button in SafariBig Bet Prodigies Crush Day 1 of $10K Dealer's Choice
Stud Games: 1,000 Ante, 1,000 Bring-In, 3,000 Completion, 3,000-6,000 Limits
Pot-Limit & No-Limit: 1,500/2,500 Ante, 1,000-1,500 Blinds
Chris Brewer and Jesse Lonis are two of the most feared poker players in the high-stakes no-limit hold'em and pot-limit Omaha scenes. However, at the 2026 World Series of Poker, there is much more on the menu than the two most popular games. Event #27: $10,000 Dealers Choice Championship is one of the most prestigious mixed-game events on the bracelet schedule, and Lonis and Brewer were two of the 135 players who bought in on Day 1 at the Horseshoe and Paris Las Vegas.
Lonis sat down from the very start and immediately started amassing a big stack. He maintained his position at or near the top throughout the entire day, despite rarely playing the majority of the 22 games on offer. He ended the night with 339,500 chips, trailing only Brewer, who registered straight after busting in fifth place at the final table of the $10k Stud Championship. Brewer proved his final table appearance was anything but a fluke, continuing his mixed-game prowess as he quickly ran up a stack and grabbed the end-of-night chip lead, topping the 66 survivors with a stack of 347,000.
Some of the more usual suspects who turned the starting stack of 60,000 into a top-ten appearance include Bryce Yockey, who rounds out the podium with 268,000, Team Lucky member Matt Glantz, Owais Ahmed, Chad Eveslage, and Marco Johnson.
End of Day 1 Top Ten Chip Counts
| Rank | Player | Country | Chip Count |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Chris Brewer | United States | 347,000 |
| 2 | Jesse Lonis | United States | 339,500 |
| 3 | Bryce Yockey | United States | 268,000 |
| 4 | Matt Glantz | United States | 266,000 |
| 5 | Matthew Valeo | United States | 259,500 |
| 6 | Owais Ahmed | United States | 230,000 |
| 7 | Ben Diebold | United States | 216,500 |
| 8 | Chad Eveslage | United States | 213,000 |
| 9 | Marco Johnson | United States | 209,500 |
| 10 | Ariel Mantel | Argentina | 194,000 |
Defending champion Ryan Hoenig more than doubled the starting stack on Day 1 and bagged 127,000, while Todd Brunson continues his strong showing at this WSOP by finishing the night with 139,500. Brunson's fellow Hall of Famers John Hennigan (111,000), Eli Elezra (108,000), and Brian Rast (16,500) also made it through to Day 2, together with popular poker vlogger Brad Owen (158,000).
Daniel Negreanu sat down on Day 1, but he quickly lost his stack and was eliminated. The freezeout nature of this event means he will have to wait until next year to cross this bracelet off his list. Other notables who met their Waterloo on Day 1 include reigning Player of the Year Shaun Deeb, "best without a bracelet" contenders Jon Turner and Chino Rheem, and Mike "The Mouth" Matusow.
The collected prize money stood at $1,255,000 when the day concluded, ahead of last year's number by about a dozen buy-ins. With late registration for the tournament remaining open for the first full level of Day 2, this number is sure to grow even further. Day 2 kicks off at 1 p.m. local time on Monday, June 8, and is scheduled to play ten 60-minute levels.
PokerNews will be back on the floor for Day 2 to provide more in-depth coverage of this mixed-game fiesta, so tune back in then for all the latest updates.