The Muck · WSOP Daily Brief
Day 47
The back-to-back dream is dead, and a fellow champion killed it. Michael Mizrachi's title defense ended in 241st place on Day 5 of the Main Event, king-queen into Hossein Ensan's pocket aces, and the board rubbed it in by making sevens full for the German, per PokerNews. Greg Raymer and Ryan Riess busted within an hour of him, leaving Ensan as the last former champion standing among the 174 survivors of the original 9,208. The new chip leader is Zhao Liu with 10,150,000, the only eight-figure bag, and remarkably his second straight year making Day 6. Shaun Deeb survived ten hours of poker to bag 70 big blinds and immediately started trash-talking his future tablemates. Meanwhile, cash game specialist Matthew Shepsky finally ended the Mystery Bounty PLO that would not die, winning $305,000 and bracelet #87 on the first hand of heads-up play, and yesterday's chip leader Sam Sweilem has vanished from the top ten counts entirely. The databases barely knew him, and now neither do we.
Story 01 of 6
Michael Mizrachi's quest to become the first back-to-back Main Event champion since Johnny Chan in 1987 and 1988 ended on Day 5, per PokerNews. Already wounded by a flush-over-flush cooler midway through the day, The Grinder got his last nine big blinds in with king-queen during Level 23 and ran into 2019 champion Hossein Ensan's pocket aces. The board ran out 7-9-7-7-10, giving Ensan sevens full of aces and Mizrachi a 241st place finish worth $50,000. He left the Paris Ballroom feature tables to warm applause. Raymer (279th) and Riess (282nd) fell the same day for the same $50,000, leaving Ensan, who bagged 3,450,000, as the only former champion left.
Why it mattersBy historical standards, this was a phenomenal title defense. PokerNews' own table shows most defending champions since 2003 didn't even cash; only Raymer's 25th in 2005 beats Mizrachi's run in the modern era. The poetry of Ensan holding the aces is almost too neat: the last two Main Event champions still alive in the tournament, and one had to kill the other. Fifteen consecutive days of Main Event poker across two summers finally ends, and the $10 million question becomes whether Ensan, of all people, can now do the thing Mizrachi just failed to do.
Story 02 of 6
Day 5 cut the Main Event field from 533 to 174, and Zhao Liu leads them all with 10,150,000, the only stack past eight figures, per PokerNews. Liu finished 161st in the 2025 Main Event, making this his second consecutive Day 6, a repeat trick almost nobody manages in fields this size. Dhiraj Sharma (9,840,000), Xingyu Liu (9,040,000), Allan Sannier (8,680,000), and Sachin Joshi (8,385,000) round out the top five. Notably absent from the top ten: Day 4 chip leader Sam Sweilem, who was not mentioned in the PokerNews recap at all. Everyone returning is guaranteed $57,500, six figures kick in at 80th, and the $10,000,000 first prize waits at the end of the $85,634,400 prize pool. Day 6 resumes July 12 at 11 a.m. at 30,000/60,000.
Why it mattersMaking Day 6 of the Main Event once is a career highlight. Doing it in consecutive years against a combined 19,000 entrants is the kind of statistical anomaly that makes you check the math twice. And the tournament's annual chip leader churn continues on schedule: Rossitto led Day 3, Sasha Liu led into Day 4, Sweilem led into Day 5 with 190 big blinds, and now a new Liu sits on top. The lesson, as always: the chip lead before Day 6 is a rental, not a deed.
Story 03 of 6
Event #87, the $1,000 Mystery Bounty PLO that needed an unscheduled third day, crowned Matthew Shepsky its champion, per PokerNews. The Chicago cash game specialist, who has played PLO cash almost exclusively since 2013, entered the extra day mid-pack and steamrolled the final table, holding half the chips in play five-handed. Overnight leader Shawn Stroke bubbled the official final table when his set of kings got cracked by Jeremy Kerbel's Broadway. Shepsky then found a hero call with a low flush on a paired board to seize control, dispatched Mark Radoja, Christopher Vitch, and watched Kerbel fall third before ending heads-up against Chile's Alex Manzano on the very first hand. Shepsky banked $305,000 plus over $20,000 in bounties from the 4,764-entry, $4,192,320 field; Manzano took $204,000.
Why it mattersA pure cash game player winning a tournament bracelet by applying sit-and-go pressure concepts and Squid Game cash session reads is the most 2026 poker resume imaginable. Shepsky told PokerNews he could gauge who would punt their stack for a bounty and who was playing careful, which is exactly the kind of edge a bounty format hands to people who study humans for a living. The score nearly doubles his career-best cash and pushes him toward $2 million lifetime. Vitch's fourth place for $112,000 ends the mixed-game contingent's hopes, and the bracelet count hits 87 of 100.
Story 04 of 6
Shaun Deeb survived Day 5's ten hours and bagged 4,305,000, an above-average stack worth over 70 big blinds, per PokerNews. He doubled early in the day's second level and climbed steadily before losing a sizable pot near the bags. 'I feel bad for everyone who gets thrown on my table the rest of this tournament,' he told PokerNews. On his legacy: 'I think my legacy is solidified. I don't really think, even if I end up winning the Main Event, it really drastically changes the opinion of me as a poker player in most people's eyes.' Deeb also said he is currently third in the POY race and vented about the points system: a week of Main Event grinding earns him fewer points than a six-hour turbo final table.
