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2026 WSOP Main Event: Sasha Liu Out Front With Money Bubble Seven Spots Away
- Sasha Liu leads 1389 players after Day 3 of 2026 WSOP Main Event.
- Only 7 eliminations left until the $85.6M money bubble bursts; min-cash is $15,000.
- Top champions and pros advance; action resumes Thursday in Las Vegas.
Sasha Liu leads the remaining 1389 players after Day 3 of the 2026 WSOP Main Event. With 1382 positions paying out from the $85634400 prize pool, play resumes Thursday just seven eliminations away from bursting the money bubble.
The most important and richest live poker tournament of the year has all but reached the money. The fourth largest World Series of Poker Main Event in history generated a gargantuan $85.6 million prize pool. Out of a massive field of 9,208 entries, only 1,389 hopefuls remain.
Almost all of them will claim a min-cash of at least $15,000 for their efforts, but the money bubble has to wait for the start of Day 4.
Only seven more eliminations are required before the remaining 1,382 players officially lock up a cash. A total of 3,294 players returned to their seats at the Horseshoe and Paris Las Vegas after surviving their respective opening flights and the two Day 2s. Over five levels of play, hundreds of tournament life hopes vanished.
Sasha Liu Sets the Pace
Pot-Limit Omaha cash game crusher Sasha Liu entered Event #82: $10,000 WSOP Main Event NLH World Championship like a wrecking ball.
After registering at the very start of Day 2, she reached more than six starting stacks within the first level of her tournament. By the dinner break on Day 3, she had already accumulated a seven-figure stack.
She then more than doubled that figure to end the night with an astonishing 2364000 in chips, surpassing Martin Zamani (1963000) to top the leaderboard. Levon Khachatryan finished the night with the third-largest stack of 1745000.
Khachatryan previously finished runner-up to Eelis Pärssinen in Event #47: $25,000 High Roller Pot-Limit Omaha for a career-best score of $1,440,680 earlier this summer.
He leads other notables near the top of the standings, including Zdenek Zizka (1,576,000) and Will Givens (1,540,000).
High Profile Eliminations on Day 3
Prior to the dinner break, two of live poker's most polarizing figures were sent to the rail without anything to show for their efforts.
Will Kassouf bowed out in a flip holding pocket sixes against the king-queen of Kevin Killeen. The Irishman rivered an ace-high flush to silence Kassouf well before the money.
Phil Hellmuth followed soon after when his flopped flush draw failed to improve. His son, Phil Hellmuth III, shared the same fate and was eliminated. That left only his other son, Nicholas Hellmuth (53000), still in contention.
In the penultimate level of the night, British mixed-game specialist and nine-time WSOP bracelet winner Benny Glaser ran into pocket aces and could not pull a rabbit out of the hat, missing out on the money.
Among the last casualties of the night were Simon Wilson and Michael Kamran, who were both knocked out by Francisco Mateo and his pocket kings.
Former Champions and Notables Advance
Former WSOP Main Event champion Hossein Ensan fared much better during the Day 3 session. After a slow start, he ground his way above half a million in chips and then knocked out three players in as many minutes to reach a seven-figure stack.
Defending champion Michael “The Grinder” Mizrachi took the spotlight on the main feature table and ran up his stack to over 1.2 million in his usual aggressive style.
Even a setback with ace-king versus pocket queens, where his opponent made quads, proved to be temporary. Mizrachi still finished the night with an above-average chip count of 615,000.
Other former champions remaining in contention include:
- John Cynn (927,000)
- Ryan Riess (431,000)
- Joe Hachem (353,000)
- Greg Raymer (326,000)
- Chris Moneymaker (221,000)
They are joined by WSOP Main Event online winner Stoyan Madanzhiev (499,000). On the other live stream table, the dangerous Alex Foxen bagged up 839000, closely followed by Pedro Neves (811,000).
Chino Rheem (588,000) headlined the third table in the arena, where Mark Lacoste (1,147,000) and Callum Roque (1025000) finished as the only chip millionaires at that layout.
Shaun Deeb won a big flip prior to the dinner break and nearly crossed seven figures to end the night with 938,000 in chips, further increasing his chances of defending his WSOP Player of the Year title.
Bubble Play Awaits Day 4
The final break of the night commenced fewer than 150 spots away from the money. The floor announced to the entire room that the money bubble would not burst on Wednesday night, repeating history from last year's edition where the bubble loomed but did not pop at the end of Day 3.
With 1389 players remaining and 1382 set to be paid, hand-for-hand play is expected to kick in right away when Day 4 recommences on Thursday, July 9 at 11 a.m. local time at the Paris Hotel Las Vegas.
The re-commencing blinds will be 4000-8000 with a big blind ante of 8000. The average stack is currently nearly 50 big blinds deep.
All remaining players are chasing the $10 million first-place prize, while the 9th place finisher will receive $1 million.
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