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Level 16
: 3,000/6,000, 6,000 ante
2026 World Series of Poker
Event #49: $2,500 Freezeout No-Limit Hold'em
Day: 2
Players Left 6 / 1,561
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Final Table
Level 16
: Blinds 3,000/6,000, 6,000 ante
James MacMillan raised to 12,000 under the gun. Siegfried Friedl, to his immediate left, bumped it up to 25,000.
Jordan Schneible four-bet raised to 38,000 from the cutoff. After MacMillan folded, Friedl moved all in with his entire 92,000-chip stack.
Schneible made the call.
Siegfried Friedl: A♥A♦
Jordan Schneible: 10♦10♣
There is not much better a shortstack can do than picking up aces on the first hand of the day. Friedl's big pair withstood the runout of J♣4♦6♦8♥Q♠ for him to more than double-up.
Level 16
: Blinds 3,000/6,000, 6,000 ante
Tyler Montoya raised to 15,000 in the hijack, Paul Muller flatted in the cutoff, and Paul Muller three-bet jammed in the small blind for about 60,000. Montoya folded and Muller called for slightly less to put himself at risk.
Ryan Hollaender: A♦K♣
Paul Muller: K♠K♦
The flop came 6♦3♣Q♣, with Muller's cowboys still in the lead. The 10♠ turn gave Hollaender a glimmer of hope with a gutshot, but he couldn't get there as the 2♥ completed the board.
Level 16
: Blinds 3,000/6,000, 6,000 ante
Player were alredy heads up and on the river looking at a A♣7♠3♣6♥Q♣ board. The pot stood at around 75,000 and John Ripnick had jammed from the big blind, covering Tony Miles's remaining 60,000 stack in the cutoff.
Tony Miles: K♣5♣
John Ripnick: 7♣5♦
Miles took down the pot with the nut flush that came in for him on the river, and Ripnick was left to count out the remainder of his stack.
Level 16
: Blinds 3,000/6,000, 6,000 ante
On his first hand of the day, Hui Wang moved all in wirth 75,000 chips under the gun. Joseph Di Rosa Rojas made the call from middle position.
Hui Wang: J♥J♠
Joseph Di Rosa Rojas: Q♣Q♥
The door card was what Wang needed, and he hit a full house in the runout of 3♣6♥J♣10♣10♦ to snare a double-up.
Level 16
: Blinds 3,000/6,000, 6,000 ante
Daniyal Gheba had just 4,000 to start the day and got it all in from the small blind against Andrew Frankenberger on the button.
Daniyal Gheba: K♠2♣
Andrew Frankenberger: A♦7♣
Gheba's hopes of spinning it up fell short when the board ran out 9♠8♠6♦A♥6♣.
Level 16
: Blinds 3,000/6,000, 6,000 ante
The tournament has commenced and 275 players are ready for battle.
Level: 16
Blinds: 3,000/6,000
Ante: 6,000
Joe McKeehen, owner of three gold bracelets, including one for taking down the 2015 Main Event, is among the contenders in Event #49: $2,500 Freezeout No-Limit Hold'em.
One of 275 players still alive from a field of 1,561 in this single-bullet event, McKeehen brings the 16th biggest stack into Day 2, which starts at 1 p.m. local time at Horseshoe and Paris Las Vegas. McKeehen hasn’t won a bracelet since an online event in 2020, and his last live win at the WSOP came three years before that.
Claiming the $513,885 winner’s share of a $3,717975 prize pool will be a challenge, as a stacked field that includes five bracelet winners in the top 10 in chips and two other Main Event champions are in pursuit of the same.
Last year’s Main Event and Poker Players Champion Michael Mizrachi returns with 437,000 chips (13th). Whenever Mizrachi is on a leaderboard, one can almost hear the Jaws theme music building just beneath the ambient sounds of tournament poker. The random yelps at river madness and the clickety-clack of hundreds of chip tricksters are no match for The Grinder on the prowl.
James Goldblatt has the overall chip lead with 780,000. Giving chase are Tom Hall, Honghao Zhang, Marco Johnson, Faraz Jaka, and Christian Roberts, all of whom have gold hardware.
Top 10 Chip Counts
| Rank | Player | Country | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | James Goldblatt | United States | 780,000 | 130 |
| 2 | Gerald Stogner | United States | 646,000 | 108 |
| 3 | Tom Hall | United Kingdom | 635,000 | 106 |
| 4 | Honghao Zhang | China | 510,000 | 85 |
| 5 | John Ypma | United States | 495,000 | 83 |
| 6 | Marco Johnson | United States | 490,000 | 82 |
| 7 | Faraz Jaka | United States | 482,000 | 80 |
| 8 | Alexander Condon | United States | 460,000 | 77 |
| 9 | Scott Drobes | United States | 457,000 | 76 |
| 10 | Christian Roberts | United States | 452,000 | 75 |
Further back in the field is McKeehen's friend Jonathan Tamayo, the 2024 Main Event champion. Tamayo had a quiet return to the series last year, finishing in the money in four events and not any higher than 85th.
McKeehen and Tamayo shared a home in Las Vegas, and McKeehen was on the rail during Tamayo's monumental victory. With 256,000 chips to start the day, Tamayo has work to do if he wants to add a second bracelet. The bubble should burst mid-afternoon, with 235 of the remaining 275 players getting paid.
After a Day 1 marathon – play was stopped at 2 a.m. with 11 minutes remaining in Level 15 – level length increases to a full hour today. Level 16 blinds are 3,000/6,000 with a 6,000 big blind ante. There are 15-minute breaks every two hours, and a dinner break after Level 21 (approximately 7:30 p.m.). The plan calls for 10 levels today, but that could change if there is a protracted hand-for-hand period on the money bubble. If the plan holds, the survivors will bag up at the end of Level 20 and return Thursday for the finale at a yet-to-be-determined time.
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