Why it mattersDeeb's own accounting corrects our recent POY assumptions: he places himself third, not first, which tells you how starved for official standings everyone is, including the players. His complaint has structural merit; a system that rewards a turbo final table over a week of survival in the hardest field of the year is optimizing for something other than poker. But there is a lot of money up top, as he put it, and a Main Event final table would send his third POY title chances, in his words, very high. The nine-time bracelet winner with 70 bigs and no fear is officially the most dangerous stack in the room.
Story 05 of 6
Two players chasing their fathers' legacies made it through Day 5 with real chips, per PokerNews. Daniel Hachem, son of 2005 champion Joe Hachem, bagged 3,895,000, and PokerNews profiled his run with the headline that he has a real shot at winning the Main Event just like his dad. Todd Brunson, son of Doyle, bagged 3,690,000. The cash game crowd is also crashing the party: Wesley Fei bagged 4,580,000 after thinking he had been eliminated earlier in the tournament, Francisco Fragoso bagged 3,910,000, and Andy Tsai bagged 3,685,000. WSOP Paradise fourth-place finisher Terrance Reid advanced with 2,685,000.
Why it mattersJoe Hachem busted this Main Event in 803rd two days ago; his son is now 64 spots from the final table with an above-average stack. A Hachem winning the Main Event 21 years after the last one would be the best story of the summer, and the poker media knows it, which is why the profile pieces have already started. Meanwhile the nosebleed cash game regulars, Fei, Fragoso, and Tsai, proving they can fold for six straight days is its own kind of character development.
Story 06 of 6
The Main Event spent Day 5 methodically deleting the professional class, per PokerNews. Six-time bracelet winner Brian Hastings went in 471st for $35,000, super high roller Chris Hunichen in 424th for the same, and Stephen Chidwick in 394th for $40,000. Alex Foxen, second in the POY race, spent all day at the feature table before departing in 263rd for $50,000. The late-night wave claimed Tony Dunst (215th), Artur Martirosian (211th), Sergio Aido (202nd), and Josh Arieh (198th), each collecting $57,500. Martirosian's exit ends the run of a four-time bracelet winner who had been top three in chips a day earlier.
Why it mattersFoxen's bustout is the day's quiet POY earthquake: all those Main Event points he was accumulating stop at 263rd, while Deeb marches on with 70 big blinds and a grudge. Martirosian going from third in chips to the rail in one day is the Main Event doing what it does to everyone eventually. With the field at 174, the celebrity density is thinning fast, which historically is exactly when the tournament starts minting its own new celebrities instead.
One bracelet awarded Friday, July 10: Matthew Shepsky took down the marathon Mystery Bounty PLO, bringing the count to 87 of 100. The $50K High Roller (Event #90) reached the money with Daniel Rezaei chip leading per the PokerNews live blog, but no winner was confirmed in our sources at press time; see missing.
First bracelet plus over $20,000 in bounties from a 4,764-entry, $4,192,320 field that needed an unscheduled third day. Beat Alex Manzano ($204,000) on the first hand of heads-up with nines and queens, per PokerNews.
Main Event counts are official end of Day 5 bags per PokerNews. 174 of 9,208 remain; everyone left is locked up for $57,500. Day 6 resumes July 12 at 11 a.m. at 30,000/60,000 with a 60,000 big blind ante, five two-hour levels planned. Day 4 leader Sam Sweilem did not appear in the Day 5 recap either way; see missing.
Day 5 eliminated 359 players from the Main Event. Places 162 through 174 pay $57,500, six figures start at 80th, and the payouts are itemized per the PokerNews Day 5 recap. Mystery Bounty PLO final table payouts per the PokerNews winner article.
The defending champion's last nine big blinds went in with king-queen into Hossein Ensan's aces, per PokerNews. The board made sevens full for Ensan. Best title defense since Raymer's 25th in 2005.
The 2004 champion, still the modern-era gold standard for title defenses, cashed his way out on Day 5, per PokerNews.
The 2013 champion's exit left just two former champs, then Ensan made it one himself, per PokerNews.
Second in the POY race, spent all of Day 5 at the feature table before busting, per PokerNews. Deeb plays on; the POY math just shifted.
Third in chips entering the day, on the rail by night's end, per PokerNews. Four bracelets, one brutal Day 5.
The two-time POY's deep run ended in the final level, per PokerNews.
The Spanish high roller fell in the late-night wave, per PokerNews.
The WPT commentator's run ended just before the bags came out, per PokerNews.
Arguably the best tournament player alive departed mid-afternoon, per PokerNews.
The super high roller regular busted alongside the day's early wave, per PokerNews.
Six bracelets, one Day 5 exit, per PokerNews.
Started the unscheduled Day 3 as chip leader and bubbled the official final table when his set of kings ran into Jeremy Kerbel's Broadway, per PokerNews. The overnight lead curse spares no format.
The mixed-games stalwart's bid for another bracelet ended against Shepsky's big slick, per PokerNews, though he reportedly pulled a nice consolation bounty on the way out.
The bounty king collected 23 bounties but could not add a 24th, falling to Vitch, per PokerNews.
Deeb told PokerNews he is currently third in the race, correcting the picture painted by event results alone. Bagged 4,305,000 in the Main Event and said a final table would send his POY chances very high, while criticizing a points system that pays a week of Main Event grinding worse than a turbo final table.
Busted the Main Event in 263rd for $50,000, per PokerNews. His points stop accruing while Deeb, right behind or ahead of him depending on the unpublished standings, plays on with 70 big blinds.
Out in 241st. The Main Event repeat is dead; whether his summer results keep him relevant in the POY race depends on standings nobody has published, per our sources.
No mention in any of our Day 5 sources, and Deeb now claims third himself. The official leaderboard is overdue; status unverified for a third straight day.