PokerNews live coverage of this event will begin on Day 3 (June 8). 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.
According to the WSOP LIVE app.
Our local poker historian, Robert Jen, dove into the WSOP archives and came up with some interesting stats & figures for the WSOP Monster Stack, which we thought would be fun to share with you!
Other festivals have held their own versions of the Monster Stack: WSOP Europe (5), GGPoker (7 general and 2 Ontario), and WSOP.com (16 for various combinations of states). They've all been much smaller events, with the biggest being the 2020 GGPoker $300 (most players at 3,491) and the 2024 GGPoker $1,500 (biggest first prize of $263,720 and biggest prize pool of $2,047,725).
There will be incentives for dealers to perform well at the 2026 World Series of Poker (WSOP), one being financial.
The other incentive is not facing scrutiny, as the WSOP has implemented a dealer rating system that will permit poker players to grade dealers this summer.
A change has been made for the 2026 series at Horseshoe and Paris Las Vegas, as players can rate dealers through the WSOP LIVE app, the same app they use to receive seating assignments and register for tournaments.
Day 2a of Event #18: $1,500 Monster Stack kicks off at the Horseshoe and Paris Las Vegas at 11 a.m. local time on June 4. The field consists of the 538 players who survived Day 1a. Those returning players hope to navigate 10 more levels, each spanning 60 minutes. If they manage that, they'll progress to Day 3, where they'll eventually meet up with the other four Day 2 survivors.
Zhijian Zhang (607,000) finished Day 1a with the title of chip leader, returning with 243 big blinds. David McMillan (555,000) is the only other player with more than 200 big blinds at the start of play; McMillan is armed with a 222 big blind arsenal.
| Rank | Player | Country | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Zhijian Zhang | United States | 607,000 | 243 |
| 2 | David McMillan | United States | 555,000 | 222 |
| 3 | David Kowal | United States | 467,500 | 187 |
| 4 | Francis Rusnak | United States | 462,500 | 185 |
| 5 | Adrian Collado | Spain | 458,500 | 183 |
| 6 | Pierre-Jean Roche | France | 431,000 | 172 |
| 7 | Caio Falopa Ozawa | Brazil | 412,500 | 165 |
| 8 | Uri Reichenstein | Israel | 404,500 | 162 |
| 9 | Cale Treacy | Australia | 398,000 | 159 |
| 10 | James Rowe | United Kingdom | 393,000 | 157 |
Although Zhang and McMillan lead the way, nobody in the chasing pack is out of the running in this event due to the structure and stack sizes.
Five-time bracelet winner Martin Kabrhel (296,500) is nicely poised for a run at the chip lead, while Michael Noori (185,500) sits down with 74 big blinds despite occupying 148th place at the restart.
Others to look out for in the chip counts throughout Day 2 include the 2016 WSOP Main Event champion Qui Nguyen (176,500), John Juanda (119,000), Aram Zobian (106,500), Michael Wang (91,500), Chris Moorman (85,000), Shiina Okamoto (84,500), and Jesse Lonis (62,500).
PokerNews traditional coverage of the $1,500 Monster Stack begins on Day 3.
Planning on playing this event? PokerNews activates MyStack for every WSOP event, regardless of that tournament's buy-in, allowing you to directly adjust your chip counts in our live reporting
MyStack is a free poker tool that puts you in control of your chip counts on our live reporting pages. Once you have created a free PokerNews account, you can use MyStack to update your chip counts in real time; hopefully, your stack will continue increasing throughout the event!
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Event #18: $1,500 Monster Stack No-Limit Hold'em
Day 2a Started
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