button in SafariIvan Ruban Among the Leaders For Day 3 of $5,000 8-Handed No-Limit Hold’em
Only 24 players remain for the penultimate day in Event #2: $5,000 8-Handed No-Limit Hold’em at the 2026 World Series of Poker, with all eyes now on the $502,985 top prize and one of the first bracelets of the summer inside the Horseshoe and Paris Las Vegas. From a field of 570 entries, only a small fraction remains as Day 3 gets underway at 1 p.m.
Russia’s Anatoly Nikitin returns to the felt as chip leader after bagging 3,290,000 at the end of Day 2. Fellow Russian Ivan Ruban sits second with 2,300,000, while China’s Xiaohu Liu rounds out the podium positions with 1,910,000.
Top Ten Chip Counts
| Rank | Player | Country | Chip Count |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Anatoly Nikitin | Russian Federation | 3,290,000 |
| 2 | Ivan Ruban | Russian Federation | 2,300,000 |
| 3 | Xiaohu Liu | China | 1,910,000 |
| 4 | Zexiang Sun | United States | 1,700,000 |
| 5 | Charles Alex-Barton | United States | 1,690,000 |
| 6 | Scott Eskenazi | United States | 1,395,000 |
| 7 | Chenxiang Miao | China | 1,350,000 |
| 8 | Daniyal Gheba | United States | 1,330,000 |
| 9 | Peter Mugar | United States | 1,300,000 |
| 10 | Nicholas Seward | United States | 1,275,000 |
Also returning for Day 3 are Scott Eskenazi (1,395,000), Chenxiang Miao (1,350,000), and Nicholas Seward (1,275,000), who all finished the night inside the top half of the counts. Two-time bracelet winner Justin Saliba also returns with a healthy stack of 1,265,000, while at the other end of the leaderboard, Brock Wilson comes back as the short stack with 345,000.
Day 3 kicks off at 1 p.m. in the Gold section of the Paris Ballroom. Action will begin on Level 21 with blinds of 10,000/25,000 and a 25,000 big blind ante. The plan is to play down to the final five players, who will return for the fourth and final day to play down to a winner. All those returning have locked up $15,879 from the $2,622,000 prize pool, but now are within reach of potentially life-changing payouts.
Remaining Payouts
| Place | Prize | Place | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $502,985 | 8 | $49,556 |
| 2 | $335,290 | 9 | $38,133 |
| 3 | $234,432 | 10-11 | $29,844 |
| 4 | $166,448 | 12-15 | $23,761 |
| 5 | $120,035 | 16-23 | $19,253 |
| 6 | $87,945 | 24 | $15,879 |
| 7 | $65,479 |
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Stay locked into PokerNews for updates and action as the $5,000 8-Handed No-Limit Hold’em plays down toward the business end.