PokerNews live coverage of this event will begin on Day 2 (June 15). 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 #43: $800 8-Handed Deepstack No-Limit
Day 1 Completed
Another bumped field showed up at the Paris and Horseshoe Las Vegas for Event #43: $800 No-Limit Hold'em Deepstack. No fewer than 3,903 hopefuls tried to invoke their one-time to win a bracelet, and when the dust settled after 22 levels of play on Day 1, 203 of them are still in contention for the coveted prize.
Leading the way is Allen Chang, a two-time bracelet winner with over half a million in lifetime winnings. Chang has won two online bracelets back in 2020 and 2021 and is now looking to add his first live bracelet to complete the trifecta. Chang's certainly not to be mistaken for an online player only: in 2023, he finished 56th in the Main Event for a $156,100 payday.
Following Chang is 2025 bracelet winner Cristian Gutierrez from Colombia. Last year, Gutierrez topped the $600 PLO Deepstack for $193,780 and is looking to add some NLHE gold to that as well.
| Rank | Player | Country | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Allen Chang | United States | 2,300,000 | 77 |
| 2 | Cristian Gutierrez | United States | 1,950,000 | 65 |
| 3 | Mehrdad Vahabi | United States | 1,755,000 | 59 |
| 4 | David Erquiaga | Philippines | 1,745,000 | 58 |
| 5 | Amit Kaushik | India | 1,705,000 | 57 |
| 6 | Navil Desai | United States | 1,670,000 | 56 |
| 7 | Jacob Gruny | United States | 1,670,000 | 56 |
| 8 | Gustavo Mendez Laporta | Mexico | 1,640,000 | 55 |
| 9 | Jill Bryant | United States | 1,640,000 | 55 |
| 10 | Shalom Elharar | United States | 1,595,000 | 53 |
Cards will be back in the air on Monday, June 15th, at 11 a.m. local time. Levels remain 30 minutes throughout, and it's scheduled to play down to a winner. Make sure to check back to PokerNews as we'll cover the final day from the first card off the deck until the final hand has been dealt.
| Place | Prize |
|---|---|
| 1 | $318,556 |
| 2 | $212,106 |
| 3 | $155,725 |
| 4 | $115,342 |
| 5 | $86,194 |
| 6 | $64,992 |
| 7 | $49,451 |
| 8 | $37,972 |
| 9 | $29,427 |
| 10 | $23,018 |
Here are the chip counts of the 230 players who progressed from Day 1, according to the WSOP LIVE App.
There are 100 bracelet-awarding events on the 2026 World Series of Poker (WSOP) schedule, but every poker player dreams of becoming the champion of just one of those tournaments: the $10,000 WSOP Main Event. Unfortunately for some, the $10,000 buy-in puts the 2026 WSOP Main Event out of reach, which is where satellites come into their own.
In 2003, the aptly-named Chris Moneymaker, then an accountant from Atlanta, Georgia, won a $10,000 WSOP Main Event seat via an $86 buy-in satellite online at PokerStars. Moneymaker outlasted 838 opponents, including defeating seasoned pro Sammy Farha heads-up, to win the WSOP Main Event and kickstart the phenomenon that would be called the Moneymaker Effect.
Fast forward to today, and hundreds, if not thousands, of players will head to the Horseshoe and Paris Las Vegas hoping to win their way into the 2026 WSOP Main Event for a fraction of the $10,000 asking price. The 2026 WSOP Main Event satellites run from July 1-7 and come in buy-ins of $150, $260, $585, $1,100, and $2,200.
According to the WSOP LIVE app.
The poker community asked, and the WSOP listened.
In a major shake-up to the Poker Hall of Fame, the induction process is shifting away from its traditional "winner-takes-all" format. A brand-new voting system has been introduced, paving the way for up to six of the eight nominees to be inducted in a single year.
Nominations are now open for the 2026 Poker Hall of Fame. Once the public determines the top eight nominees, the final decision will rest with the 33 living Hall of Fame members.
According to the WSOP LIVE app.
The world of poker strategy has become increasingly solver-driven over the last decade, with players obsessing over balanced ranges, GTO outputs, and technical perfection.
But according to Nacho Cuesta, creator of Master Poker Tells, there’s still a huge part of the game many players are completely overlooking: human behavior.
Cuesta has spent the last five years building what he describes as a structured system for reading live poker tells, breaking down unconscious behaviors into categories including eye movement, betting patterns, verbal cues, and body language. In the process, he says he identified something missing from almost all traditional tells content - structure.
As per the WSOP LIVE app.
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