A truly brutal cooler was dealt late on day 3 of the 2026 World Series of Poker main event, but somehow Amarender Puri survived despite running jacks full of nines into a king-high straight flush for bracelet winner Jason James.
With the money bubble fast approaching, the blinds sat at 3,000-6,000 with a 6,000 big blind ante. James raised to 14,000 with K♠10♠ from under the gun. Puri called with J♣9♣ from the hijack and the two saw an action flop of Q♠J♠J♥.
Puri flopped trips, but James still had 38.5 percent equity according to Card Player’s poker odds calculator, with an open-ended straight flush draw for the 2024 WSOP $1,000 tag team champion.
“Forgive me for even putting it into the universe, Nick, but the nine of spades?” said commentator Ali Nejad, thinking aloud about the sickest possible turn card.
James check-called 16,000, and the 9♠ did indeed roll off the deck.
“Guys, I know you want to believe that we know… we don’t know!” exclaimed Nejad, who apparently leapt from his chair at the sight of the card, based on comments from his fellow broadcaster, Poker Hall of Famer Nick Schulman.
James checked and Puri checked behind. The 10♥ completed the board and James fired 50,000 with his straight flush. Puri somehow avoided an even worse disaster by just flat-calling the river with his full boat.
Both players bagged up at the end of the night, with Puri having 352,000 and James 316,000. James will be looking to make another deep run in this tournament, having finished 14th in 2024 for $450,400.
An Unbelievable Cooler in the Main Event
It takes a special runout to produce a cooler like this. Watch one of the wildest hands from Day 3 of the 2026 WSOP Main Event.
The WSOP Main Event stream is LIVE on ESPN digital and YouTube in select territories. pic.twitter.com/Xh53hGGYfC
— WSOP – World Series of Poker (@WSOP) July 9, 2026
Day 4 is beginning just seven eliminations away from the money bubble bursting. The top 1,382 will earn a share of the $85,634,400. This year’s main event drew 9,208 entries, the fourth-largest turnout in the storied history of poker’s world championship.
Photo credit: WSOP / Jazmyn Le.
