The 2026 World Series of Poker $10,000 buy-in no-limit hold’em main event drew 9,208 entries to become the fourth-largest in the tournament’s 57-year history.
On Wednesday, July 8, 3,294 survivors from the first six days of action took their seats for day 3, marking the first time the entire field played together simultaneously.
The top 1,382 are set to make the money, with $15,000 for a min-cash and $10,000,000 up top from the final prize pool of $85,634,400.
Day 3 ended with 1,389 players remaining, which means play will resume with just seven eliminations needed to burst the money bubble.
Sasha Liu Leads To Field Into The Bubble
The chip leader heading into day 4 is Sasha Liu with 2,364,000. The cash game regular is no stranger to making deep runs in the main event. She placed 324th in 2019 for $38,240, which is currently the largest live score on her tournament resume.
Other top stacks include two-time bracelet winner Martin Zamani (1,963,000), bracelet winners Zdenek Zizka (1,576,000) and Will Givens (1,540,000), and 2019 world champion Hossein Ensan (1,280,000).
Among other notables with over 1 million in chips are Farid Jattin (1,279,000), World Poker Tour champion Masato Yokosawa (1,135,000), five-time bracelet winner Brian Yoon (1,132,000), four-time bracelet winner Artur Martirosian (1,063,000), bracelet winner Chris Hunichen (1,055,000), and two-time bracelet winner Erick Lindgren (1,000,000). Nine-time bracelet winner Shaun Deeb fell just shy of that mark with 960,000.
Hot on Deeb’s heels are bracelet winners Dutch Boyd (950,000) and Michael Banducci (933,000), as well as two-time bracelet winners Craig Varnell (932,000) and Boris Kolev (913,000).
Alex Foxen on day 3 of the 2026 WSOP main event
Alex Foxen bagged up 839,000 as he looks to add to his collection of four bracelets. The current Card Player Player of the Year race leader already has over $60.9 million in career cashes to his name, and is well-situated to add to that total with a deep run in this event.
Big Names Fall
While plenty of big names remain in contention for the championship gold bracelet, Day 3 action eliminated a long list of notables. Among them were all-time bracelet leader Phil Hellmuth, 2015 WSOP main event champion Joe McKeehen, nine-time bracelet winner Benny Glaser, seven-time bracelet winners Scott Seiver and Brian Rast, and six-time bracelet winners Jeremy Ausmus and Kristen Foxen.
The long list continued, with the likes of five-time bracelet winner John Monnette, four-time bracelet winners Farzad Bonyadi, Julien Martini, Huck Seed, and Mike Matusow, all-time WSOP Circuit ring leader Maurice Hawkins, Kathy Leibert, and Viktor Blom all hitting the rail before play came to a close on day 3.
Can Grinder Go Back-To-Back? Or Might Another Prior World Champion Win Again?
While Ensan is among the biggest stacks remaining, period, there are also several other former champions of this tournament still in with a shot at winning the big dance a second time. Among them are 2018 champion John Cynn (927,000), reigning champion Michael Mizrachi (615,000), 2013 champion Ryan Riess (431,000), 2017 champion Scott Blumstein (387,000), 2005 champion Joe Hachem (353,000), and 2004 champion Greg Raymer (205,000).
2003 winner Chris Moneymaker bagged up 221,000. He might have had an even larger stack were it not for a brutal beat that saw his K♥7♥ outdrawn by the A♠J♠ of Scott Sterling after the chips went in on the turn with the board showing A♥7♠7♣J♥. The river brought the A♦ to give Sterling the superior full house and the pot.
Chris Moneymaker Returns to the WSOP Main Event@CMONEYMAKER returns to the WSOP Main Event and is one river card away from dragging a massive pot on Day 3.
The WSOP Main Event stream is LIVE now on ESPN digital and YouTube in select territories. pic.twitter.com/JHXfqAkRyJ
— WSOP – World Series of Poker (@WSOP) July 9, 2026
Back For The Bubble
The remaining 1,389 players will return for day 4 at 11:00 AM on Thursday, July 9. Players will sit down to blinds of 4,000-8,000 with an 8,000 big blind ante for level 16. The 397,754 average stack will provide players with nearly 50 big blinds of breathing room when play resumes in the fourth-largest WSOP main event ever held.
Here is a look at the top ten chip stacks heading into day 4:
| Rank | Player | Chips |
| 1 | Sasha Liu | 2,364,000 |
| 2 | Martin Zamani | 1,963,000 |
| 3 | Levon Khachatryan | 1,745,000 |
| 4 | Robert Gill | 1,604,000 |
| 5 | Zdenek Zizka | 1,576,000 |
| 6 | Will Givens | 1,540,000 |
| 7 | Brian Carraher | 1,463,000 |
| 8 | Jared Passanante | 1,361,000 |
| 9 | Abhishek Goindi | 1,355,000 |
| 10 | Noah Andrew | 1,322,000 |
Field photo credit: WSOP / Monique Marestein
