The 2026 WSOP Main Event kicked into second gear on Sunday, with Daniel Negreanu and Shaun Deeb on the marquee of the largest and most crowded of the tournament's four flights.
Negreanu is in the afterglow of bracelet #8, and he's still amped up for a deep run. Deeb, meanwhile, seemed to almost try to bust out in his campaign to win a 10th bracelet and his second straight Player of the Year title. He may have even tried to actually do that, but the plan went haywire, and Deeb will (maybe accidentally) return with almost two starting stacks.
Registration for the Main Event is still open, so we're going to see the field grow from its current size of 8,077. The numbers are tracking toward a down year for entries, but Sunday was the proof that you don't need a record turnout to be The Big One.
The biggest of the four flights drew 4,964 players. More than 3,600 of them will return Tuesday to fight for a spot on the combined Day 3 where Monday's Day 1ABC players will be ready and waiting.
Negreanu finds aces
Amped up after winning his eighth WSOP bracelet this week, Negreanu is brimming with his typical energy. Finding pocket aces late on the first day was all part of the script.
Negreanu was sitting around 40K when he picked up 
and a willing partner in Pablo Roman, who three-bet to 4,800 with 
.
Both players checked the flop of 
to get to the 
river, and Negreanu had to get some chips in the pot with a 4,200 bet.
Roman called, and the river was 
, setting up a 11,600 bet from Negreanu that didn't yield a call.
The pot appeared to give Negreanu a jolt of confidence, and he tried to push Ben Ludlow around a few moments later. Ludlow had raised to 1,300 with 
, prompting a Negreanu three-bet to 6,400 with 
.
Ludlow fired 15,000 and Negreanu ducked out of the way.
"[John] Juanda used to be so good at that, but not me," Negreanu told Ludlow, talking about the fold-begging three-bet. "They always four-bet me."
Negreanu battled to put 54,100 in the bag by the end of the night, We'll see him again on Tuesday. He plans to take a day off on Monday, despite his inability to play 18. Monday is historically an off-day for private clubs, and Negreanu will have to yield to the weekly caddy play.
Deeb tries to punt, fails
Deeb was hard-charging on the other featured table while he focused on his quest for back-to-back Player of the Year titles. The Main Event presents a tricky spot for Deeb, who is probably better off playing in 20 other events and not one very long one.
"I'm trying to punt every hand I play," he told ESPN.
Deeb wants to be the first, and possibly only, back-to-back Player of the Year. And definitely "before Daniel [Negreanu]," he said.
He wasn't kidding around. He was ready to go to war without any guns. Deeb's featured table play turned aggressive with a big bluff against Wadih Kaawar.
Kaawar was sitting with 
while facing a full board of 
. Deeb, with 
, bluffed it all in with three clubs showing.
It worked, and the fold pushed Deeb's stack near 100K.
Deeb stayed active all night. Chris Bello took a chunk from him with 
, but Deeb got it back later with a preflop shove in a 
vs. 
standoff.
He'd also dragged sizable pots with and 
, setting up a Day 2 storyline where Deeb has 104,000.
The rest of the story
Day 1D of the WSOP Main Event drew literally everyone who couldn't be bothered to to register until nearly the last moment. Several Main Event champions returned, among them Scott Blumstein, Chris Moneymaker, Ryan Reiss, and Robert Varkonyi. They'll all return for Day 2.
Alex and Kristen Foxen, Jesse Lonis, and our combo of Chris 'Lefty' Land and Tiffany Michelle also threw their hats in.
Lefty finished with 90K after a red-hot start, and Tiffany has 104,100. Meanwhile, Kristen has 99,800 and Alex bagged 156,300 to create a formidable Foxen pair. The Main Event winners will all return, too. Moneymaker returns with 39,500, Varkonyi with 33,100, Reiss with 106,800, and Blumstein with 105,600.
At the top of the leaderboard, David Wells appears to have one of the overnight big stacks. Wells is a Chicago-based player whose best summer series finish dates back to a final table run in the $2K NLH at the 2006 WSOP.
Other notable big stacks from the giant include Viktor Blum, Max Neugebauer, Stephen Song, Chris Hunichen, Ari Engel, and Terrance Reid.
WSOP Main Event Day 1D assorted top chip stacks
- David Wells - 283,000
- Juan Becerra - 277,000
- Jameson Kauch - 263,500
- Alexander Dovzhenko - 255,000
- Aaron Van Blacum - 250,000
- Viktor Blum - 217,100
- Stephen Song - 213,000
- Max Neugebauer - 198,700
- Chris Hunichen - 194,900
- Terrance Reid - 191,800
- Ari Engel - 184,800
Today's field will take Monday off while the survivors from Days 1A,1B, and 1C play for a spot on Day 3. Both groups will combine on Wednesday for a sprint to the money bubble, and PokerOrg will be right there on the floor the entire way.
