PokerNews live coverage of this event will begin on Day 2 (July 12). Until then, we will keep readers informed with updates on chip counts and core event statistics, including entries and the prize pool. Scroll down to see more.
Event #88: $300 Gladiators of Poker
Day 1d Completed
As Day 1d of Event #88: $300 Gladiators of Poker ended at Horseshoe and Paris Las Vegas, the player count for the day stood at 4,267 entries and 147 survivors.
Marcos Da Silva bagged 3,030,000 for the biggest stack of Day 1d. However, he will start Day 2 with the third biggest stack overall, according to the WSOP LIVE app.
The day's turnout brought the overall number of entries to 11,185 for a prize pool of $2,751,510.
| Position | Player | Country | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Marcos Da Silva | Brazil | 3,030,000 | 76 |
| 2 | Valentin Farkas | Croatia | 2,700,000 | 68 |
| 3 | Suketu Vaidya | United States | 2,530,000 | 63 |
| 4 | Erez Klein | United States | 2,330,000 | 58 |
| 5 | Isa Mammadov | United States | 2,230,000 | 56 |
| 6 | Gary McCoy | Ireland | 2,203,000 | 55 |
| 7 | Mason Vieth | United States | 1,960,000 | 49 |
| 8 | Justin Houser | United States | 1,956,000 | 49 |
| 9 | Nicholas French | United States | 1,900,000 | 48 |
| 10 | Kanyalak Pholnadee | Thailand | 1,776,500 | 44 |
Among the players who made it through Day 1d are Poker Hall of Famer Barbara Enright (560,000), 25k Fantasy player Joey Couden (310,000), and one-time bracelet winner Moshe Gavrieli (310,000)
A total of 381 players have made it through the Day 1 flights. They will return at 11:00 a.m. local time on Sunday, July 12. Blinds will be 20,000/40,000 with a 40,000 big blind ante.
Stay tuned to PokerNews for updates from the 2026 World Series of Poker.
According to the WSOPLive app.
According to the WSOPLive app.
Day 1d of Event #88: $300 Gladiators of Poker has concluded. Of the 4,267 entries to the flight, 147 players have bagged to join the rest of the field for Day 2.
Standby for the full chip counts and recap.
As football's most legendary coach, Vince Lombardi, once said, "Winning isn’t everything; it’s the only thing."
Forget the bad beats, one-outers, and misclicks—at the World Series of Poker, success is measured in green (and gold). From its inception in 1970 to the record-breaking 2024 edition, the series has seen some of poker's most unforgettable victories and created hundreds of millionaires.
Thanks to the poker boom (among other factors), it’s no shock that all of the WSOP’s biggest payouts have come in the last 25 years. The Main Event fields have exploded, and the rise of high-stakes tournaments has sent prize pools soaring to new heights.
According to the WSOP LIVE app.
In the 988th episode of the PokerNews Podcast, which is sponsored by FanDuel Poker, Chad Holloway is joined by Mike Holtz and Ben Ludlow are joined at Level 9 Studio by Ryan Depaulo to talk the latest from the 2026 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event.
That includes the money bubble bursting and none other than 2003 WSOP Main Event champ Chris Moneymaker being a part of it. See what went down and the aftermath yourself. The crew then talks about the debate surrounding whether or not a player should have to be profitable in order to win WSOP Player of the Year. It's a heated debate between Shaun Deeb and Phil Hellmuth, with Daniel Negreanu and others weighing in.
Other stories include a streaker at the WSOP, Martin Kabrhel's antics, WSOP POY update, and a player who built up a big stack in the Main Event and then decided to abandon it while he went to South Point casino to play $1-$3 NLH and watch a movie.
Finally, Chad previews the upcoming $400 buy-in, $250K GTD PokerNews Cup at the RGPS Thunder Valley.
Find out all about those stories and more in this week's episode of the PokerNews Podcast! Oh, and be sure to check out the audio version of the PokerNews Podcast that is available on all major podcasting platforms, including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and SoundCloud.
As per the WSOP LIVE app.
Will Givens bagged a big stack on Day 5 in the WSOP Main Event, but he was mysteriously absent when play resumed Saturday morning.
It was a bit strange to see an empty chair this deep in the biggest tournament in the world, where the remaining players were playing for potentially millions of dollars. But Givens, a Will Kassouf of sorts at the poker table, had something better to do than arrive on time, he told PokerNews. Apparently, he can't crush it on the felt without the proper nutrition. More specifically, avocado toast.
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