Tonight…it begins. The 2026 World Series of Poker $10,000 Championship Event – the “Main Event,” as it has become known – will bring nine men back to Paris Las Vegas to battle it out for the coveted World Championship of poker. Alas, some of these competitors have more of a chance than the others. In a three-part series, we are going to talk about these competitors, break down how they got to this ethereal plane, and what their chances are of winning the $10 million first-place prize.
In Part I, we examined the three men who might have to make some big moves early. In Part II, we looked at who might be in the driver’s seat, lurking in the middle of the field looking for their chance to strike. In Part III, we’re going to look to the top of the leaderboard and the men who are the leaders of the pack – the U.S.’s Jamie Shaevel, Canada’s Rami Hammoud, and the chip leader, Lucas Jumalon of the U.S. Will one of these men be on top by Wednesday night?
Jamie Shaevel – 56 million
For a guy who doesn’t step to the tournament tables often, Jamie Shaevel makes the most of his efforts. A self-confessed cash game player, Shaevel has had some previous success at the Main Event; in fact, it’s the one tournament where he has consistently shown some skills. In his tournament career dating back to 2009, he has cashed in the Main Event seven previous times, with a peak finish of 100th place in 2011. With his run to the 2026 WSOP Main Event final table, he has earned the biggest cash of his poker career.
Shaevel is a lot like another member of the final table, Mario Boos, in that he quietly has been in the mix through the 2026 WSOP Main Event. He also has been able to avoid significant danger during the tournament, staying out of the Top Ten until the final table was reached. He’s one of the things that you like to see at the final table – an unknown quantity that can be a fly in the ointment – and should the cards fall his way, he has more than enough talent to be the next World Champion.
Day 2A: 144,000
Day Three: 311,000
Day Four: 955,000
Day Five: 1.9 million
Day Six: 15.525 (previous peak in 2026 event, twelfth place)
Day Seven: 17.1 million
Day Eight: 56 million (third)
Rami Hammoud – 79 million
Hammoud has been one of the “wild cards” at the table, shifting between solid play and off-the-wall actions throughout the entirety of the 2026 WSOP Main Event. That ability to shift gears has been the reason that he’s accumulated the second-largest stack at the table; you just don’t know which player you’re going up against.
His chip stack has swung massively in both directions during the play up to the final table. Part of the reason for that is he was up against the man who would become the eventual chip leader, Jumalon, for much of his stay in the tournament. Hammoud has chosen his moments to attack quite well throughout the tournament; however, now he needs to make those correct decisions for another three days to claim poker’s World Championship.
Day 1C: 62,000
Day 2A: 281,000
Day Three: 697,000
Day Four: 1.49 million
Day Five: 2.63 million
Day Six: 17.4 million (entered Top Ten in chips)
Day Seven: 41.5 million
Day Eight: 79 million (second)
Lucas Jumalon – 194 million
By far the dominant chip leader in the 2026 WSOP Main Event is 22-year-old Lucas Jumalon. He has been able to build his stack through a “devil may care” attitude that translates to the sheer aggression that he has shown throughout the final days of the tournament. This aggression has served him well – to this point. All it takes is one misstep to wipe out the massive advantage he has built, and Jumalon has shown he is capable of that meltdown.
Jumalon almost wasn’t here at this point. He played Day 1B of the Main Event, finishing next to last of the 759 players that came to the table that day. Jumalon was able to reverse the course, however, climbing up the leaderboard and not being out of the Top Fifty from Day Four onward. If the fates remain in his corner, and with the chip stack that he has, Jumalon may be on cruise control to becoming the second-youngest Main Event champion in history.
Day 1B: 7,400 (not a misprint)
Day 2A: 146,000
Day Three: 467,000
Day Four: 2.065 million
Day Five: 4.435 million
Day Six: 15.875 million
Day Seven: 40.8 million
Day Eight: 194 million
These three men have the best chances of being around on Wednesday to decide the champion, but history says they won’t. In the past four years, none of the eventual World Champions was the chip leader at the start of the final table, and only one – Michael Mizrachi last year – was as high as second place in chips (in 2021, Koray Aldemir started and finished at the head of the table in winning the World Championship). Thus, it is more likely that the winner is NOT going to be one of these three men – but if not them, then who? That is the question that we will start to answer as the final table of the 2026 WSOP Main Event begins tonight, broadcast “plausibly” live (a thirty-minute delay) at 9 PM on ESPN2.
