Imagine being just four years out of high school, just weeks since getting the college diploma your parents wanted, and only hours removed from nearly seeing your biggest dreams evaporate in front of your eyes. If you can imagine that, you just might be able to understand how Lucas Jumalon felt this afternoon.
Now imagine you are the final table chip leader of the world's biggest poker event, a millionaire, and the man with the best chance to win $10 million in the World Series of Poker Main Event.
That is how 22-year-old Jumalon feels tonight.
At 10:46 Monday night, Jumalon and eight others booked their seats for the 2026 WSOP Main Event final table. There is no more coveted final in poker, and these men now have reserved seats.
2026 WSOP Main Event final table chip counts
- Lucas Jumalon - 194M
- Rami Hammoud - 79M
- Jamie Shaevel - 56M
- Greg Mueller - 48.5M
- Michael Gagliano - 46.5M
- Mario Boos - 44M
- Lauri Saaskilahti - 37.5M
- Han Feng - 25M
- Evagoras Evagorou - 22.5M
It's all love
Twenty-four hours earlier, Jumalon was struggling to keep it together. His sleep schedule was off. He was in his head. He'd been at the brink of disaster and then rallied at the end of the night.
And then early on Monday, he almost gave it all away again, getting his entire stack in with the worst hand against growling true believer William Givens. In that one moment fortune favored the young dreamer, crippled Givens, and lit a fuse that shot Jumalon, a 22-year-old from Spokane, WA, into the stratosphere.
"It's all love at the end of the day. I just have some tremendous people in my corner," Jumalon told PokerOrg's Sarah Herring.
Now, only those nine players remain with the chance to win the WSOP gold bracelet. To reach this rarified air, each of those nine players had to survive a day that fed on superstars and super stories.
Vultures feed early on superstars
Watch any big poker tournament, and you'll see them: media vultures hovering over the weak and wounded, waiting for the moment they can eat. Today, the vultures fed early on two of the players who seemed destined for final table runs.
After shortstacked Dylan Smith busted in 21st for $325,000, the vultures turned their beaks toward one of the most venerated names in the game. Todd Brunson was on the cusp of making it to the final table of the same event his legendary father Doyle won 50 years ago.
PokerOrg's Mike Patrick saw it happen and wrote the story of good luck gone bad for the Brunson legacy. On the last day before the final table, having aces cracked rarely ends well, and so it went for Brunson. He finished in 20th place for $325,000.
William Givens spent the first seven days of play believing in a power that was keeping him alive, and for a moment it seemed as though that unseen force was going to gift him a final table stack.
In what would prove to be his unlikely end, Givens got 
all-in against Jumalon's 
. Jumalon's dream spin-up seemed like it would be over as quickly as it started. Instead, the dealer ended up putting out two tens and reduced Givens to only a few big blinds.
"You gotta live with it, man," Givens told his despondent rail.
He lived with it, but only for a breath. Though Givens managed one double-up, he ran into Jumalon's pocket aces a few minutes later. Just like that, the Phoenix stopped flying. Givens quietly congratulated the remaining players and made his way toward the exit.
"I might feel it tomorrow. Think about 'Gladiator' or '300.' When they're in the Colosseum and they're killing, do you think they've got feelings? Or do you think they go numb?" Givens said to the WSOP's Jeff Platt. "When I get into this zone, I go numb. Everything I do is kill or be killed. He got me. Somehow he got me. But I had him where I wanted him, and that's all I can live by. I'm very blessed. I'll be back."
Deeb: Back to the Player of the Year grind
Shaun Deeb's quest to become a three-time WSOP Player of the Year winner mandated one of two things happen on Day 8 of the Main Event. He either needed to spin up his stack to one that could help him win at the final table, or he needed to get registered for the remaining WSOP events of this year's summer series. Either he or fate chose the latter.
By the time Deeb's end came, the Main had claimed Thomas Clack, Romain Lewis, and the formidable Brock Wilson.
Deeb started the day with a quick spin-up, but he ultimately shoved his stack in with an open-ended straight draw and whiffed twice.
True to his word and truer to form, Deeb registered the $500 Summer Saver within minutes. Half a breath later, his name appeared on the registration list for the $25,000 HORSE High Roller. A Player of the Year's work is never done.
"I don't stop grinding," Deeb said afterward.
History denied: No repeat champ in 2026
Of all the narrative arcs on offer Monday, the possibility of a repeat Main Event champion stood out as the most tantalizing. Stu Ungar was the last champ to repeat when he won his third Main Event title in 1997.
Post-Moneymaker Boom, a repeat champion seems the stuff of fairy tales. Yet here sat 2019 Main Event champ Hossein Ensan on the cusp of another Main Event final table. Daniel Salas had already been sent to the rail in 14th place. Ensan needed to survive just four more eliminations to make the final. But as Stephen King once wrote, "The past is obdurate."
At no point did it seem like Ensan would stumble. If he was going to fail, history's stubbornness was going to have to step in his way.
With Ensan down to a little more than 20 big blinds, history did just that. Facing a button raise to two million, Ensan found 
and jammed his stack in the middle from the small blind. It would've worked, except for the fact Michael Gagliano had pocket kings in the big blind. Ensan flopped a queen, but Gagliano turned a king and denied poker a chance at another repeat Main Event winner.
Main Event final table awaits
With 12 players remaining and massive pay jumps at every other elimination, inking the final nine became an hours-long slog. By and by, Antonio Galiana, Tolga Karakaya, and Day 8 chip leader Malcolm Trayner ended up on the rail, closer than almost anyone in poker gets to a Main Event final, and still so far they might never breathe such air again.
And now it's time for everyone to take a breath. For the first time since the WSOP scuttled the November Nine in 2016, there will be an extended break before the final table begins. The final nine will return August 3 and play down to a winner over the course of three nights. The event will appear in primetime on ESPN.
Left behind? The 12 players who started Day 8 with very real hope for a 2026 Main Event bracelet. Here's how they finished and what they pocketed for their efforts.
- 10. Malcolm Trayner – $750,000
- 11. Tolga Karakaya – $750,000
- 12. Antonio Galiana – $510,000
- 13. Hossein Ensan – $510,000
- 14. Daniel Salas – $410,475
- 15. Shaun Deeb – $410,475
- 16. Brock Wilson – $410,475
- 17. Romain Lewis – $410,475
- 18. Thomas Clack – $325,000
- 19. William Givens – $325,000
- 20. Todd Brunson – $325,000
- 21. Dylan Smith – $325,000
