The Muck · WSOP Daily Brief
Day 31
Joseph Liberta completed a 13-year Millionaire Maker odyssey - four cashes, one champion - beating Michael Monroig heads-up on trip fives to take $1.25 million. Monroig, remarkably, pocketed $1 million for 2nd. The $50,000 Poker Players Championship is playing to a champion Thursday with Benny Glaser leading Phil Ivey and four others into the final stretch. Josh Reichard finally got his WSOP bracelet in the $2,500 NLH after 17 circuit rings and $6.5M in career earnings, and his dad in Wisconsin put it best: 'It's about f***ing time.' Harry Rubin won the $1,000 PLO and immediately sent his rail away to have dinner with his dad instead. Shiina Okamoto is hunting a Ladies Championship three-peat that has never been done. Greg Raymer is 2nd in chips in the Super Seniors with a 330-million-year-old fossil on the table and a 'douche bag clause' protecting it.
Story 01 of 7
Joseph Liberta won Event #50: $1,500 Millionaire Maker for $1,250,000 and his first WSOP bracelet after four lifetime cashes in the event dating back to 2013. His previous finishes: 537th, 345th, 195th, 1st. The field was the largest of the 2026 WSOP at 11,769 entries, generating a prize pool of $15,623,345. Liberta entered heads-up against Michael Monroig with the chip lead, extended it despite a Monroig double-up, and closed the door on the final hand when Monroig's 10-8 offsuit ran into Liberta's 8-5 offsuit on a 5-2-5 flop - Liberta flopped trip fives. The Q turn made it official before the river landed. Monroig earned $1,000,000 for second - meaning two players from this event went home as millionaires. Liberta declined a post-win interview with PokerNews but spoke briefly to Jeff Platt: 'It's completely surreal. I've been here for a long time. I'm just extremely grateful.'
Why it mattersThe Millionaire Maker is the WSOP's flagship recreational event and one of the most recognizable titles in the game. Two players becoming millionaires from the same event (Liberta's $1.25M first place plus Monroig's $1M runner-up) is exactly the format working as designed. Liberta's four-event arc in this single tournament is legitimately rare - most players cycle through dozens of events over a career; he kept coming back to this one. The final hand was as clean as poker gets: his supporters called for a five, a five appeared, and it was over.
Story 02 of 7
Josh Reichard won Event #62: $2,500 No-Limit Hold'em for $555,198, finally collecting the WSOP gold bracelet that had eluded him despite 17 WSOP circuit rings, MSPT Hall of Fame membership, and more than $6.5 million in career earnings. The field was 1,736 entries with a $3,864,825 prize pool. Reichard beat Caleb Harris heads-up in a half-hour match that ended when Harris bluffed into Reichard's turned straight and called off the rest. Harris entered heads-up with the chip lead after two clutch double-ups late in the tournament - queens over jacks and kings over queens in consecutive hands - but couldn't recreate that run when it mattered. Reichard also delivered a notable eliminations on Day 2 when he busted Martin Kabrhel with ace-queen after Kabrhel had earlier mocked him for playing those cards. 'Ace-queen was good to me, and Kabrhel and I go back and forth,' Reichard said. 'Unlike some of the people in poker, I enjoy his antics.' After winning, Reichard called his father Brett back in Wisconsin. His dad's reaction: 'It's about f***ing time.' Reichard called on the phone with a large, loud rail behind him. 'I don't really consider poker a sport, but it relates in that way when these people are here making all this noise,' he said.
Why it mattersReichard is a legitimate professional with one of the most decorated resumes outside of a WSOP bracelet - until Thursday. The circuit rings and MSPT Hall of Fame induction proved he could win major events; the one gap was a WSOP bracelet. It's now closed. His POY points from this win pushed him to 2nd in the 2026 race with 2,259 points, 461 behind leader Alex Foxen. The Kabrhel subplot is a perfect poker story: you talk trash about someone's hand selection, they bust you with that exact hand, they tell everyone.
