The bubble is a part of every tournament – but the Main Event bubble is an event in itself.
And tempers were fraying from the start today as the shortest of stacks stalled in a bid to make the money. One player called the clock after just over a minute of play during the very first level.
1,389 players unbagged chips for Day 4 of the 2026 WSOP Main Event. 1,382 players would get at least a min-cash of $15,000.
As it turns out, the WSOP almost missed out on the hand-for-hand drama altogether this year.
Six players were eliminated almost immediately, putting the Main Event straight on the stone bubble. Hand-for-hand play was quickly announced and four players survived all-ins and doubled up in the first round of hands.
The next round of hands saw six players at risk, with two big names involved. For Johan ‘YoH ViraL’ Guilbert it was a win-win situation. The content creator would either double up and make the money, or be eliminated on the bubble for some guaranteed ViraL content.
It was the former.
No such luck for PokerOrg guest editor Chris Moneymaker, who was all-in and at risk despite starting the day with a stack that could avoid trouble.
By the time the floor arrived to call the action he’d already made it clear he was in real trouble. He was eliminated on the bubble… but there was some consolation.
Stoyan Madanzhiev and Zhaken Seitbekov were eliminated on the same hand, so the three chopped the first two $15K payouts and all got their money back. Not bad for three full days of work.
They also got to blind flip for a $25K Super Main Event seat, which went to Seitbekov. You can read more about the bubble in Matt Hansen’s from-the-floor report.
Michael Mizrachi: 'We got plenty'
We shouldn’t even be suggesting this on Day 4 but…
Mizrachi won the $50K Poker Players Championship late last June and then went on to win the Main Event.
This year he won the $10K PLO Championship late in June – almost to the day that he won the PPC last year. He couldn’t follow that with another Main Event win, could he?
There’s a long way to go, but his rail was building today, including his brother and father, and with it the energy that he thrives off. And Mizrachi was finding action at every turn.
Mizrachi found himself all-in against Brian Nguyen on Thursday evening. Mizrachi had the aces, though, and found the double up to get him back to a stack of 684,000.
He found aces again later on after Allan Le had opened with queens. Mizrachi three-bet and Le had little choice but to ship his remaining 230K in chips.
The 
flop brought another ace, and the 
runout confirmed Le’s exit.
“Tight is right,” Mizrachi said with a smile.
That put him back over a million, but the very next hand he hit a bump.
Nguyen raised to 25K with kings in the cutoff and when Mizrachi peeled 
he signalled for a raise with a thumbs-up and made it 54K.
Nguyen ripped his remaining 306K in and Mizrachi snap-called, exclaiming, “What the hell?” when he saw what he was up against. He turned to his rail to let them know, too.
Mizrachi couldn’t find the ace he needed and slipped back to 707K.
He could have been eliminated late on when he had aces and his opponent turned a set of nines. But he just called a river bet and survived with a stack of 440,000.
“I’m coming back with 22 big blinds,” he told us as Day 4 finished. “I’ve been in worse situations. I was here with two blinds when I won the tournament last year. We got 22, we got plenty.”
Deeb moves onto Day 5
Shaun Deeb found a Day 4 bag against all the odds.
He’d said coming into the Main Event that he was going to punt to get a stack with valuable Player of the Year points available in other tournaments.
Perhaps that cavalier attitude helped him pick up his chips. Either way he started Day 3 with a stack of 960K and by the evening he’d run that up to 1,997,000.
One hand showed how difficult it is to win chips from him.
Charles Tabet flopped a set of sevens, while Deeb had found an open-ended straight draw on the 
flop. Deeb check-called a bet of 35K.
The 
turn gave Deeb top pair and action checked to the 
river.
Deeb bet 145K and Tabet moved all-in.
Deeb went deep into the tank and talked through his thought process over a few minutes, agonizing over the hands that Tabet could have.
In the end, he decided that Tabet was more likely to have a hand that beat him. “Alright, you got it man,” Deeb said before he folded. And then, after a beat when Tabet mucked he added, “I faded the show, that’s a good sign.” It left him shaking his head, though.
Deeb ended with a round 1.5 million – good for 75 big blinds tomorrow and a real shot at some big POY points.
Day 3 chip leaders endure mixed fortunes
The Day 3 chip leaders had a mixed day.
Sasha Liu started the day with 2,364,000 and started off strongly, growing her lead by a million to second place through the first two levels.
The PLO crusher also gave an impassioned speech to Jeff Platt when she said that her run to the top of the Main Event had been “incredible.”
“Anyone can compete,” she said. “A woman can compete, a man can compete, an immigrant can compete – poker sees no limitations. Whether you’re a PLO player, a mixed player, a no-limit player… there’s a place for you here.”
She couldn’t hold onto her chip lead by the end of the day but she did retain most of it, ending with 2,340,000.
No such luck for Martin Zamani. He started with the second-biggest stack, but had a day to forget, and ended with just 545,000. He had been a lot lower.
Other notables with big stacks moving forward to Day 5 on Friday include Alex Foxen, Brock Wilson, Daniel Hachem, Caitlin Comeskey, Matt Salsberg and Lara Eisenberg.
Came outta nowhere
But one killer rose almost above them all, helped by two huge pots towards the end of the night worth almost two million each.
Artur Martirosian won the first with aces. Mehrdad Yousefzadeh lost it with tens and looked shellshocked as he left, puffing his cheeks out in disbelief. He was a few minutes away from bagging a 50-big-blind stack.
And Martirosian ended the night with a bang, clashing with Erick Lindgren in a classic flip.
Martirosian had 
and Lindgren had queens – and neither player was happy to flip for such a huge amount at the end of the night. Martirosian was delighted at the end result, after flopping an ace and eliminating Lindgren.
Martirosian ended the night with 3,495,000, good for fourth place on the leaderboard, while Sam Sweilem claimed the overnight chip lead with 3,800,000.
533 players progressed to Day 5, which starts at 11am on Friday.
Notable stacks:
- Sam Sweilem (chip leader): 3,800,000
- Artur Martirosian: 3,495,000
- Farrid Jattin: 3,040,000
- Brock Wilson: 2,415,000
- Sasha Liu: 2,340,000
- Daniel Hachem: 2,110,000
- Caitlin Comeskey: 1,740,000
- Matt Salsberg: 1,700,000
- Alex Foxen: 1,695,000
- Masato Yokosawa: 1,545,000
- Terrance Reid: 1,460,000
- Dylan Smith: 1,320,000
- Tony Dunst: 1,245,000
- Chris Hunichen: 1,095,000
- Lara Eisenberg: 995,000
- Greg Raymer: 535,000
- Michael Mizrachi: 440,000
- Hossein Ensan: 255,000
Notable eliminations
- John Cynn ($27,500)
- Ren Lin ($25,000)
- Scott Blumstein ($25,000)
- Jeremy Ausmus ($22,500)
- Joe Hachem ($22,500)
- Jesse Lonis ($20,000)
- Chris Brewer ($20,000)
- Stephen Song ($17,500)
- Chris Moorman ($17,500)
- Olivier Busquet ($17,500)
- Kristen Foxen ($15,000)
- Nick Hellmuth ($15,000)
- Justin Arwine ($15,000)
- Kathy Liebert ($15,000)
- Chris Moneymaker ($10,000)
