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Alex Anton Leads Final Nine After Day 2 of Event #51: $10,000 Mystery Bounty No-Limit Hold'em, Josh Reichard in Second
After nine levels of play, Day 2 action has come to a close here in Event #51: $10,000 Mystery Bounty No-Limit Hold'em at the 2026 World Series of Poker, hosted by Horseshoe and Paris Las Vegas.
Of the 84 runners who started the day, only nine players will return for Day 3 on June 19th to battle it out for a big piece of the $3,515,400 prize pool. The winner is set to take home the first-place prize of $678,300 plus bounties, as well as the coveted gold bracelet.
Alex Anton of the United States was one of two players to break the six-million chip mark, and sits at the leaderboard with 6,600,000. Josh Reichard, also from the United States, ended the day in a very close second with 6,555,000. Rounding out the top three is Kent Stephens, also from the United States, with 5,490,000.
Jakob Miegel from Germany is not quite in the danger zone with 1,865,000, but he will be looking for a double early on to be able to compete for the remaining bounties. Gregor Sverko from Croatia is the shortest stack and will return with just over 1,000,000 chips.
Final Table Chip Counts
| Seat | Player | County | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Alex Anton | United States | 6,600,000 | 83 |
| 2 | Josh Reichard | United States | 6,555,000 | 82 |
| 3 | Kent Stephens | United States | 5,490,000 | 69 |
| 4 | Jovan Kenjic | Serbia | 5,300,000 | 66 |
| 5 | Vadzim Lipauka | Belarus | 2,540,000 | 32 |
| 6 | Julien Sitbon | France | 2,140,000 | 27 |
| 7 | Champie Douglas | United States | 1,950,000 | 24 |
| 8 | Jakob Miegel | Germany | 1,865,000 | 23 |
| 9 | Gregor Sverko | Croatia | 1,050,000 | 13 |
Day 2 Action
The mystery bounties came into play at the start of the day with everyone's main aim to get a shot at that top bounty prize of a quarter of a million dollars. This saw over half the field eliminated within the first two levels. Two players who have made the final table were able to pull the largest bounties, with Sverko pulling $250,000, and Reichard pulling a $100,000 bounty.
Action came thick and fast even after half the field was eliminated but one of the most brutal eliminations of the day belonged to Oliver Weis. After Ren Lin jammed the river, Weis made the call holding pocket eights for a full house. Unfortunately for Weis, Lin tabled king-three for a bigger full house, sending Weis to the rail in a cooler.
Lin was seen early today playing his usual joker antics as he handed out cash to his table mate Dario Sammartino while naming himself as his “sugar daddy”, which was taken in good humour. Lin's deep run came to an end in 13th place after he four-bet shoved with king-jack and ran into the pocket aces of chip leader Anton. Lin had a sweat on the flop with a straight draw and then turned a pair of jacks, but Anton's aces held.
Kristen Foxen busted in a cooler versus Reichard's pocket queens in the small blind after getting all in with pocket tens in the big blind. Reichard also managed to bust Arsenii Karmatckii in the same hand, as Karmatckii flopped trip sevens against Reichard’s full house.
Georgios Sotiropoulos was having a smooth day before attempting to bluff Jovan Kenjic with eight-high, as Kenjic made a hero call with a pair of fives. Sotiropoulos attempted to fight back after tripling up but unfortunately found an exit against Arunas Sapitavicius’s pocket eights against his queen-jack.
Plenty of double eliminations led up to the final table. Michael Wilklow added two mystery bounty prizes to his collection when his pocket jacks held up in a three-way all-in against Jordan Glazer and Steve Zolotow. After collecting a double bounty and what was looking like a cruise to the final table, Wilklow actually ended up bubbling the final table after losing two flips in a row against Kenjic and Vadzim Lipauka to be eliminated in tenth place.
Final Table Payouts
| Place | Prize |
|---|---|
| 1 | $678,300 |
| 2 | $452,200 |
| 3 | $313,400 |
| 4 | $220,950 |
| 5 | $158,500 |
| 6 | $115,750 |
| 7 | $86,070 |
| 8 | $65,190 |
| 9 | $50,310 |
Day 3 will start at 3:30 p.m. local time on Friday, June 19, where the event will play down to a winner. The tournament will resume in Level 26 with blinds at 40,000/80,000/80,000, and there will be a 15-minute break every two levels, with a one-hour dinner break to be determined.
Be sure to follow PokerNews for the remainder of this event, as well as future coverage throughout the summer.