After four days of battling across several disciplines of poker, the field has been reduced to the final six players in the $50,000 Poker Players’ Championship. Event #60 concludes today at the 2026 World Series of Poker, and the man who led Day Four has left no doubt that he is looking for the overall title. Benny Glaser will hold court today in the WSOP “Battlezone,” but his chances at winning his ninth WSOP bracelet will face a significant challenge from the wealth of talent around him.
Long Day of Work at the Tables
Glaser would start the day in the chip lead, but there were plenty of threats in the fourteen other men who were still left from the 108-player field. Paul Volpe, making one of his few ventures to the felt, was lodged in second place as the only other player over four million chips (4.02 million, against Glaser’s 4.705 million). Day Three chip leader Kristopher Tong was not going to let his chance escape him as he sat in third place, while players like Josh Arieh, Phil Ivey, Jason Mercier, and Chris Brewer were arranged in the Top Ten on the leaderboard.
There was another threat that existed down the standings in the form of the all-time leader in bracelet wins. After the dismissal of Maksim Pisarenko on the first hand of action, Phil Hellmuth assumed the role of the short stack. Having fought from that short stack for most of the day on Tuesday, Hellmuth was well prepared for another day of battle, but he would also quickly fall victim to the bigger stacks; he would eventually fall to Glaser in Deuce to Seven Lowball Triple Draw, his 8-7-6-4-2 getting coolered by Glaser’s 8-7-5-3-2 as Hellmuth left in fourteenth place ($109,459).
After Hellmuth’s departure, the players would start to fall out of contention. Roy Thung was eliminated in thirteenth place by Maxx Coleman, while Nick Guagenti mounted a charge up the leaderboard when he knocked off Brewer in twelfth place in Limit Hold’em. Glaser would once again get into the mix by bumping off ‘Big Huni’ in PLO, his J-10-9-9 flopping a set and never being challenged by Hunichen’s A-A-K-7. Volpe, not content to sit on the sidelines and watch the carnage, would get into the mix by eliminating Jesse Lonis in tenth place, but there was still some work to do.
From Two Tables to One
Although there were ten men left, the tournament’s mixed-game format kept them at two tables until they could comfortably mass as a single entity (and have enough cards). Tong got busy during a round of 2-7 Lowball Triple Draw, rising up to take over the lead, while Volpe and Glaser fought it out on their patch of felt. Alex Livingston would fall in a Seven Card Stud fight with Guagenti, taking home the ninth-place money ($144,054), but those chips would not be enough to stave off the Reaper as Guagenti would fall in eighth place to Coleman.
The elimination of Guagenti brought the final seven men together, with Tong holding a sizeable lead over Arieh. Glaser, for his part, had yo-yoed throughout the day’s action, at one point being in jeopardy, but he would quickly get healthy. Mercier came to the table as the short stack and, although he was able to double up twice, he eventually fell to Glaser after his gated tens failed to improve against Glaser’s two pair in Seven Card Stud. That would prove to be the last elimination of the night, and Glaser used Mercier’s chips to mount a charge up the leaderboard to take the final table lead by 1 AM this morning.
1. Benny Glaser, 8.61 million
2. Maxx Coleman, 5.565 million
3. Josh Arieh, 5.265 million
4. Kristopher Tong, 5.18 million
5. Phil Ivey, 5.135 million
6. Paul Volpe, 2.725 million
There is not a weak spot in this final table. A Poker Hall of Famer (Ivey) and 32 WSOP bracelets are represented among the six men who are vying for the title. Even Volpe, on the short stack, would be a threat to any of the competitors, as a double-up by Volpe would put anyone other than Glaser in the basement themselves. Thus, it is going to be a long night of poker for those in the PPC before the champion is determined.
Action resumes at 1:30 this afternoon (Pacific Time), and any remaining action will be part of the WSOP YouTube broadcasts this evening. Can Glaser hold on to the lead he has held for two days? Or will the pack run him down? Those questions will be answered in what will be a lengthy battle for this WSOP bracelet, the Chip Reese Memorial Trophy, and a $1,343,764 payday.
