PokerNews live coverage of this event will begin on Day 2 (June 3). Until then, we will be keeping readers informed with updates on chip counts and core event statistics, including entries and prize pool. Scroll down to see more.
Event #16: $1,700 U.S. Circuit Championship No-Limit Holdem
Day 1 Completed
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.
| 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.
Here are the end-of-day chip counts, according to the WSOP LIVE app.
Changes to television and livestream coverage have been made for the 2026 World Series of Poker (WSOP). Major changes.
But fear not, the biggest event of the year in poker will be easily accessible to fans around the world, for free (well, most of it).
ESPN returns to cover the Main Event this year, but the rest of the 2026 WSOP will be available for livestreaming on the WSOP's official social media channels.
Payouts have been revealed for the $1,700 U.S. Circuit Championship event; 323 players are set to make a min-cash of at least $3,420, while the outright winner can expect a payday of $439,605.
| Place | Prize | Place | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $439,605 | 32 -39 | $12,660 |
| 2 | $292,916 | 40 -47 | $10,527 |
| 3 | $211,817 | 48 -55 | $8,864 |
| 4 | $154,853 | 56 -63 | $7,559 |
| 5 | $114,465 | 64 -71 | $6,529 |
| 6 | $85,561 | 72 -79 | $5,715 |
| 7 | $64,681 | 80 -99 | $5,068 |
| 8 | $49,459 | 100 -126 | $4,555 |
| 9 | $38,258 | 127 -153 | $4,150 |
| 10 -11 | $29,941 | 154 -180 | $3,834 |
| 12 -15 | $23,712 | 181 -216 | $3,591 |
| 16 -23 | $19,004 | 217 -323 | $3,420 |
| 24 -31 | $15,416 |
There was no shortage of big moments and big hands during the first week of the 2026 World Series of Poker (WSOP).
Daniel Negreanu lost a 10:1 chip lead thanks to a three-outer in the Sweet 16 of Event #7: $25,000 Heads-Up No-Limit Hold'em Championship. Phil Hellmuth made an 18th bracelet run that fell short when he ran into the nut flush. And one player avoided complete disaster when he suffered a brutal cooler with quads.
There are two ways to follow the World Series of Poker this summer. You can get lost in an endless sea of tweets, chip counts and social media beef, or you can tailor the coverage to match your exact interests.
PokerNews MyPlayers lets you do the latter, acting as a personalized feed for the players you actually care about. When a player on your radar gets written about, their chip count updated, or makes a final table, it lands directly in your custom feed with no searching required.
So if you want to build the ultimate summer rail list right now, look no further.
These are the latest top chip counts, according to the WSOP LIVE app.
In the 969th episode of the PokerNews Podcast, which is sponsored by FanDuel Poker, Chad Holloway, Mike Holtz, and Ben Ludlow are at Level 9 Studio in Las Vegas for the 2026 World Series of Poker (WSOP).
To kick things off, they talk about a big hand played by Phil Ivey, one that left the usually stone-faced poker pro in shock. See the hand and learn what happened! From there, it's a discussion on why Jeremy Ausmus may have been denied a vlogger pass, big names falling just short of gold bracelets, and Alan Keating no-showing the $25,000 Heads-Up Championship.
Speaking of that tournament, Daniel Negreanu was cruising right along until he suffered a series of unfortunate events, including a river bad beat that you can see in this episode. Some other things you can see are the $1,000,000 bounty pull from the $550 Mini Mystery Millions tournament and highlights from the Charity Series of Poker (CSOP) Event #100 with Matt Stout.
Finally, the PokerNews Podcast has a new sponsor in Think Jerky, and as fate would have it, there's a poker connection between Chad and the brand's Pat's Cheesesteak stick that dates back more than a decade to a poker game in Philadelphia. Learn all about that, and while you're at it, be sure to check out Think Jerky!
Find out all about those stories and more in this week's episode of the PokerNews Podcast! Oh, and be sure to check out the audio version of the PokerNews Podcast that is available on all major podcasting platforms, including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and SoundCloud.
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