WSOPE Main Event Already Breaks Records Ahead of Day 1c

With 1,456 entries recorded across the first two starting flights, the 2026 €5,300 World Series of Poker Europe Main Event at Hilton Prague has already entered the history books as the largest WSOP Europe Main Event ever. It surpasses the previous record of 817 entries set in 2023 (but with a €10,350 buy-in). However, this year’s total will continue to grow, especially with this Sunday’s Day 1c still to come, which should help push the prize pool beyond the €10,000,000 guarantee.

After Aliaksei Boika led the 336 survivors of Day 1a with 424,500 chips, Roberto Romanello bagged the biggest stack among the 269 remaining players from Day 1b with 451,000 chips, just ten big blinds ahead of Biao Ding who finished with 431,500.

WSOPE Main Event Day 1b Top 10 Chip Counts

Rank	Player	Country	Chip Count	Big Blinds
1	Roberto Romanello	United Kingdom	451,000	226
2	Biao Ding	China	431,500	216
3	Gabriele Guerrini	Italy	362,500	181
4	Bartosz Wesolek	Poland	352,000	176
5	Quirin Heinz	Germany	351,000	176
6	Asko Muratovic	Austria	327,000	164
7	Martin Hellmuth	United Kingdom	322,000	161
8	Martin Kabrhel	Czechia	322,000	161
9	Hugo Delmaire-Sizes	France	314,500	157
10	Rokas Asipauskas	Lithuania	308,500	154

Day 1b saw many notable players bag their chips to enjoy a rest day before Monday’s Day 2. After several attempts, Martin Kabrhel was among them, finishing as one of the chip leaders with 322,000. He was followed by Hugo Delmaire-Sizes (314,500), Tom Middleton (304,500), and Felipe Ketzer (262,500).

Two-time Ladies Event champion Shiina Okamoto (250,000), Josh Arieh (200,000), David “ODB” Baker (191,000), Georgios Sotiropoulos (190,500), Ole Schemion (187,500), Jesse Lonis (171,500), and Benny Glaser (163,000) all advanced to Day 2 via Day 1b, along with this week’s €3,300 Pot-Limit Omaha Mixed and €565 Colossus runner-up Shaun Deeb (105,000).

Another player to keep an eye on is the defending champion Daniel Pidun, still in contention with 138,500 as he looks to go back-to-back. There is still a long way to go, however, with players like the 2018 WSOPE champion Jack Sinclair (59,000) and the 2019 WSOP Main Event winner Hossein Ensan (34,000) also advancing, but with shorter stacks than they began with.

Day 1c of the WSOPE Main Event starts this Sunday, April 5 at noon at noon local time with blinds beginning at 100/200 with a 200 big blind ante. From a 60,000 chips starting stack, players will have to navigate through ten 60-minute levels with two re-entries allowed per flight. Also, late registration remains open for the first two levels of Day 2.

Main Event Remaining Schedule

Day	Date	Time	Blind Levels
1c	April 5	12 p.m.	60 minutes
2	April 6	12 p.m.	90 minutes
3	April 7	12 p.m.	90 minutes
4	April 8	12 p.m.	90 minutes
5	April 9	12 p.m.	90 minutes
6	April 10	12 p.m.	90 minutes