Today at the
World Series

What Happened

Artur Martirosian, who won the $25,000 Six-Handed NLH bracelet just three days ago, bubbled the $100,000 High Roller in 19th place after having pocket aces cracked in back-to-back hands on Day 2. In Hand 1, Christopher Nguyen four-bet jammed king-queen for 3,480,000 into Martirosian's big blind three-bet. Martirosian snap-called with A-A. The flop (5-2-7) gave Nguyen a flush draw, the K on the turn gave him top pair, and the Q on the river completed his two pair to crack the aces. In Hand 2, reduced to 495,000 chips, Martirosian shoved A-A again. Teun Mulder called with jack-ten of spades. Martirosian was reportedly heard saying 'not twice' on the WSOP livestream. The board ran out 8-Q-6-6-9, giving Mulder a straight to eliminate Martirosian on the bubble. Martirosian exited without speaking, missing a $201,754 min-cash. The bubble pop left 18 players in the money.

Why It Matters

Martirosian entered the $100K attempting a back-to-back High Roller double - three days after taking down the $25K Six-Handed. He was one of the strongest players in a 115-entry field with over $191 million in collective final-table earnings. Having aces cracked twice in consecutive hands to miss the money by one spot is the kind of sequence that gets cited in poker suffering conversations for years. The 'not twice' moment on livestream, before the second hand, adds a layer of narrative horror.

What Happened

Event #36: $100,000 High Roller No-Limit Hold'em reached its final table of nine overnight, with Christopher Nguyen (Austria) leading at 17,200,000 chips (72 big blinds). Nguyen went on a late run that began when he cracked Martirosian's aces with K-Q and ended when he bluffed off Alex Foxen to secure the chip lead. Yuri Dzivielevski (Brazil, five-time WSOP bracelet winner) enters second with 11,800,000. Alexandros Theologis (Greece) is third with 9,955,000 in his first WSOP major final table appearance. Teun Mulder (Netherlands) is fourth with 8,845,000. Martin Kabrhel (Czechia, chasing bracelet #6) is seventh with 5,215,000. Sam Soverel (US) is eighth with 3,420,000. Alex Foxen (US, $57.3M career earnings) enters as the shortest stack at nine big blinds. Total prize pool: $11,040,000. Top prize: $2,841,432. The nine finalists have accumulated over $191 million in live tournament earnings combined. During Day 2 play, Kabrhel and Soverel had an on-stream dispute about RFID card scanning - Kabrhel complained that Soverel had not scanned his cards, Soverel ignored the request, PokerGO founder Cary Katz tried to deescalate, and Soverel eventually scanned after the hand. The event is currently in play today, with 5 players remaining and Teun Mulder reported as the new chip leader. Ren Lin - who led Day 1 with 3,175,000 chips - is confirmed not in the final nine. He cashed somewhere in the 10th-18th range.

Why It Matters

The $100K High Roller is the highest buy-in non-super-high-roller event of the summer. Nine players are left, and the combined resume is staggering. Dzivielevski going for bracelet six at this buy-in is a significant plot. Kabrhel going for six in his characteristically theatrical fashion is always watchable. And the fact that the chip leader who led Day 1 - Ren Lin, banned from GGPoker for online cheating last year - did not make the final table is a story in itself. Also notable: Christopher Nguyen previously denied Ren Lin a bracelet in the WSOP Europe High Roller, and now he leads the field Ren Lin couldn't crack.

What Happened

Phil Hellmuth cashed 37th ($21,162) in Event #33: $10,000 Pot-Limit Omaha Hi-Lo Championship after a Day 2 elimination on a bad beat. He was in strong shape late in the session when an opponent called off 520,000 chips on the turn drawing to three outs and hit on the river. Hellmuth posted a three-minute video to social media shortly after busting. In it, he described the situation, acknowledged his blessings, said he's been losing these spots for 'three years, four years, whatever it is,' declared 'I'm just really getting sick of this s**t,' and closed by announcing 'I'm going to keep putting the money in with the best hand, day after day, week after week, month after month, until I have 24 f***ing bracelets.' He currently holds 17 WSOP bracelets. Hellmuth also referenced his seventh-place finish in the $10K Omaha Hi-Lo Championship a week earlier, where he claimed to have run poorly at the final table after running well to get there.

Why It Matters

Hellmuth saying 24 bracelets is the rare WSOP content that is both clearly emotional and mathematically interesting. He currently holds 17. Getting to 24 would require seven more bracelets in whatever remaining active WSOP seasons he plays. Whether that is aspirational or delusional probably depends on which day he's running good. The rant is newsworthy because Hellmuth normally curates his public image carefully, and he acknowledged that in the video before abandoning the strategy entirely.

What Happened

Phil Ivey, an 11-time WSOP bracelet winner, has not cashed in a single event through Day 17 of the 2026 WSOP - 17 days into a schedule he entered as the subject of pre-series fantasy draft coverage arguing he was undervalued. Ivey busted Day 2 of Event #36: $100,000 High Roller, joining Daniel Negreanu, defending $100K champion Philip Sternheimer, and Josh Arieh among the notable misses in that event. Ivey has been eliminated from multiple high-profile events including the $100K High Roller and the $25,000 Heads-Up Championship.

Why It Matters

The pre-series narrative around Ivey was that he was a steal in fantasy formats at whatever price he was assigned. 17 days in, he has not cashed. That is the kind of cold run that happens in poker - Ivey is still the same player - but it turns the fantasy draft coverage into an inadvertent reminder that past results do not predict short-run performance in a 17-day window.

What Happened

Event #32: $3,000 No-Limit Hold'em is down to three players for its Day 4 final today. Jean-Robert Bellande leads with 16,290,000 chips after eliminating Kevin Naegelen with ace-king versus ace-queen to vault from a middling Day 3 stack. Christos Argyriadis is second at 13,600,000. Bellande is chasing his second WSOP bracelet; the top prize is $538,158. Jim Collopy (over $12.4M in career earnings, the only fantasy pick still standing in the event) and Jessica Vierling also reached Day 4. In Event #33: $10,000 Pot-Limit Omaha Hi-Lo Championship, Justin Liberto leads the final five players with 13,590,000 chips - approximately 60% of all chips in play. Ryan Hughes, who entered Day 3 as chip leader with 1,995,000 chips, was eliminated early in a large pot against Nino Pansier. Liberto is in command of an event with $767,395 at the top. Both events play to a winner today.

Why It Matters

JRB (Jean-Robert Bellande) is a well-known figure in high-stakes cash games and has built a loyal following on social media. A second bracelet would be a significant personal milestone. Liberto holding 60% of chips in a five-handed PLO8 final is dominant by any measure, though five-handed PLO8 with big blinds has ended plenty of commanding chip leads before.

What Happened

Event #34: $500 COLOSSUS No-Limit Hold'em completed its second flight on Day 17. Day 1b drew 3,219 entrants - significantly more than the 2,684 who turned out for Day 1a. Combined, the first two flights have produced 5,813 total entries. Two more flights remain (Days 1c and 1d), and surviving players from the earlier flights continue into Day 2 simultaneously. The eventual prize pool will be one of the series' larger totals.

Why It Matters

Colossus attendance is one of the WSOP's traditional volume benchmarks. 5,813 entries through two flights with two more to come puts the event on pace for a strong total. The field size will determine the prize structure and the significance of making the money.