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Jamie Gold, the 2006 World Champ, announced “shuffle up and deal” just after 11 a.m. on Saturday before the Day 1c session kicked off in the 2026 WSOP Main Event.
Moments later, a player dusted off all 300 big blinds worth of chips to bust the $10,000 buy-in tournament. That player was Dewitt Newkirk, a licensed general contractor from North Carolina with no Hendon Mob results. He was the first out of over 925 initial entrants from the session to be sent home. And it took almost no time for the elimination to happen.
Quick Way to Go Through $10,000
Day 1a saw a player gamble with ace-king right off the bat, only to run into and lose to pocket aces. It was a bit different on Day 1b, where a player flopped a set, got it all in on the flop, and then also lost to pocket aces, but this time thanks to a runner-runner flush runout. For a third straight day, it was pocket rockets that knocked a player out early.
As reported by PokerNews live reporter Laura Fryer, a board of 10♦10♣9♥A♥J♣ brought about a bit of a cooler. Both players were around 60,000 chips when the hand began. Newkirk, who rivered a straight with Q♥8♥, had placed a 20,000-chip bet in a heads-up pot.
Stephen Graner, who had him drawing dead with aces full on the turn, put Newkirk all in for another 26,100. That sent Newkirk into the tank before he announced, “I think I have to call.” He did, in fact, call, only to learn the bad news that his opponent had actually locked up the hand on the turn.
“Damn,” Newkirk said as he exited the tournament area.
For a third straight day, the first elimination on Day 1 of the 2026 WSOP Main Event fell victim to pocket aces. Newkirk would immediately register Event #85: $1,000 No-Limit Hold’em after being eliminated from the Main Event.
Not long after Newkirk busted, another elimination took place. And, you guessed it, pocket aces was invovled. This time, it was an aces versus kings all-in preflop cooler, but Abbas Heidari’s aces couldn’t hold up as Michael Tweedlie hit a set for a bad beat.
