Two big events featured PokerStake players in their latter stages last night, as Chino Rheem finished second in the $25,00 buy-in NLHE Freezeout Event #49 and legends of the game assembled on Day 3 of the Pot Limit Omaha $25,000 High Roller Event #47. With a raft of events going on at Horseshoe Las Vegas and Paris casinos on the Sin City Strip, we’ve got all the news from the tables in Las Vegas.

Chino Goes Closer Than Ever to Triple Crown Victory

“Chino played an amazing tournament. I was super fortunate to get ace-five versus ace-four all in and flop a wheel.”

Two American players battled it out for the win in Event #49 as Marco Johnson won his third WSOP bracelet at the expense of his fellow American Chino Rheem. Chino was on course for the last leg of an historic Triple Crown victory as he already has a WPT Main Event and EPT Main Event title, but just missed out on glory, coming second for $341,970 instead.

Four players had considerably more chips that their five opponents when only the nine finalists remained but although he was one of them, German player Sebastian Schulze crashed out in ninth place for $44,840. Losing when all-in with ace-king against the pocket kings of Marco Johnson, the eventual champion then finished off the luckless Schulze lost his last hand with king-jack unable to overtake Johnson’s ace-queen.

From there, it was the Marco Johnson show pretty much until play went heads-up. Taking out more opponents than anyone else by far, ace-queen was often the executioner’s blade, contradicting the Doyle Brunson trope that the hand costs players more than it wins them.

The well-known poker professional and highly respected coach in the game Faraz Jaka (below) busted in fourth place for $180,210, calling off his stack with just ace-king when Kenzo Ishida had moved all-in with the top pair of a jack on a board showing J-9-9-7 and finding no miracle on the river. The Japanese player lost out, however, busting in third for $246,800 after losing a flip to Johnson.

The eventual winner began heads-up with a dominant lead but Chino doubled back with aces beating jacks to almost level before the fateful final hand. All-in with ace-four, Chino might well have been hoping for a chop against Johnson’s ace-five. Instead, the flop knocked him for six, coming 4-3-2 to give Johnson a wheel straight. Two cards later, the title was confirmed and Chino had gone oh so close yet again, as his wait for WSOP gold goes on, a consolation prize of $341,970 as runner-up gratefully received.

“It’s been a long day battling,” Johnson said after his epic win. “Chino played an amazing tournament. I was super fortunate to get ace-five versus ace-four all in and flop a wheel. I’ve had a lot of final tables without winning a bracelet in the last five years, so it felt really good to finally win one.”

WSOP 2026 Event #49: $2,500 NLHE Freezeout Final Table Results:
Place	Player	Country	Prize
1st	Marco Johnson	United States	$513,885
2nd	Chino Rheem	United States	$341,970
3rd	Kenzo Ishida	Japan	$246,800
4th	Faraz Jaka	United States	$180,210
5th	Srivinay Irrinki	United States	$133,170
6th	Vamerdino Magsakay	Philippines	$99,590
7th	Elliot Smith	Canada	$75,390
8th	Pyeongkang Kim	South Korea	$57,780
9th	Sebastian Schulze	Germany	$44,840

Legends Fall in PLO High Roller

Plenty of the game’s greats took on the $25,000 PLO High Roller, where Eelis Pärssinen is just one day away from winning his second WSOP bracelet. To do so, he’ll have to outlast four players who are all desperate to win a maiden WSOP title in Las Vegas. With just five players left, Pärssinen has a vast stack of 35.2 million chips to his name, with Levon Khachatryan on 20.1m in second place.

Behind the two leaders, the closest player is Aaron Mermelstein (5.3m), while Jeremy Druckman has what seems a hugely difficult task with just 2.85 million to his name. At least he has some chips at all. Such was Pärssinen’s dominance in the latter stages that anyone still in with a shot will feel like they’re freerolling. Alex Foxen (below, 7^th for $267,993) came close to his fifth bracelet but eventually fell six places short.

Other big names too fall late in the event inside the money places included Biao Ding (12^th for $100,010) , Chance Kornuth (22^nd for $82,463) and Daniel Negreanu, who added more winnings to his PokerStake package with a 26^th-placed cash worth $69,531.

WSOP 2026 Event #47: $25,000 Pot Limit Omaha High Roller Final Table:
Place	Player	Country	Chips/Prize
1st	Eelis Pärssinen	Finland	35,225,000
2nd	Levon Khachatryan	United States	20,100,000
3rd	Aaron Mermelstein	United States	5,300,000
4th	Sergio Martinez Gonzalez	Spain	4,225,000
5th	Jeremy Druckman	United States	2,850,000
6th	Matthew Costanzo	United States	$360,930
7th	Alex Foxen	United States	$267,993
8th	Richard Gryko	United Kingdom	$203,027

Next Events Lining Up to be Classics

The next raft of WSOP events feature plenty of PokerStake players, especially the $50,000-entry PLO High Roller Event #55. Stars such as Chris Hunichen (1.20 markup), Adam Hendrix (1.06), Benny Glaser (1.06), David Coleman (1.04), Sean Rafael (1.10) and Josh Arieh (1.07) are all selling action to the event, with the defending champion, PokerStake’s Dylan Linde (1.06) also in the mix.

Last year, Dylan Linde’s third WSOP bracelet came after he performed miracles to come back against the British poker legend Stephen Chidwick. Dylan began the final day of the event extremely short but battled to victory for a score of $2,146,414.

“I’m kind of stunned,” Linde said after the win. “I feel incredibly lucky to win such a large amount, my third bracelet, and to get heads-up with one of my best friends. I can’t imagine a better day.”

Surely Dylan can imagine going back-to-back. You can back him right here at our dedicated WSOP staking page.

Photography by Luther Redd for PokerGO at the 2026 World Series of Poker in Las Vegas.