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The 1,383rd-place finisher in the 2026 WSOP Main Event was eliminated, sending the remaining players into a loud celebration, and it just so happened to involve a past champion — Chris Moneymaker, along with two others.
Why were they cheering so hard for Moneymaker, the 2003 World Champion, and two others to bust? It wasn’t anything personal against him, but his elimination meant the remaining players were all guaranteed to go home with a profit in the $10,000 buy-in tournament.
Day 3 ended with 1,389 players remaining, leaving just seven players to be eliminated before the bubble burst. Short stacks tightened up during the opening moments of play on Thursday, desperately trying to hold on at least until reaching the money. A min-cash is worth $15,000.
How the WSOP Main Event Got to its Bubble
Hand-for-hand play quickly started on Day 4, which created a media circus around the Paris Las Vegas tournament area. Media members, camera crew, and tournament staff ran back and forth from table to table, everyone trying to capture a glimpse of the most important bubble in poker.
Play began at 11 a.m. PT with the blinds at 4,000/8,000. Sasha Liu started play with the largest stack at 2,364,000, nearly 300 big blinds. Evan Lindeman was the smallest stack with just 5,000 chips, and he was forced all in on the first hand, and he did not survive.
Phil Hellmuth’s son, Nicholas Hellmuth, was among the shortest stackers entering play with just six big blinds.
Tensions were flaring early in the session, as some players became irritated with multiple short stacks tanking. The clock was called 79 seconds into the day at one table, according to PokerNews’ Brett Slezak. The bubble was reached just 15 minutes into the session, leaving one more elimination before everyone else could start celebrating.
A massive pot occurred on the stone bubble, which isn’t something that happens often. On a board showing 6♣4♣4♥K♦Q♠, Anthony Lombard bet 250,000 only to tank-fold after Mason Vieth moved all in. Two big stacks went at it one away from the money, but it didn’t end in an elimination.
Moneymaker started the day with a small stack, but plenty of chips at 221,000. So, it was a bit surprising he ended up all in on the stone bubble. Oddly enough, another player in the same hand at a different table who was kind-of-sort-of a WSOP Main Event champion, Stoyan Madanzhiev, was eliminated.
Madanzhiev won the WSOP Online Main Event on GGPoker in 2020 during COVID before the WSOP announced it would host an online-live hybrid Main Event version to crown a true champion, and that was won by Damian Salas, who is recognized as the 2020 World Champion.
Moneymaker opened to 17,000 from the hijack with J♥9♦ on the bubble and then called a three-bet to 42,000 from Antonio Vargas who had A♥A♠. The flop came 8♥7♠7♦ and Vargas bet 20,000. His opponent called to see the 7♣ on the turn.
Vargas again bet, this time for 45,000 and received a call. The 8♠ on the river made for a full house on the board. Vargas put Moneymaker all in for around 100,000, and the player who is widely considered responsible for the 2000s poker boom made the call and was eliminated on the bubble with Madanzhiev and Zhaken Seitbekov.
Madanzhiev and Seitbekov then flipped with Moneymaker for a free WSOP Paradise seat, which Seitbekov won. Moneymaker last cashed the Main Event in 2023, a min-cash for 1,198th place.
