June 2-4
Minutes between Phil Hellmuth's elimination in ninth place and Shaun Deeb's elimination in fifth place.
-
1ST
Naoya Kihara
$428,923
-
2ND
David Lin
$288,711
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3RD
John Cynn
$198,302
-
4TH
Ryutaro Suzuki
$139,038
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5TH
Shaun Deeb
$99,557
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6TH
Dan Shak
$72,834
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7TH
Per Hildebrand
$54,467
Shaun Deeb and Phil Hellmuth were the marquee stars as Day 3 dawned on the $10,000 2-7 Single Draw Championship, but they're out of the picture after a frustrating day of lowball.
$10K Deuce is a favorite on the schedule for many pros, and it drew 198 entries for the 2026 edition. That's a solid click down from the 233 entries in 2025, when Nick Schulman won his seventh bracelet.
Your objective in lowball is to make the worst hand with five cards. You get one draw, and it's all no limit. It's not a game for the faint of heart, and the WSOP Championship is the only time all year you can play it for $10,000.
On Friday, it played out slowly. A baker's dozen of 13 players returned after a buzzsaw Day 2, and Ryutaro Suzuki had the top stack. Right behind him was Deeb, the eight-time bracelet winner who has his sights set on WSOP Player of the Year. Much further down the leaderboard was Hellmuth, who needed to do something right away to log his second final table of the 2026 series.
In between the two were WSOP mixed game championship regulars like Angry John Monnette and Chad Eveslage, along with rising mixed game wonk Alex Foxen and WSOP Main Event winner John Cynn, who hadn't cashed in a poker tournament since Shohei Ohtani was a California Angel in 2022.
Phil fizzles
Hellmuth mounted an early charge, but it was short-lived. A few early pots allowed him to pass Foxen and Monnette on the leaderboard, ultimately settling for ninth place after Robert French used him for a double before eventual champion Naoya Kihara finished him off with a jack-ten.
The final eight were locked in with Hellmuth's exit and Deeb sat down with the third-best stack, trailing a still-leading Suzuki and David Lin. That's where things really slowed down.
It was a plodding final table, with what seemed like longer-than-normal thinking sessions for each decision. More than three hours would pass before the group broke its first player, and it was the aforementioned French who marked eighth place after a one-two punch of bad hands to open Level 22.
In the meantime, the leaderboard shifted. Cynn moved to the top and brought Dan Shak with him. Behind them was Deeb, and a power gap before the rest of the pack. The seven players would settle in again for a slow path to another elimination, taking a dinner break and three hours of play to bounce Per Hildebrand in seventh.
Deeb downfall
The prolonged stretch was not kind to Deeb. Shak would crumble, too. The latter was out in sixth place after a bad peel against Kihara, and Deeb put himself on the ropes when he surrendered a double to Suzuki.
Suzuki shoved from the button with more than 20 big blinds, and Deeb looked him up from the next seat over. Suzuki stood pat, electing to roll with his 
. Deeb turned over 
, and he drew one card.
A 
, , , , or would have kept him in the game, but it was the 
, and Deeb stepped off the stage with ace-high.
It's the first cash of the 2026 series for Deeb, who already had six to his name from WSOP Europe. The finish will be good enough to put him in the top spot on the POY leaderboard, for now.
After a long and winding evening, the pace of busted players caught up quickly. Suzuki and Cynn faded behind Deeb, exiting stage left to leave a final two of Lin and Kihara to play for it all. Kihara pulled away in the late-night hour and put Lin away after a short heads-up battle.
Deeb, meanwhile, scored 61 points for his fantasy owners with the fifth-place finish. Hellmuth also notched 21 for finishing ninth, and Suzuki hauled 71 points. The winner, Kihara, carried the day with 126 points for his owners.
Images courtesy of the WSOP.
