It’s nearly the end of summer camp. The Main Event is on hiatus until August 3, when the final nine return to play for the bracelet. The Paris Las Vegas tournament area has now closed, with the final two days of the series taking place exclusively at Horseshoe. It’s like we were never there.
However, there are still events going on for the next two days, with the final six bracelets to be awarded and plenty of fantasy points to haul.
One thing is certain: we will have a Fantasy Freeroll winner by the close of play tomorrow as no fantasy players made the Main Event final table. We came close, with Dylan Smith (21st), Brock Wilson (16th), Shaun Deeb (15th) and Malcolm Trayner all going out on a dramatic Day 8.
All 153 Deeb owners will have been gutted to see him drop after he was looking like a lock for the final table. You have to win your flips, though, and Deeb lost a big one with 
against the pocket tens of Michael Gagliano shortly before being eliminated. Gagliano now has the fifth biggest stack on the final table. Fine margins.
The good news is that Deeb is on a charge and playing every event he can to try and hoover up Player of the Year points before the 2026 WSOP ends tomorrow.
He’s currently sitting on a middling stack in the $25K High Roller HORSE event.
Fantasy Freeroll heading for dramatic finish
After a dramatic three-way race for the top prize in the 2026 Fantasy Freeroll, it’s looking like SmolNPudgy may have just done enough to hold off Kath’s Calls and Never you mind.
SmolNPudgy currently leads by 115 points, but Calvin Anderson's third-place finish in the $10K 6-Handed Championship today will add 85 points to their score once it’s updated. That extends their lead to 200 points.
There’s still a chance they could be caught, but it will take something dramatic. The $5K 8-Handed NLH event started today, and there's still a $1K Super Turbo to play tomorrow, which could throw a spanner in the works. These are the players still in action in the $25K HORSE:
SmoINPudgy
- Alex Foxen: 336K
Kath’s Calls
- Naoya Kihara: 477K
- Brad Ruben: 270K
Never you mind
- Qinghai Pan: 556K
- Marco Johnson: 380K
A win in the HORSE is worth 126 points, so Kath’s Calls and Never you mind will need some heavy scoring elsewhere to mount a late challenge. The current chip leader is Chino Rheem with 639K.
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