PokerNews live coverage of this event will begin on Day 2 (June 4). 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 #20: $1,500 Dealers Choice
Day 1 Completed
This tournament was not for you if you only play Texas Hold'em because Event #20: $1,500 Dealers Choice allowed players to choose from 20, yes 20, different poker variants. Some 656 players decided this was the event where they would capture a 2026 World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelet. That dream ended for all but 132 of them.
Anyone who follows online poker will likely recognize the player who finished second on Day 1. Norway's Tobias Leknes, better known to some as "Senkel92," is a mixed game crusher. He is yet to win a bracelet, but it is a matter of when, not if, that happens. The Norwegian bagged up 324,000 chips at day's end and is now well-positioned to make yet another deep run in a mixed game tournament.
Mexican veteran Luis Velador (366,000) was the only player with more chips than Leknes. Velador won his first bracelet at the 2008 WSOP, doing so in the $1,500 No-Limit Hold'em event. He won his second two years later in a $2,500 Pot-Limit Hold'em/Omaha mixed event. Will this be the tournament where Velador completes a hat trick?
| Rank | Player | Country | Chip Count |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Jose Velador | Mexico | 366,000 |
| 2 | Tobias Leknes | Norway | 324,000 |
| 3 | Christopher McHugh | United States | 310,500 |
| 4 | Kelvin Zhao | 273,000 | |
| 5 | Allan Le | United States | 265,000 |
| 6 | Robert Klein | United States | 264,500 |
| 7 | Danny Chang | United States | 242,500 |
| 8 | Dario Sammartino | Italy | 236,000 |
| 9 | Walter Chambers | United States | 234,500 |
| 10 | John Hardie | United States | 232,000 |
Dozens of mixed-game aficionados made it through to Day 2 with varying stack sizes. Allan Le (265,000), Dario Sammartino (236,000), Ryan Hughes (207,500), Jeff Madsen (202,500), and Maxx Coleman (193,000) all progressed with a top 20 stack.
Lower down the counts, you find Nathan Gamble (165,000), Nick Schulman (165,000), and Josh Arieh (159,500), while the likes of Michael Mizrachi (107,000), Greg Mueller (97,500), Ari Engel (80,000), and Eli Elezra (58,500) have a little more work to do if they're to come out on top in this evemt.
Day 2 is scheduled to start at 1:00 p.m. local time on June 4 and will continue until another 10 levels are in the bag. Join PokerNews then for all of the mixed game action you can handle.
Here are the chip counts at the end of Day 1, 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.
Being able to play poker for a living seems like the perfect job — for someone who loves poker at least. But it's harder than you would like to believe.
How to be an online poker pro? We have a few quick poker tips for you to set you on your way to your dream job.
Many people bag a big score in a poker tournament, or win the equivalent of two months' salary at the cash tables and start thinking that this game is an easy way to make a living.
Wrong!
According to the WSOP LIVE app.
Texas Hold'em may be far and away the most popular variant of poker, but true grinders know the joy of switching it up with variants like Omaha, Stud and 2-7.
Some of poker's most decorated players have made mixed games their bread and butter. This includes Poker Hall of Famer Phil Ivey, who won three bracelets in a single summer way back in 2002, as well as Scott Seiver and Benny Glaser, who pulled off the same feat the last two summers.
From four-time $50,000 Poker Players Championship winner Michael "The Grinder" Mizrachi to back-to-back-to-back Dealers Choice Championship winner Adam Friedman, here are some of the top mixed game players to look out for at the World Series of Poker (WSOP) this summer — and you can conveniently track them using the new PokerNews MyPlayers feed.
According to the WSOP LIVE app.
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