After a Monday night that seemed like it would last forever, it was a rather rapid Tuesday for the 2026 WSOP Main Event final table. It only took a couple of hours to go from the final seven players, blow past the final three players, and reach the final two survivors in the tournament. On Wednesday night, Lauri Saaskilahti will meet Lucas Jumalon in a heads-up clash for the 2026 WSOP Main Event championship.
Monday’s Grind…
Over roughly six hours on Monday night, there wasn’t much the players were doing to eliminate each other. Unlike Michael Mizrachi’s rapid march to the title in 2025, the 2026 WSOP Main Event final table started as a plodding affair. Whereas three players were eliminated in the first 25 hands of the 2025 tournament’s final table action, only TWO players were eliminated in the 2026 version.
Much of this was because the players, even those on the short stack like Evagoras Evagorou of Cyprus or Han Feng, could sit back and play skillful deep stack poker (at least at this point). That would eventually come to an end for Evagorou, who would be the first out in ninth place and earn no extra money for his trip back to Las Vegas. The other departure on Monday, France’s Mario Boos, was around for much of the final table before his pocket eights fell to Saaskilahti’s K-9.
With the clock at 3 AM, WSOP officials decided to stop the tournament with seven players remaining (instead of the previously planned six) and let them get some rest. That seemed to do the trick for the combatants, as they came back on Tuesday with a vengeance.
…Becomes Tuesday’s Race
This was potentially caused by the escalation of the blinds and big blind ante, which was eating into everyone’s stack except for Jumalon and Han Feng, who were the only two players over 100 million in chips (and Jumalon was WAY over 200 million) to start Tuesday’s play. With each round costing six million chips for the players (blinds of 1 million/2.5 million with a big blind ante of 2.5 million), only Jumalon, Feng, and Saaskilahti (with 83.5 million chips) could withstand a lengthy period of play.
Thus, the play on Tuesday became more of a push-fest than perhaps the hardcore fans would like. It didn’t mean that players were going with junk, however; it meant that, instead of playing poker after the flop, much of the action was taken care of in pre-flop action. Shaevel got his chips to the center with a K♥ 6♥ versus Jumalon’s big stack K-10 off suit play, and the eliminations started to flow.
Jumalon played big stack poker, putting his opposition to the test, and he ran good in the early action. He would take out Rami Hammoud in sixth place after Hammoud’s Q-J failed to catch Jumalon’s A-5. But it was the elimination of Feng in fifth place that was perhaps the cruelest beat of the 2026 WSOP.
After Feng raised the betting to nine million with pocket Aces, he got the dream scenario in Saaskilahti three-betting the pot to 50 million with his pocket nines. Greg Mueller, caught in the middle with pocket Jacks between two big raises, begrudgingly laid those Fishhooks down, and Feng made the call for his remaining chips. The 10♦ 8♦ 3♦ flop left Saaskilahti drawing to only one out, as the 9♦ would have given Feng a four-flush in diamonds.
But the drama was still to come.
A Jack on the turn would have given Mueller a set, but it also expanded Saaskilahti’s options to seven as he picked up an open-ended straight draw to go along with his set chance. The river came with a Queen, completing Saaskilahti’s straight and crushing Feng’s pocket rockets to ship him out of the tournament in fifth place. Although Feng picked up $2.25 million for his efforts, that did little to soothe the sting of losing out on the hand.
A Quick One While the Chip Leaders Get Richer
After Feng’s departure, the two players with arguably the most experience – Michael Gagliano and Mueller – were left with scraps to go to war with. While Jumalon still ruled the roost with 267.5 million and Saaskilahti rapidly closing with 217.5 million, Mueller (51 million) and Gagliano (17 million) needed divine intervention if they were to win the 2026 WSOP Main Event.
That intervention…never came.
Jumalon took out Gagliano in fourth place when he caught a second pair for his K-J against Gagliano’s better K-Q, and soon after it would be Mueller’s turn to take the walk. In the second hand of the three-way play, Saaskilahti limped in from the small blind against Mueller in the big blind, and the players would check a 4-A-A flop. A Jack on the turn saw Saaskilahti act with a three million chip bet, and Mueller would come along. A trey came on the river, seemingly innocuous, but Saaskilahti would bet enough to put Mueller all in. After a quick moment of thought, Mueller didn’t believe him and made the call – and saw the bad news.
Saaskilahti (small blind): pocket Kings (two pair, Aces and Kings)
Mueller (big blind): 10-4 (two pair, Aces and fours)
Saaskilahti had hidden his trap well, and it would result in Greg Mueller being knocked out in third place and bringing the action to a close on Tuesday night.
Lucas Jumalon: 328 million
Lauri Saaskilahti: 225 million
Jumalon has been leading since Day Eight, but Saaskilahti seems to have found some dents in Jumalon’s armor. The play tonight is not going to be quick, as Saaskilahti has been one of the most deliberate players throughout the play of the final table, so he’s not going to make a big blowup with his chips. Jumalon has yet to see significant play back in this tournament, so the question will be whether he can now pull back his “play any two” attitude of the full table play and become a bit more strategic in the heads-up action.
The tournament will continue tonight at 6 PM (Pacific Daylight Time) and will be on the Worldwide Leader, ESPN, beginning at 7:30 PDT (the “plausibly live” action). Can Jumalon become the first man since Koray Aldemir in 2021 to lead from the start of the final table to the end? Or will Saaskilahti become the first Finn to win the WSOP Main Event? The action will fold…and unfold…tonight as a champion is crowned.
(Photo courtesy of PokerGO Tour)