Story 03 of 7
Harry Rubin won Event #57: $1,000 Pot-Limit Omaha for $390,300 and his first WSOP bracelet after defeating a field of 3,763 entries. Rubin is a Philadelphia-area cash game player who came to Las Vegas for only two weeks of the summer and had a flight booked for Thursday night - which he obviously missed. He entered the final table as chip leader, dropped to the bottom of a five-player field during a two-hour stretch where he couldn't find a hand, then came back to win it all. He beat Narcis-Gabriel Nedelcu on the first hand of heads-up play when his trips held. After winning, Rubin turned to his rail and said, 'I'm just going to hang out with my dad tonight, guys, you go ahead.' His father Burton Rubin was on the rail watching. Burton told PokerNews, 'Harry's actually my coach!' - to which Harry laughed and said his dad was lying, but that Burton had taught him to play years ago. It was Harry's biggest live cash by a significant margin.
Why it mattersDay 31 of the 2026 WSOP produced two separate father-son postgame moments in the same evening - Reichard calling his Wisconsin dad and Rubin literally walking off with his dad instead of his celebrating rail. The tournament itself was a legitimate grind: 3,763 entries in PLO means a lot of variance, and Rubin navigated a near-elimination to take the title. The PLO field was also international - Ireland's Toby Joyce and Romania's Narcis-Gabriel Nedelcu finished 3rd and 2nd respectively.
Story 04 of 7
Event #60: $50,000 Poker Players Championship played its final day Thursday with six players returning. Benny Glaser entered as chip leader with 8,610,000 and has led the event wire-to-wire. The other five survivors: Maxx Coleman, Paul Volpe, Kristopher Tong, Josh Arieh, and Phil Ivey. First place: $1,343,764. The prestigious Chip Reese Memorial Trophy - which goes to the PPC winner - is unclaimed by either Ivey (bracelet #11, no PPC title) or Hellmuth (bracelet #17, no PPC title). Hellmuth was eliminated before reaching Thursday's final day. Glaser, the UK mixed-game specialist, is chasing what would be bracelet #9, which would be the most for any player of the post-poker-boom generation. PokerNews was live-blogging the final throughout Thursday afternoon.
Why it mattersThe PPC is considered the hardest title in all of poker - nine games, no specialists, week-long grind, $50K buy-in. Whoever wins Thursday joins an extraordinarily short list. For Ivey specifically, it would be bracelet #12 in an event he has never won, the second-most meaningful gap on his resume alongside the Main Event title. Glaser is formidable: he has been the best player at this table for five days.
Story 05 of 7
2004 WSOP Main Event champion Greg 'Fossilman' Raymer is running deep in Event #61: $1,000 Super Seniors (60+), sitting in 2nd place in chips with 18 players remaining. Raymer told PokerNews that the fossil on his table - a double amniote he imported from Morocco, approximately 330 million years old - will go to whoever eliminates him. But with a condition. 'If someone's just acting like a giant douche, no fossil for them,' Raymer said, describing what he calls the 'douche bag clause,' which he said activates less than once a year on average. The fossil hasn't left his hands yet because he's still alive. Raymer said the event has 'made me work a lot more' than a RunGood Poker Series Seniors event he won in April, where he had half the chips three-handed. He's chasing his second career WSOP bracelet. The Super Seniors first-place prize is $355,263.
Why it mattersRaymer won one of the most memorable Main Events in WSOP history in 2004, famously wearing holographic lizard-eye sunglasses. Twenty-two years later he's playing a $1,000 event for players 60 and older, running deep, and giving PokerNews the 'douche bag clause' quote. With 18 players remaining and 2nd in chips, he has a legitimate shot at his second bracelet. The Super Seniors event brings out Main Event champions and legendary figures in ways the open events don't - Raymer's run is a real story.
Story 06 of 7
Event #68: $1,000 Ladies No-Limit Hold'em Championship got underway Thursday, with Japan's Shiina Okamoto entering as the two-time defending champion and the center of attention. Her consecutive finishes in the event: 2nd, 1st, 1st. A third consecutive title would be unprecedented in the modern era of the event. Okamoto, Japan's first female WSOP bracelet winner with over $1.2 million in career earnings, spoke to PokerNews ahead of the day with characteristic restraint. 'As for my chances of winning, honestly, I have no idea,' she said, citing tournament poker's variance. She acknowledged that opponents are now aware of her history in the event and tend to adjust their play against her - something she said she can use to her advantage. On pressure: 'I wouldn't say that I feel no pressure at all, but I do try not to let myself feel it.' She studies GTO Wizard daily and has focused heavily on mental game work over the past year.
