The Muck · WSOP Daily Brief
Day 15 Edition
Three events are converging on bracelets today and one man is running away with a fourth. The $500 Freezeout woke up heads-up this morning: Jason Hoffman holds a three-to-one chip lead over Lou Brayden and is one more session away from $190,066 and a bracelet, after Stephen Ma's pocket deuces hit a jack on the flop and never improved. The $25K Six-Handed final table starts at 1:30 this afternoon with seven players, including Artur Martirosian hunting his fourth bracelet and Chance Kornuth holding approximately ten big blinds and the disposition of a man who has survived worse. Meanwhile the $10K Dealer's Choice handed in its Day 2 results and they were not what anyone expected: Chad Eveslage sits at 1.5 million - double second place - while Day 1 leaders Chris Brewer and Jesse Lonis are nowhere near the top of the counts. The mixed-game specialists reclaimed the building overnight. The $50K High Roller also fires today. Vegas is mid-sprint.
Story 01 of 6
Event #25: $500 Freezeout No-Limit Hold'em is heads-up this morning between Jason Hoffman (76,000,000) and Lou Brayden (26,000,000), with Hoffman holding roughly a three-to-one chip advantage for the $190,066 bracelet. Stephen Ma busted in third place for $96,368 when his pocket deuces ran into Brayden's A-J: the board ran J-10-8-3-5, the jack hit the flop, and Ma never found a deuce. Hoffman's run to heads-up included a six-high bluff and two key doubles. The event drew 4,100 entries - a strong turnout for a one-bullet format that filters players who play loose early.
Why it mattersThe freezeout format produces a different kind of winner. Every player had exactly one life, which means the survivor bracket filtered out re-entry variance. Hoffman got to heads-up with volume and aggression and now holds a margin that lets him play most pots without much consequence.
Story 02 of 6
Event #24: $25,000 High Roller Six-Handed No-Limit Hold'em resumes today at 1:30 p.m. local time with seven players for the $1,286,285 top prize. Sean Winter leads at 7,950,000. Artur Martirosian is second at 6,545,000. Pavel Plesuv (Moldova) sits third at 5,965,000. Yosuke Miki (4,605,000), Klemens Roiter (4,530,000), and Marius Gierse (3,888,000) fill out the middle. Chance Kornuth enters with 835,000 - approximately 10 big blinds. Michael 'Texas Mike' Moncek busted eighth for $118,753 on Day 2 when he flopped trips and ran into Gierse's turned full house. The delayed stream begins once the field reaches six. The event drew 242 entries for a prize pool of $5,687,000.
Why it mattersArtur Martirosian already has three WSOP bracelets and would be one of just a handful of players to reach four. The final table is internationally diverse: two Austrians, a Russian, a Moldovan, a Japanese player, and two Americans. Sean Winter has consistently run deep in high-rollers for years without a bracelet, and this is his best position in a long time to get one.
Story 03 of 6
Event #27: $10,000 Dealer's Choice Championship played down to 27 survivors from 163 entries on Day 2, with a prize pool of $1,515,900. Chad Eveslage leads at 1,500,000 - double the count of second-place Jake Schwartz at 760,000. Day 1 chip leaders Chris Brewer and Jesse Lonis, both known primarily as big-bet specialists, are no longer in the top ten. Nick Schulman is alive after tripling in a Stud Hi-Lo 8 hand when he held both a flush and a wheel. Jeremy Ausmus, Scott Seiver, Marco Johnson, and Dario Sammartino are all still in contention. Sammartino is hunting what would be a significant mixed-game bracelet addition to his resume.
Why it mattersEveslage at double the second stack in a 10-game mixed championship is a commanding position. The Dealer's Choice rewards players who can shift gears across formats without leaking in games outside their primary strengths. Brewer and Lonis made their run look like a Day 1 curiosity - which is probably how most of the specialists saw it from the start.
Story 04 of 6
Event #22: $1,500 Big O (five-card PLO Hi-Lo 8 or Better) is down to 31 players, with John Holley leading at 3,100,000. The event drew 2,150 entries for a prize pool of $2,802,785, with the bracelet worth $387,110. Day 2 chip-count leader Anthony Reategui is no longer at the top of the counts. Christopher Alcindor (Canada) and Casey Hayes are among those still in contention. The event plays to a winner today.
