast over optimal play as he turned up 25 minutes late.
"I was at the gym, I went harder, meditated longer," Givens told PokerNews about why he showed up nearly a half-hour late for Day 6. "I got some avocado toast and eggs, took a longer walk a different way, went outside, got some sun. I really was just in my own world, and now I got here."
End of Day 6 Top 10 Chip Counts
| Rank | Player | Country | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Tyler Gaston | United States | 21,000,000 | 140 |
| 2 | Blake Barousse | United States | 19,375,000 | 129 |
| 3 | Zhao Liu | United States | 19,047,000 | 127 |
| 4 | Mario Boos | France | 17,950,000 | 120 |
| 5 | Hossein Ensan | Germany | 17,775,000 | 119 |
| 6 | Rami Hammoud | Canada | 17,400,000 | 116 |
| 7 | Junjie Tang | China | 17,300,000 | 115 |
| 8 | Malcolm Trayner | Australia | 17,200,000 | 115 |
| 9 | Todd Brunson | United States | 17,000,000 | 113 |
| 10 | Carlos Chadha Villamarin | United States | 16,825,000 | 112 |
"That Much More Special"
The Main Event is special for all, but Brunson is the only one in the field whose dad, the late Doyle Brunson, has won it twice. What would it mean for Todd and his dad to become the first father-son duo to win poker's biggest event?
“It would make it that much more special," Brunson told PokerNews in an interview after bagging.
Brunson told the table that he hadn't played a single hand of poker between last year's Main Event and this summer's series. And the high-stakes mixed game grinder also told the table that he isn't a big no-limit Hold'em fan these days, especially in tournament form. Like his dad, who won the Main Event back-to-back years in 1976 and 1977, Todd is from the old school.
“The tanking, the ridiculous stare-downs and all this nonsense. I had to wait seven minutes on one hand for a decision. (Us) cash players, we are really quick and it’s no nonsense. And it’s a lot more fun that way.”
And when told there was a 15-minute tank elsewhere in the event, Brunson said he might have had to do something he's never done before. “I don’t think I’ve ever called the clock before, but I might have on that one.”
Enter the Colosseum
Poker has been compared to war, and that's a fitting description of Day 6. And, according to Farid Jattin, the Paris Gold section is the Colosseum. The Colombian pro was down to less than a big blind before spinning his stack up to nearly seven figures. During one double up, he got so excited that he smacked the table twice with full force, leading to a warning from the dealer before he did it again.
"We are in the Colosseum," Jattin told the dealer.
Jattin wasn't the only one at the table chatting up dealers. Longtime poker player Ralph Perry declared one dealer the "Princess of Poker" and lobbied his eight table mates to all give her five stars. It was a change of mood for Perry (he had complained throughout the day about Jattin's short stack tanking), which may have been attributed to his miraculous rise up the chips counts. Perry, the father of sports betting personality Sean Perry, spent much of the day at the top of the counts, in part thanks to an impressive hero call against Francisco Fragoso.
Fragoso would later make a hero call of his own against Perry, but it was unfortunately it was the wrong read as Fragoso found himself dominated to surrender his 25 big blind stack.
That was a less than brutal elimination than some of the others on Day 6. Simultaneous set over set coolers saw cash game star Andy "Andy Stacks" Tsai and Espen Sandvik both hitting the rail, while Go Kato's bust was even more brutal. Kato got his final chips in with the premium that is ace-king suited, only to be freerolled and flopped dead by Lauri Saaskilahti with the same hand.
A few fan favorites also hit the rail, including Wesley Fei, who had thought he was eliminated earlier in the tournament, and Caitlin Comeskey, who turned getting "fired" as a content creator into a lucrative summer. Comeskey made two final tables before her Main Event run, all while swatting away internet trolls with both hands and coming to the defense of her fellow women in poker.
Other players who hit the rail on Day 6 include high-stakes crusher Sean Winter, Day 4 chip leader Sam Snead, Japanese superstar Masato Yokosawa (more about the Summer of Japan here), three-time bracelet winner Dutch Boyd, poker journalist turned WSOP darling Terrance Reid, bracelet winners Darren Rabinowitz, Soheb Porbandarwala, and Zdenek Zizka, and Daniel Hachem, the son of 2005 champ Joe Hachem.
The Main Event continues with Day 7 on Sunday, July 12, with action kicking off at 11 a.m. local time. Play resumes at the start of Level 30 with blinds of 100,000/200,000/200,000, and players will play five 120-minute levels. There will be a break at the end of every level and an extended 70-minute break after the second level of the day.
Remaining Payouts
| Place | Player | Country | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $10,000,000 | ||
| 2 | $6,000,000 | ||
| 3 | $3,750,000 | ||
| 4 | $2,750,000 | ||
| 5 | $2,250,000 | ||
| 6 | $1,750,000 | ||
| 7 | $1,500,000 | ||
| 8 | $1,250,000 | ||
| 9 | $1,000,000 | ||
| 10-11 | $750,000 | ||
| 12-13 | $510,000 | ||
| 14-17 | $410,475 | ||
| 18-26 | $325,000 | ||
| 27-35 | $265,000 | ||
| 36-44 | $215,000 | ||
| 45-53 | $180,000 | ||
| 54-62 | $150,000 |
PokerNews is just getting going with our Main Event coverage, so stick with us as action picks up in poker's biggest tournament. And check out the live reporting hub for additional coverage of the 2026 WSOP.
