Just one day’s play remains in the $50,000-entry Poker Players Championship, with a $1.3m top prize and a piece of poker history on the line. After four intense days at the felt, PokerStake seller Benny Glaser sits on top of the leaderboard, with his fellow stablemate Josh Arieh third in chips and hunting gold too. With a certain Phil Ivey also in the mix, we could have one of the most dramatic conclusion to the PPC in poker history… and someone new is getting their hands on the Chip Reese Trophy.

Hellmuth Busts Early on Penultimate Day

With 15 players surviving to the start of Day 4, each of them knew that they needed to avoid defeat on one last day to make the star-studded final. In his almost-daily video preview to the day’s action, Josh Arieh referenced the remaining players left in the PPC being something of a ‘murderer’s row’ and those words rang true across the day as nine superstars of the game busted to leave six finalists chasing poker immortality.

There was an early exit for the most successful player in WSOP tournament history, as Phil Hellmuth fell 13 places short of claiming his 18^th bracelet. Standing pat to the final draw on eight-seven-six, he was beaten by Benny Glaser’s eight-seven-five as the overnight chip leader further strengthened his chances.

Hellmuth had earned $109, 459, but he was quickly followed from the felt by several others. Chris Brewer busted for the same amount in 12^th place before his fellow PokerStake seller Chris ‘Big Huni’ Hunichen departed in 11^th place for $122,709. Jesse Lonis was next to go, losing out in 2-7 Lowball Draw as Paul Volpe’s resurgence from overnight short stack continued, his nine-five good enough to beat Lonis’ nine-seven and reduce the field to nine players.

Benny and Josh Do Battle

“I hope I can get as much sleep as I can, lock in, and battle.” ~ Benny Glaser.

With nine left, the tables were still split. That division led to aggressive short-handed action on both tables and the two PokerStake players were sat at the same table and firing constantly as they battled for control of the table. Benny Glaser led the table in chip terms but Josh Arieh was just as aggro and the two men consistently found themselves up against each other.

Josh dropped to short stack at the table but bounced off the canvas and came up swinging. Calling the clock on Phil Ivey isn’t a course of action taken by many in poker but Josh did so in one hand of No Limit Hold’em, after a board of A-J-T-2-J prompted a chunky bet on the river from Josh. The 11-time bracelet winner Ivey found the fold but on the other table, the same couldn’t be said for Maxx Coleman. He was behind PokerStake seller Alex Livingston with a single card to come but made a straight to take out the Canadian for $144,054 when his aces up had led until that point.

Benny Glaser had fallen to short stack at the Glaser/Ivey/Volpe/Arieh table but got some value out of Ivey when making deuces full of aces in PLO to bounce back. When Nick Guagenti busted in eight place for $144,054, everyone was on the same table and Glaser got Jason Mercier in a late hand to vault back into the lead.  Winning with deuces and eights in Seven Card Stud against the Floridian’s pocket tens, Mercier departed for $176,732 and a short time later, Benny ended the day with the chip lead to his relief.

“It was a struggle for a bit today,” Glaser (above) told PokerNews “The early levels were nice, but once we got moved to the feature table, things became pretty tough. I had a couple of unfortunate hands, but I battled and had a very nice couple of levels at the end. I’m actually down 2,000,000 from my peak, but I’m relatively happy with the day. I hope I can get as much sleep as I can, lock in, and battle. It’s one of the most exciting spots of the year, and I’m looking to capitalize on it.”

Here’s how the final six players sit with one more day to go in the 2026 Poker Players Championship.

WSOP 2026 Event #60: $50,000 Poker Players Championship Final Chipcounts:
Position	Player	Country	Chips
1st	Benny Glaser	United Kingdom	8,610,000
2nd	Maxx Coleman	United States	5,565,000
3rd	Josh Arieh	United States	5,265,000
4th	Kristopher Tong	United States	5,180,000
5th	Phil Ivey	United States	5,135,000
6th	Paul Volpe	United States	2,725,000

Weisman and Kid Poker Among Survivors in Mixed High Roller

With 214 entries in the $25,000 PLO/NLHE High Roller, PokerStake seller Dylan Weisman (pictured below) is among those to have made it to the last day of Event #64. With a top prize of $1,172,296 up for grabs, both he and Daniel Negreanu have made it to the last 14 players, but Kid Poker, a.k.a. Daniel Negreanu has the most work to do on just 435,000 chips in last place on the leaderboard.

Weisman’s chances look better currently, as he sits on four times the stack of the Canadian in eighth place on 1,705,000 chips, but he remains a way off the lead. That player is the Finnish two-time bracelet winner Juha Helppi, who sits on 6.37 million chips as he bids to win his third WSOP title, closely followed by former event winner Lou Garza (5,365,000).

Helppi will be the favorite, but with legends of the game like Eelis Parssinen (2.42m), Sean Winter (2.41) and PokerStake’s Dylan Linde (1.53m) all still in the mix, no-one is likely to have it all their own way when play goes down to a winner tomorrow.

Want to back the next WSOP champion? Head to the official PokerStake WSOP 2026 staking page today.

WSOP 2026 Event #64: $25,000 NLHE/PLO High Roller Final Day Chipcounts:
Position	Player	Country	Chips
1st	Juha Helppi	Finland	6,370,000
2nd	Lou Garza	United States	5,365,000
3rd	Sergio Martinez Gonzalez	Spain	2,755,000
4th	Edward Leonard	United States	2,690,000
5th	Eelis Parssinen	Finland	2,425,000
6th	Sean Winter	United States	2,410,000
7th	Yang Wang	China	2,150,000
8th	Dylan Weisman	United States	1,705,000
9th	Dylan Linde	United States	1,530,000
10th	Dominykas Karmazinas	Lithuania	975,000

Photography by Regina Cortina for WSOP in Las Vegas.