button in SafariBracelet Winner Michael Wilklow Second on Day 1 of the $1,700 U.S. Circuit Championship
Event #16: $1,700 U.S. Circuit Championship is a brand new event for the 2026 World Series of Poker (WSOP), and it proved to be a popular addition to the schedule. A field of 2,148 players descended on the Horseshoe and Paris Las Vegas, creating a $3,231,666 prize pool that the top 323 finishers will share. Whoever comes out on top in a couple of days' time will bank $439,605 and a WSOP bracelet.
Michael Wilklow, last summer's $1,000 Mystery Millions champion, started this event like a house on fire, turning his 40,000 starting stack into 852,000 over 15 levels. The Minnesota native looks nailed on to enjoy another WSOP cash, as only 381 players return for Day 2's action.
She Wong is the overnight chip leader, courtesy of bagging 994,000 chips at the end of the day. Wong has more than $1.1 million in live tournament cashes and is currently in pole position to add another large score to his resume.
Event #16: $1,700 U.S. Circuit Championship Day 1 Top 10 Chip Counts
| Rank | Player | Country | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | She Wong | United States | 994,000 | 124 |
| 2 | Michael Wilklow | United States | 852,000 | 107 |
| 3 | Scott Horvath | United States | 823,000 | 103 |
| 4 | Zachary Gergen | United States | 755,000 | 94 |
| 5 | Cezar Quiambao | Philippines | 746,000 | 93 |
| 6 | Antonio Vargas | United States | 739,000 | 92 |
| 7 | Christos Argyriadis | Greece | 690,000 | 86 |
| 8 | David Schneider | United States | 644,000 | 81 |
| 9 | Ivan Ruban | Russia | 637,000 | 80 |
| 10 | Joshua Wang | China | 598,000 | 75 |
Dozens of top-tier players entered this event and progressed to Day 2. Ivan Ruban (637,000), fresh from competing at the Triton Poker Super High Roller Series in Montenegro, finished in the top 10, while Daniel Rezaei (560,000) bagged up the 11th largest stack.
Josh Arieh (421,000), Qiang Xu (370,000), Shiina Okamoto (359,000), Matt Glantz (292,000), Matthew Wantman (241,000), Joe McKeehen (240,000), Tom Middleton (154,000), Ilija Savevski (93,000), and Jonathan Tamayo (65,000) are among the Day 1 survivors.
Day 2 shuffles up and deals at 12:00 p.m. local time on June 3, continuing until 10 more levels are in the bag. Blinds start at 4,000/8,000 with an 8,000 big blind ante. Join the PokerNews live reporting team for Day 2 of this inaugural event.