Why it mattersBig O drew over 2,100 players for a $1,500 specialty event, a strong number that reflects the format's growing presence on the WSOP schedule. Holley taking the chip lead in a final-day PLO Hi-Lo field is a meaningful position - the game rewards patient range construction and board reading, and the chip leader has real leverage in a field this size.
Story 05 of 6
Event #18: $1,500 Monster Stack opens combined Day 3 today with 1,855 survivors from 10,493 total entries and a prize pool of approximately $14.9 million. She Wong entered the merge with the largest single-flight bag at 3,800,000 from Day 2d. Kathy Liebert, a poker Hall of Famer, is among the survivors. Today also sees Event #29: $50,000 High Roller fire its Day 1 - the largest buy-in event at the WSOP outside the Main Event. Event #28: $600 Mixed NLH/PLO and Event #30: $1,500 Limit Hold'em also begin Day 1 action.
Why it mattersThe Monster Stack is the largest single field still alive this deep into the summer, and the $50K High Roller is the prestige marquee buy-in event that draws the most elite and international names. The two sit at opposite ends of the WSOP - one built for volume, one built for cachet - and both fire on the same day.
Story 06 of 6
During Hustler Casino Live's first WSOP cash game stream, a player known as 'Britney' was removed from the table mid-broadcast after attempting to buy in with physical cash instead of a bank wire or approved payment processor (LuxonPay). The WSOP requires all high-stakes cash game buy-ins to go through approved channels. HCL broadcaster Andrew Moreno reported encountering the same policy issue during his own session. The incident surfaced a compliance rule many players were apparently unaware of heading into the summer. Hustler Casino Live's Million Dollar Game at the WSOP fires June 12.
Why it mattersHigh-stakes cash games attract significant media coverage through streams like HCL, and a compliance enforcement moment that removes a player from a live broadcast raises the profile of policies most players never interact with. The prohibition on physical cash is almost certainly anti-money-laundering compliance - not a poker rule - but it became visible in the most conspicuous way possible.
23 confirmed bracelets awarded through Day 14. No new bracelets were awarded on June 8 - Events #22, #24, and #25 all carried over and are playing to completion today (June 9). The Big O, $25K 6-Handed, and $500 Freezeout are all expected to produce bracelet winners before end of day.
Second bracelet in three days. First double bracelet winner of 2026. Beat James Cheung heads-up. Mizrachi busted 6th, Kessler 3rd.
Sixth bracelet, career-high score, first open WSOP win by a woman in Las Vegas in five years. Beat Galen Hall heads-up with pocket aces.
First bracelet. Never played the format competitively. Entered for Fantasy points.
Fifth career bracelet.
Kihara's first of two bracelets in three days.
First bracelet. Coached by Faraz Jaka.
First bracelet.
Second bracelet.
Fourth bracelet. Denied Hellmuth bracelet #18.
Second bracelet.
First bracelet.
Chip counts reflect the most recent confirmed figures. Event #24 stacks are overnight bags heading into today's 1:30 p.m. final table. Event #25 heads-up counts are from overnight.
Notable eliminations from the past 24 hours.
Pocket deuces ran into Brayden's A-J. Board: J-10-8-3-5. The jack hit the flop immediately and Ma never improved.
Flopped trips and ran into Marius Gierse's turned full house. A flopped trips exit stings more than a straight cooler because it looked so good for a moment.
Two $10K championship bracelets in three days. No player has outpaced his production through Day 14. The two championship-level wins alone represent a massive WSOP POY point haul.
Second at the $25K 6-Handed final table with 6.5 million chips. Final table starts 1:30 p.m. A fourth bracelet would put him in rare company and generate a significant POY push.
$25K High Roller win for $1,773,083 moved her to second on the PGT leaderboard at 1,258 points, 13 behind Brock Wilson. POY and PGT are separate races but both reflect a dominant stretch.
Busted 6th in the $10K Stud Championship after building a chip lead into the final. Still playing volume but the run-good has not returned after the correction.