Today is like Christmas Day for poker players – the day that the World Series of Poker Main Event begins. Four opening flights will combine into two Day 2s, while the run to the finale will be interrupted for three weeks before the final nine players battle for the most coveted WSOP bracelet of the year in Las Vegas. We’ll tell you how you can stake a champion in this year’s World Championship after we catch you up on the latest bracelet winners.

Shaun Deeb Becomes Nine-Time WSOP Champion

The $1,500 8-Game Mix Event #74 was finally the event where Shaun Deeb’s downswing in WSOP heads-up matches turned in 2026. Having twice lost the final battle for the bracelet in Europe this Spring thanks to running into quads, Deeb won his ninth WSOP bracelet and took the lead in the WSOP Player of the Year race at the same time.

The 57^th annual WSOP had been a slow burn series for Shaun Deeb until this event but that changed in the $1,500 8-Game Mix event, as he came back from being the shortest stack at the table with nine players left. Bouncing off the canvas, Deeb then ground his way up the leaderboard before cutting a swathe through the field. Fu Wong went a long way but busted in third place to leave his executioner, Dean Joe, leading Deeb heads-up by 12.5 million chips to 6.5m. Deeb worked his way back into contention, got level in no time at all and took the lead with a flush.

Minutes later, Deeb’s pocket kings did what he needed and held to confirm his latest and ninth WSOP bracelet.

“I win.” Deeb said calmly.

Now on nine bracelet wins, level with the Grand Old Man of Poker, the late, great Johnny Moss, the man he vanquished in the WSOP POY race in 2025 Benny Glaser and reigning world champion and recent bracelet winner Michael Mizrachi, Deeb’s latest victory was worth $181,625 and gave him hope for one day being the biggest bracelet winner of all.

“I’m going to pass Phil [Hellmuth],” he told Natalie Bode afterwards. “I’ve been saying that for years. I could have been a lot closer. I could have been a lot further ahead of some other guys with nine or eight or seven, but, you know, I show up every day, play every event, play every buy-in, and sometimes you win.”

WSOP 2026 Event #74: $1,500 8-Game Mix Final Table Results:
Place	Player	Country	Prize
1st	Shaun Deeb	United States	$181,625
2nd	Dean Joe	United States	$120,570
3rd	Fu Wong	United States	$81,530
4th	Blaz Zerjav	Slovenia	$56,230
5th	Itsuko Yoroi	Japan	$39,570
6th	Patrick Mahoney	United States	$28,420

Markus Gonsalves Finally Breaks Bracelet Duck in Las Vegas

In the latest No Limit Hold’em bracelet event, American poker pro Markus Gonsalves won his first bracelet as the cash game pro turned tournament titan. There were a huge number of entries in Event #73, the $5,000 6-Max NLHE event, with 1,402 buy-ins of $5,000 creating a prize pool of almost $6.5 million.

Players such as Andrew ‘LuckyChewy’ Lichtenberger (12^th for $58,729) went close to the final table but the eventual winner Gonsalves led with 69 big blinds when the final seven sat down to play to a winner. German player Oliver Weis endured the sort of final table every player dreads as he went from second in chips to the first man out, busting in seventh place for $130,287.

Exits for Joshua Boulton (6^th for $174,909) and Lithuanian player Dominykas Mikolaitis (5^th for $238,152) followed, before experienced Austrian professional Daniel departed in fourth place for $328,810. All-in pre-flop, Rezaei lost with pocket fives against Xiaoyao Ma’s ace-queen after a queen landed on the flop.

French pro Jeremy Izquierdo lost with ace-queen to Gonsalves’ pocket threes just before busting in third for $460,256 and Gonsalves moved heads-up with 75% of the chips in play. That lead drifted before Ma took a marginal lead, but all-in with pocket kings, the eventual runner-up couldn’t beat Gonsalves’ ace-nine when an ace landed on the flop to give Gonsalves 90% of the chips.

Two hands later, he had them all and Ma had to make do with a runner-up score of $653,037. Gonsalves took the top prize of $979,655 along with his first-ever bracelet and his biggest poker result in tournaments.

WSOP 2026 Event #73: $5,000 6-Max NLHE Final Table Results:
Place	Player	Country	Prize
1st	Markus Gonsalves	United States	$979,655
2nd	Xiaoyao Ma	United States	$653,037
3rd	Jeremy Izquierdo	France	$460,256
4th	Daniel Rezaei	Austria	$328,810
5th	Dominykas Mikolaitis	Lithuania	$238,152
6th	Joshua Boulton	United Kingdom	$174,909
7th	Oliver Weis	Germany	$130,287

Will This Year’s WSOP Main Event Break the Record?

This year’s Main Event has been the subject of endless discussions, projection and there is even a prediction market balancing bets as to whether there will be 10,000 entries or fewer. One thing is for sure, and that is that the eyes of the poker world will be on Las Vegas for the next fortnight and then three more days in August, with ESPN the hosts on television.

With Jeff Platt, Joe Stapleton, David Williams and Norman Chad all being celebrated as the new hosting team in the Paris Ballroom, the World Championship is the centerpiece of the 57^th annual WSOP and there’s still time for you to back some PokerStake players as they battle to win what is likely to be a $10 million top prize.

Sign up to PokerStake today and head to our dedicated WSOP staking page to put your money down on a champion today.