When Michael Mizrachi won both the $50,000 Poker Players Championship and the $10,000 Main Event last summer, people said it was a feat unlikely to happen again.
What will those people be saying if Mizrachi goes back-to-back and wins the Main Event again in 2026? It might seem silly to suggest it after just one Day 2 flight, but don't put anything past Mizrachi.
His Day 1 may have been uneventful – he bagged 73,200 from a 60,000 starting stack – but Day 2ABC was a rollercoaster.
He ground out the first couple of levels, and was down to sub-50K halfway through the day, before climbing back up, slipping again and ending the day with a healthy stack of 202,500 – 81 big blinds when Day 3 starts.
Back-to-back is still extremely unlikely – but it’s a little bit less unlikely than it was at the start of the 2026 Main Event.
Back to the old school
Meanwhile, Hellmuth was enjoying himself on the feature table and taking his licks with good grace. Until he didn’t.
The blip came when he raised to 7.5K preflop with 
and picked up Paris Sitzoukis with 
.
The 
flop spelled trouble for Hellmuth, but it was checked through to the 
turn. Sitzoukis bet 10K and Hellmuth insta-raised to 23K.
The 
river brought more potential trouble for Hellmuth but it went check-check. When he saw Sitzoukis' hand, Hellmuth nodded and checked his cards again.
Then he started muttering: “I said there’s no way he calls 7.5K with a small pair. Eights or nines, maybe. Wow."
“Oh that’s right," he continued a bit louder, "you’re the guy who thinks I never have anything. When you call 75 from me and flop a set, 23 is the max you’ll ever get. All he has to do is bet 10K on the river and I’m folding AQ face up. Jesus Christ. Why would I ever let you win any money if you call with fives or threes. It’s alright, we’ll play a lot of these.”
“I stack anyone else,” Sitzoukis said. “I stack him, I stack him," he said, gesticulating. "Against you I win 23K, that’s it.”
“You were lucky to win that much,” Hellmuth shot back.
The very next hand Hellmuth won his chips back with AK and top-two pair. If Cameron Holder had hit his flush draw we might have found full ignition.
Matusow gets a one-round penalty
Mike Matusow wasn’t going to let Hellmuth take all the spotlight. On the river and facing a big bet, he asked Stephen Ross to show him one card.
“You show me one first,” Ross shot back.
Matusow obliged and the dealer shouted, “Floor! I need a floor! You can’t do that.”
Matusow folded and was given a one-orbit penalty. It brought back memories of 2005 and his bust-up with Shawn Shiekhan.
“It’s kind of bullshit,” Matusow said sadly as he watched on from the rail.
Elsewhere, Greg Raymer was rolling back the years to 2004 with another run in the Main. He found a big late double with tens to bag an impressive 291,000 stack.
Freddy Deeb was also stacking chips. He’s so old-school that Sitzoukis asked Hellmuth: “Who's Freddy Deeb? Shaun's brother or son or something?”
Not just the old school
It wasn’t just about the old-school today.
Sasha Liu late-regged at the start of the day and ran up 10 starting stacks and the chip lead in just two levels.
“I ran pretty hot," she admitted. "I had kings, and flopped a set against aces. He shoved on the river, so I got a quick double, and it just went from there.”
She didn’t end with the chip lead but she did bag a very big 495,500.
You may know Eshaan ‘Brown Balla’ Bhalla from his sessions on Hustler Casino Live. If he keeps chipping up, he’ll be known for his 2026 Main Event run. He ended with a big stack of 454,500.
Meanwhile, new-schooler Nick Hellmuth found himself short and all-in towards the end of the day but found a double to get back to his 60,000 starting stack, before finishing with 24,000.
Grinding two days to end with a third of what you started with might not be the Main Event journey he had planned, but he’s still in and his dad’s bet with Shaun Deeb that he'll cash is still live.
It wasn’t a good day for Jourdan Baptiste. He got the best of old-schooler Jamie Gold on Day 1 but was eliminated today when he flopped a straight and ran into a turned full house.
Gaspar Fernandez ended the day as chip leader with 754,000.
Day 2D plays out tomorrow from 11am and after two levels, late reg will shut on the 2026 Main Event for good. Then on Wednesday, the field will come together for the first time as the battle for the bracelet begins in earnest.
Notable end-of-day stacks
- Gaspar Fernandez: 754,000
- Sasha Liu: 495,500
- Brian Hastings: 490,000
- Tony Dunst: 479,000
- Martin Zamani: 459,500
- Eshaan Bhalla: 454,500
- Justin Arnwine: 422,000
- Freddy Deeb: 383,000
- Farah Galfond: 308,800
- Greg Raymer: 291,000
- Scott Seiver: 282,000
- Chris Moorman: 265,500
- Andrew Lichtenberger: 255,500
- Kevin Martin: 228,000
- Michael Mizrachi: 202,500
- Phil Hellmuth: 173,000
- Stephen Chidwick: 152,000
- Chris Brewer: 140,000
- Josh Arieh: 118,000
- Greg Merson: 79,000
- Mike Matusow: 65,000
- Nick Hellmuth: 24,000
Chip counts and images courtesy of WSOP.
