2026 World Series of Poker May 26th - July 15th

There's no interesting story lines because the structure of the main favors good players and the best NLHE players these days are both very, very good, and also generally very, very uninteresting.

I was really hoping we had Ensan, Deeb, Wilson and Traynor at the final 9, along with Mueller and Jumalon who did make it.
Ensan as former champ, non pro prior to his win (not sure what you call him now).
Mueller Sorta old school guy from early to Mid 2000's, although mostly mixed game player.
Deeb, the internet/live pro career grinder.
Wilson younger more theory oriented guy.
Traynor and Jumaolon the young aggro wild cards.

I do like Hammoud a lot, he seems to genuinely just be happy to be there, had said multiple times how much fun he has had and he would be happy no matter where he busted. He was also very good at identifying when he could bully and when to slow down.

Shovel is your typical working guy who will prob just nit it up a bit and try to ladder up. Gags seems to have some nice moves and play well, lesser known probably lesser talented version of deeb, not that Gags is bad.
Feng is forgettable.
Evogoru while I am meh on him has shown that he is not afraid to get his money in but also nothing interesting or noteworthy.
Boos I guess is our Euro reg and Saaks is whatever.

With a lot of the big names/story lines eliminated yesterday we definitely could have had a crazy final table, Brunson being there would have been cool to.

Ya Hammoud seems like a good guy. And Canadian. Cheering for him and FBT. Jumalon seems ok too.

Has to be an ESPN decision. They only had the first week in august available or something. Why they couldn’t show it this week I don’t know.

Now starting on July 21st, they air the curated version of episodes of the Main Event with Norm and Lon calling it on Espn2.

Three weeks seems perfect -
1) these guys are playing for life-changing money. This allows for recharging, coaching, game planning, etc.
2) way more of your family / friends will be able to come rail in person
3) espn gets to build storylines with the earlier episodes in the run up to the FT

I’m excited for this. The produced and edited episodes with the exaggerated storylines are exactly the type of entertainment poker needs. Playing live poker is generally pretty boring let alone watching it.

The 92o hand was well played.

The QQ river call was torching, BUT, Jumalon had done some wild stuff and really gotten after it to that point. Still just about the worst combo to hero with, but I see why he did it.

He had a couple standard SB jams that ran into a call and didn't suck out. Tough break there.

Yeah, this is what made characters famous during the boom. Edited down episodes with background features on the players. If they do a good job with it, they'll make a few of these guys interesting.

I thought it was so they could create the packaged episodes to air before the FT is played, so people watch the eps and then are excited/ready for the FT.

Calling off that massive 35M river bet with essentially just a bluff catcher will surely haunt him for a while. That seemed to be the beginning of the end.

Lmao

Trayner is out bc he took every spot.

Table captain until stationing off 35M otr w/ QQ to Juma.

Then Juma gets moved, Trayner gets another chance to become captain and cruise to a FT. (On a passive/nitty table)

Proceeds to take every spot and finish in 10th place. Yeah, wp... standard...gg

a tip of the cap to Givens for handling his bad luck yesterday with dignity and grace

i enjoyed watching him do his thing these past few days

I woke up thinking about if the river is say a red nine last night does evagorou try to make one of the greatest punts in main event history? (jumalon still has to call with just a 3 but what the heck can evagoru have, it's very hard to find a hand) Nobody else would've for sure but I'm only somewhat believing he'd have not done that.

chip leaders all had a hard time the last few days, top 3 on 6 didn't make 7, 7 didn't make 8, trayner was the chip leader at the break with 14 left. I was also surprised he didn't chip up on that table but they played back at him and he lost most or all the spots. This one... probably cruises to at least HU let's face it.

ensan who looked like didn't play well yesterday which he was playing great the previous two; I still can't believe he overbet jammed turn with A7 on A5T7 rainbow to a bb who can't call worse unless he has exactly a5 (or is bad/hero called it) unless it was a leveling thing (haha must be bluffing here cause it's a pay jump bubble but I don't think that was the thought process) so of course it was perfect.

Mueller is 4th in chips (NIT FTW) but man he needed a perfect storm to still be in here, AA>KK, savas to inexplicably pay him off 3 streets with 55 on T899 flush completion river, his JJ to get called by 99 and hold when I think 99 could've folded (only to him, everyone else that's a call), and QQ>AK and the 11th place guy to bust as soon as he did because if that went awhile, he would've blinded at least right back down to where he was pre flip. Yes everyone needed some stupid luck to get here but it gets pronounced when it's like the entirety of the day.

In the moment when he x/r I was thinking, "this guys repping hands he doesn't limp in during this ICM dynamic."

However at 1/1.5/1.5 getting 8 to 1 on a limp, maybe I'm wrong. But does he check twice on that board in that ICM spot with the hands he's repping?

A pretty unlikely parlay. Definitely don't think Jumalon was folding.

All that said, let's pair the criticism with the recognition that he's probably a few days into sleeping really poorly, on his ~55th hour of intense poker in six days, dealing with a shot clock for the first time ever.

Lots of results oriented analysis of Trayner. If those jams get through and he chips up instead of doubling people up, everyone is talking about how he had balls of steel and didn't let the magnitude of the situation phase him, and that's why he's 2nd or 3rd in chips with a great shot to win.

92o is a high frequency raise vs SB limp at 30-50bb, pretty sure they were around 30 effective. Frequency probably goes up as covering stack. Not sure if the donk lead is supposed to be a thing on that board, but regardless, 92 is a very obvious bluff-raise candidate with a blocker, an overcard, a gutter, and no showdown. If Feng has a hand like 76 or 54, he may well flat call and fold later (76) or fold now (54), and Trayner looks like a genius doing something "unorthodox," when really he's probably making optimal plays.

the other part is how is he possibly bluffing the chip leader on the stone bubble of the main event too, some stones. If the played out hand wasn't so unbelievable I think he gets away with it.

I thought nothing of the 92o hand so it must've been alright, just got owned. Happens in this game.

As there is analysis defending the overall torch with "what if's"

Calling off 35M on river with at best a bluff catcher? That will haunt him more than anything I think.

That was his big mistake

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I'm sure Hawkins will now pay off everyone he owes money to.

My knee jerk reaction is to disagree with this comment.

Deeb, Givens, Brunson, and Ensan all would of made the Final 9 more interesting in their own way and none of the make it. Bad beat.

I think particularly because Traynor is so great with a big stack & was in a great spot to keep building his chips.

other than that, I'm not sure how many really bad decisions he made - he ran into the top of range a few times & was unlucky that he got called sb vs bb & lost 60:40s. I appreciated his stones to keep going for it & I think in a sim with all players having equal chips at 20 left he would prolly win the most times

(but....the QQ hand WAS a big mistake & super expensive. Started the slide).

a buddy of mine swapped with him. Not sure how much but at least 1%. Can't complain with a 75x return but....he was dreaming of that 1000x!