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Was the bubble going to burst on Day 2 of the €5,300 World Series of Poker Europe Main Event at King’s Casino in Hilton Prague? The answer turned out to be yes in the final minutes of the day, with 393 players reaching the money to share a part of the €13,085,000 prize pool.
This easily surpassed the €10 million guarantee thanks to a record-breaking 2,617 entries registered before late registration closed earlier in the day, making the 2026 WSOPE Main Event the largest ever held.
From now on, no mistakes are allowed in the race for the €2,000,000 top prize and the WSOPE gold bracelet. In this chase, Thomas Eychenne leads the 356 remaining players with a massive 2,010,000.
The 2025 EPT Barcelona champion already had a strong start before a fortunate river saw him crack aces with kings, propelling him over the one-million chip mark. “Then, just before the bubble, I five-bet shoved and my opponent folded, so I picked up another 300,000 without a showdown,” he added.
Overall, the Frenchman explained that he “didn’t have the best table,” but had “luck and good hands” to build his stack. “But I’m under no illusions. Like always, I’m taking it one day at a time.”
WSOPE Main Event Day 2 Top 10 Chip Counts
| Rank | Player | Country | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Thomas Eychenne | France | 2,010,000 | 251 |
| 2 | Daan Mulders | Netherlands | 1,721,000 | 215 |
| 3 | Giovanni Zanette | South Africa | 1,467,000 | 183 |
| 4 | Yuhan Wang | China | 1,374,000 | 172 |
| 5 | Rokas Asipauskas | Lithuania | 1,350,000 | 169 |
| 6 | Gabriel Martini Nobrega | Brazil | 1,241,000 | 155 |
| 7 | Alex Anton | United States | 1,183,000 | 148 |
| 8 | Eimantas Adomavicius | Lithuania | 1,168,000 | 146 |
| 9 | Niklas Deitmer | Germany | 1,159,000 | 145 |
| 10 | Alex Keating | United States | 1,150,000 | 144 |
All the way until the end, Daan Mulders was also a strong contender for the chip lead but ultimately finished second in chips with 1,721,000. He made headlines, however, by winning a flip against Symeon Alexandridis to burst the bubble.
With Eychenne and Mulders, a total of 18 players bagged more than a million chips, including WSOP bracelet winners Yuhan Wang (1,374,000), Alex Keating (1,150,000), Chris Hunichen (1,047,000), Alexandre Reard (1,017,000), Jeff Madsen (1,016,000), and Paulius Vaitiekunas (1,012,000).
Two-time Ladies Event champion Shiina Okamoto (982,000) follows, alongside Day 1c chip leader Daniel Rezaei (967,000) and the 2019 WSOPE Main Event winner Alexandros Kolonias (854,000).
Like Kolonias, Annette Obrestad (581,000) who made a minor mistake on the bubble, and Simone Andrian (141,000) can still dream of a second win in this event, while the defending champion Daniel Pidun re-entered after an unsuccessful first bullet but was eliminated again and won’t go back-to-back.
There will be no double either for the reigning WSOP Main Event champion Michael Mizrachi, who lost a flip at the feature table moments after Dan “Jungleman” Cates was eliminated. Max Neugebauer, John Juanda, Davidi Kitai, Hossein Ensan, Benny Glaser, and many others didn’t make the cut either, while Luka Bojovic (358th) and Julien Sitbon (386th) were also sent to the rail but in the money, securing a €10,000 min-cash.
The same goes for Colossus winner Gilles Silbernagel (368th), who had his bracelet ceremony during the first break and saw his runner-up Shaun Deeb double up on the bubble before bagging a more than decent stack of 689,000.
Nacho Barbero (631,000), Jesse Lonis (540,000), Espen Jorstad (471,000), and Aliaksei Boika (441,000) also bagged stacks above average.
Anthony Zinno (425,000), Manig Loeser (376,000), Zdenek Zizka (284,000), Erick Lindgren (246,000), and Martin Kabrhel (162,000), who had a roller-coaster end of day, also qualified for Day 3. Stoyan Madanzhiev, however, is short-stacked with 44,000, while Eero Palmu sits at the bottom of the counts with 11,000.
Play is set to resume this Tuesday, April 7, at noon local time, with blinds at 5,000/10,000 and a 10,000 big blind ante. As on Day 2, six more 90-minute levels are scheduled to be played on Day 3, with players gradually approaching the bigger payouts.
Remaining Payouts
| Place | Prize | Place | Prize | Place | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | €2,000,000 | 9 | €140,000 | 56–63 | €25,000 |
| 2 | €1,200,000 | 10–11 | €100,000 | 64–71 | €22,500 |
| 3 | €800,000 | 12–15 | €75,000 | 72–79 | €20,200 |
| 4 | €575,000 | 16–23 | €60,000 | 80–103 | €18,000 |
| 5 | €425,000 | 24–31 | €50,000 | 104–135 | €16,000 |
| 6 | €320,000 | 32–39 | €40,000 | 136–191 | €14,000 |
| 7 | €245,000 | 40–47 | €35,000 | 192–272 | €12,000 |
| 8 | €185,000 | 48–55 | €30,000 | 273–356 | €10,000 |
As always, stay tuned to PokerNews for continuing coverage of the 2026 WSOP Europe Main Event!
