We are less than a week from the resumption of the 2026 World Series of Poker $10,000 Championship Event – the “Main Event,” as it has become known. Nine men will return to Paris Las Vegas on August 3 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. We are going to start with the three men that are lowest on the totem pole: Cyprus’ Evagoras Evagorou, Han Feng from the U.S., and Finland’s Lauri Saaskilahti.
Evagoras Evagorou – 22.5 million in chips
This is the first time that Evagorou has played in the Main Event, and he has certainly made the trip worthwhile. He was able to outlast Malcolm Trayner, who was the chip leader on the penultimate Day Eight but fell short of the final table in tenth. Evagorou’s best characteristic is that he is patient and can wait for the situation to be right for him; that’s going to be tested in the early going of the final table on August 3, as he only has 15 big blinds left in his stack…he is going to have to find something to move with fairly quickly.
What is going to be difficult for Evagorou is that, to his direct left, is the omnipresent stack of the chip leader, Lucas Jumalon. Jumalon is not going to let him play cheaply, if at all, and the big stack of Jumalon may bully Evagorou. But Evagorou’s patience might pay off, as he was never in the Top Ten of the tournament until Day Seven.
Day 1D: 83,000
Day 2B: 198,000
Day Three: 546,000
Day Four: 1.565 million
Day Five: 2.26 million
Day Six: 7.475 million
Day Seven: 38.2 million (first entry into Top Ten)
Day Eight: 22.5 million (ninth)
Han Feng – 25 million chips
Feng is perhaps going to be the breakout star of the 2026 WSOP Main Event. The winner of the 2024 Global Poker Index Mid-Major Player of the Year award, Feng has steadily built a career from the mid-stakes arena. With only five years of tournament experience, Feng has worked his way through the minefields of smaller tournament poker, with this trip to the WSOP Main Event final table serving as his coming-out party.
Feng is a two-time WSOP Circuit ring winner, and the $1 million prize for the 2026 Main Event has pushed his career earnings up to almost $3 million. His approach has been almost Zen-like throughout the WSOP Main Event grind, and that has perhaps helped him at the tables. He has also shown that the chip leader Jumalon will play some junk on occasion; Feng would double through Jumalon on Day Eight, which helped push him to the final table.
Day 1B: 73,400
Day 2A: 172,000
Day Three: 419,000
Day Four: 2.55 million
Day Five: 6.565 million
Day Six: 12.85 million
Day Seven: 24 million
Day Eight: 25 million (eighth)
(Feng hovered in the shadows of the Top Ten from Day Five onward)
Lauri Saaskilahti – 37.5 million
Saaskilahti has already made history with the deepest run by a Finnish player at the WSOP Main Event, but he is a dangerous player who is not letting the bright lights disturb his goal. Throughout the run of the 2026 WSOP Main Event, he has been a stoic figure at the tables, making complex decisions only after an extreme amount of thought, and it has served him well.
The Finn is in a unique position in that, although he is in the bottom three at the table, he has enough of a stack so that his moves must be respected. He has Jumalon on his immediate right, meaning that he will know what the chip leader is doing before he makes his decisions. This in and of itself is a massive advantage, as he will be able to dictate any exchanges that he will have with Jumalon, other than when they are in the blinds.
Day 1D: 129,700
Day 2B: 239,000
Day Three: 224,000 (only day he lost chips)
Day Four: 2.1 million
Day Five: 4.345 million
Day Six: 8.1 million
Day Seven: 15.6 million
Day Eight: 37.5 million (seventh)
Of these three men, Evagorou and Feng may be the ones who will be satisfied with just laddering up. As the two players on the shortest of stacks, they will face a LOT of slings and arrows from their opposition. Furthermore, Evagorou and Saaskilahti’s proximity to the chip leader puts them in danger. I like Saaskilahti’s play to this point, however, and he may be able to punch further into the final table – if he can get an early break.
In Part II, we are going to look at the next three contenders at the 2026 WSOP Main Event final table. Could the champion come from this group? It is where most of the “known” talent lies, so it might very well occur.
