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Final Nine Set in Event #51: $10,000 Mystery Bounty No-Limit Hold'em, Dark Horse Kent Stephens in Third
Welcome back to the PokerNews coverage of Event #51: $10,000 Mystery Bounty No-Limit Hold'em at the 2026 World Series of Poker, hosted by the Horseshoe and Paris Las Vegas.
A total of 558 entries created a prize pool of $3,515,400, and after 25 levels of play, just nine players remain competing for the WSOP gold bracelet and the $678,300 first-place prize.
As is always the case in a Mystery Bounty event, the bounty prizes were a huge factor in everyone’s decision-making when on the felt.
Gregor Sverko pulled the tournament's largest bounty worth $250,000, while Josh Reichard and Michel Molenaar each collected a $100,000 bounty. With a lot of the top prizes now accounted for, the focus shifts to the bracelet and the remaining payouts.
Here is how things stand heading into the final day
| Seat | Player | Country | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Jakob Miegel | Germany | 1,865,000 | 23 |
| 2 | Jovan Kenjic | Serbia | 5,300,000 | 66 |
| 3 | Champie Douglas | United States | 1,950,000 | 24 |
| 4 | Alex Anton | United States | 6,600,000 | 83 |
| 5 | Vadzim Lipauka | Belarus | 2,540,000 | 32 |
| 6 | Gregor Sverko | Croatia | 1,050,000 | 13 |
| 7 | Kent Stephens | United States | 5,490,000 | 69 |
| 8 | Julien Sitbon | France | 2,140,000 | 27 |
| 9 | Josh Reichard | United States | 6,555,000 | 82 |
Leading the way into Day 3 is Alex Anton of the United States, who bagged 6,600,000 chips after a strong finish to Day 2. Anton does not have a WSOP bracelet yet, but if he finishes second or better, he will surpass his current best career score of $397,163.
Anton is closely followed by fellow American Josh Reichard with 6,555,000. Reichard is the last remaining player in the $25K Fantasy draft and already has 17 WSOP Circuit rings to his name. He'll now be looking to add a WSOP gold bracelet to his growing list of achievements within poker.
While Kent Stephens rounds out the top three with 5,490,000 and is what many would describe as the dark horse of the final table. Stephens' recorded live results only date back to November 2023, but he has won tournaments across the United States since then. Stephens has total live earnings of $275,109 and only needs a fifth-place finish or better to surpass his previous best live score of $130,000.
Several notable names fell short of the final table during Day 2, including Adrian Mateos, Simon Wilson, Dan Shak, Martin Zamani, Daniel Rezaei, and Christian Roberts.
Remaining 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 |
Play resumes at 3:30 p.m. local time at the Horseshoe and Paris Las Vegas. The tournament will continue in Level 26 with blinds of 40,000/80,000 and an 80,000 big blind ante. Stay tuned to PokerNews for all the action as the final nine compete in this action-packed event.
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