Why it mattersThree consecutive wins in a major WSOP event would be historically significant. The Ladies Championship typically draws 1,000+ entrants, making the field substantial. Okamoto's repeat in 2024 and 2025 wasn't a fluke - she's a serious student of the game and a disciplined GTO-trained player. The comparison to Johnny Chan's back-to-back Main Event wins (1987-88) in terms of repeat achievement is apt. Whether she makes it three is a story in progress.
Story 07 of 7
Poker vlogger Corey Eyring (187,000 YouTube subscribers) staked his DoorDash delivery driver Nixon Diaz to play the 2026 WSOP after recognizing each other during a food order. Diaz told Eyring he was struggling financially, couldn't afford a buy-in, and dreamed of playing the World Series. Eyring told him, 'I'll do what Keating did to me to you' - referencing high-stakes player Alan Keating staking Eyring into the 2025 WSOP Paradise Super Main. He gave Diaz enough for three months' rent, spending cash, and buy-ins, in exchange for 50% of profits. Diaz cashed twice: 78th in the $600 Deepstack PLO for $2,140, and 26th in the $1,000 PLO (Event #57) for $14,510 after leading the field at the chip count stage on Day 2. He was eventually eliminated before the final table. Diaz acknowledged in a recent Eyring YouTube video that he 'started doing really well, illegally' earlier in life and spent five years in prison. He said he was 'living off gambling' inside, hustling poker games for soups.
Why it mattersThe Corey Eyring/Nixon Diaz story circulated significantly on social media ahead of Day 2 results. Diaz's run deep in the PLO - leading the field at one point in Day 2 - made it a genuine ongoing story rather than just a stake announcement. He came close enough to the money to make the investment tangible. For the broader poker community, the chain of generosity from Keating to Eyring to Diaz is a good story about what the WSOP ecosystem can do for people on the outside looking in.
Three bracelets confirmed from Day 31 action (June 25). PPC winner not confirmed at press time.
PPC end-of-Day-4 chip counts. Six return Thursday for the final day. Paul Volpe enters as short stack; Coleman, Arieh, Tong, and Ivey are packed tightly behind Glaser.
Notable eliminations from Day 31 action.
Made the most famous hand of the series (the Sasaki counterfeit on Wednesday), then ran all the way to runner-up and $1 million. Lost heads-up to Liberta when his 10-8 ran into trip fives on the 5-2-5 flop. Not a bad consolation: he's a millionaire.
Survived on back-to-back double-ups late in the tournament (queens over jacks, kings over queens in consecutive hands) to reach heads-up with the chip lead. Couldn't replicate it against Reichard - bluffed off his stack when Reichard hit a straight on the turn and waited.
Romanian player fell on the first hand of heads-up play when Rubin's trips held. Career-best finish.
Made fun of Josh Reichard for playing ace-queen. Was eliminated by Reichard holding ace-queen. Reichard: 'Ace-queen was good to me, and Kabrhel and I go back and forth. Unlike some of the people in poker, I enjoy his antics.' Kabrhel had less to say.
Came back from COVID to play the PPC. Tripled up on Day 1. Ran short by the end of Day 4. Did not survive to Thursday's final six despite his 875K in chips heading into Day 4. Chip Reese Trophy remains unclaimed by Hellmuth.
Leads the race with 2,720 points after four bracelets this series. No movement Thursday from the PPC (not in the field). Comfortable margin but Reichard closed significant ground.
Surged from outside the top 3 to 2nd with today's bracelet win. Now 461 points behind Foxen. Interesting POY threat for the second half of the series.
Third in the race. Not prominently in the news Thursday. Reichard's win pushed him to 3rd.
Two bracelets this series. Watching Thursday's action from the sidelines. Still within striking distance if he runs deep in a major event.
Three runner-up finishes, zero bracelets this series. The $10M Hellmuth side-bet exposure on the Main Event looms. Not in Thursday's major action.