2026 WSOP Main Event: Day 2d Highlights with Deeb, Foxen, & Breaking Bad's Chemist

820 people entered the late registration on Main Event Day 2d of the 2026 World Series of Poker, bringing the total number of players in the Main Event to 9,208. That's noticeably fewer than last year, but still respectable!

The min-cash prize will be $15,000, ninth place will pay out $1,000,000, and first place will pay out $10,000,000.

By the end of the day, 2,034 players had made it. Tomorrow, the Day 2abc and Day 2d streams will merge for the first time.

We'll start coverage with a spectacular pot between two relatively unknown players.

On the board , with 35,000 chips in the pot (blinds 400/800, 800 ante on the big blind), Andreas Staschewski goes all-in from the small blind. The tournament life of Yervant Boyadjian, who has a stack of approximately 30,000, is on the line.

Boyajian remains lost in thought for a long time—he's clearly upset by the high price of his decision. He periodically tries to engage his opponent, but the heavily tattooed young Austrian remains stoically silent.

After a while, he asks the dealer if his hand will be considered dead if he shows his cards. The dealer says it won't be considered dead, and Boyajian turns over – ace-high.

Staschewski immediately asks for the floor, and when the dealer can't shout loud enough, he yells loudly himself: "Floor, 487!"

The employee who approached explained that the dealer was right, and any sanctions against Boyajian could only be applied after the hand was completed.

The show starts to get on the nerves of the other players, and one of the neighbors asks to keep track of the time.

Boyajian gathers all his chips into a column, kisses them, and places them impressively over the line.

Staschewski shows his bluff – However, his kicker is higher, and Boyajian is eliminated.

Boyajian told his opponent that he played terribly as he packed his things.

Staschewski complains to the floor that Boyajian physically hurt him while trying to provoke a reaction, but his opponent vehemently denies this:

Staschewski will move into Day 3 with a respectable stack of 223,000.

A player in early position raises. Barak Wisbrod in the cutoff three-bets 4,500. Phil Hellmuth III, son of the great, four-bets 12,000 in the small blind. The raiser folds.

Wisbrod has jacks and about 40,000 behind. Maybe he doesn't know he's playing a Hellmuth? The super high roller goes all-in.

Hellmuth III shows him aces, flops another, and Barak Wisbrod heads off to play his high-stakes cash game, leaving tournament poker to the real pros.

An exchange of pleasantries between Martin Kabrhel and Jessica Richards, a professional gamer and content creator from Texas.

On the flop , Kabrhel, who raised preflop from middle position, says he's giving his opponent a discount, usually he'd bet 4,000.

Richards is on the button, and she calls.

Turn – . Karbhel bets 8,000. Call again.

River – .

"Do you even have a fold button?" Kabrhel asks.

“I have a button on my stomach,” Jessica answers.

"Let's not talk about that yet. We've only just met. But if you treated me like that at home, I'd be quite submissive."

“I’ll treat you like a king,” Jessica promises.

"Like with the king in your hand?" Martin asks.

– Keep guessing.

Finally, Martin bets 9,000 and gets a quick call from .

– Wow! I have ," Kabrhel says, sending his cards to the muck. "Why are you bringing in such trash preflop?"

– I just want to get a straight flush.

Martin will be eliminated towards the end of the day, and Jessica will go into Day 3 with a stack of 111,500.

On this day, we're being scheduled for the start of the broadcast with tables featuring 1) Alex Foxen and JC Tran, 2) Viktor Blom and Phil Luck, and 3) Shaun Deeb, and Jason Mercier.

It's safe to say the second table won't be a success, but the other two are sure to be action-packed.

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The lowjack player raises to 2,500, and Shaun Deeb calls in the cutoff with kings. Mercier calls in the small blind with a nice connector, but wait, who's that in the big blind?

David Costabile, better known to many as Gail from Breaking Bad!

He's got a very short stack, but it's still a joy to see him on camera.

The flop comes with an ace, everyone checks, and on the turn, Mercier tries to steal the pot with a flush draw and bets 5,200. Costabile and Karp fold, but it's very difficult to force Deeb out – he calls.

River – . Not the best card for a bluff, and Mercier decides to check. Deeb checks after him.

Jason doesn't show his cards and mumbles something unintelligible.

"Show me or fold them," Deeb says.

Slightly surprised, Mercier turns over 10-high, and Sean is forced to respond by showing kings.

"I was hoping you'd fold so I wouldn't have to show what hands I'm playing when I get raised," Deeb explains.

In the next hand, the big stack attacks the blinds of short-stacked Alan Wiseman. Mercier three-bets on the button with A6s, but the big blind holds ace-king.

Jason is pot-committed and forced to risk almost half his stack. Luck is not on his side in the all-in, leaving him with 14 blinds.

Cavazos raised to 2,800 with queens, and the very active Vinh Nguyen stretched before 3-betting wearily with T7s.

Cavazos calls.

Flop . Both check.

The turn comes , and Nguyen and his combo bet 8,000 into a 17,000 pot.

Cavazos pauses, sighs heavily, and generally makes it clear that his hand is somewhere between a call and a fold. Finally, realizing his poker face is hopelessly lost, he folds and asks his opponent to show his cards. Nguyen indulges in this small pleasure.

“Oh my God,” Cavazos responds, and his opponent collects his chips with a satisfied smile on his face.

David Costabile goes all-in.

The others fold, and Deeb is hesitant. He's unsure what to do with A8o, so he speaks to his opponent:

– Borderline. But overall I'm leaning toward folding.

– You've folded twice already, that's very kind of you.

– Now I have the best hand of the three.

– A fold will show your kindness.

– Don't you want a call?

– Of course I don't want to.

– Why? Do you think I'll make it?

"Of course you'll get there. I'm enjoying the camaraderie. I love being on the TV set."

Shaun Deeb folds.

"That's very kind. My children thank you," David rejoices.

Cooler preflop, and Jason Mercier is forced to get it all in against Shaun Deeb.

Two jacks are already discarded, so there is only one straight out left in the deck.

“But there’s also Broadway,” reminds Ali Nejad.

Shaun Deeb, without waiting for the end of the hand, throws the required number of chips over the line to double his friend.

Alex Foxen uses solver techniques and squeezes two opponents with K4s. But he's powerless against a player willing to push all-in for 60bb with eights!

A young Japanese player in the big blind tries to call after Nguyen raises and Foxen calls, but he runs out of chips and accidentally squeezes.

“Well, I’m all-in,” Nguyen replies with a shrug.

Alex thinks.

– I have the best hand I’ve had all day, Nguyen says.

– You just showed and you're saying this is the best you've had all day?

Nguyen freezes with his mouth open, then says:

– You've seen every hand I played, right?

– Every one that you showed down,” Foxen squints.

The commentators are slightly perplexed—how can you discuss your cards when there's a third player in the pot? But it's clear that the main players in the hand believe Hayasaka's naivety and don't take him into account.

Foxen calls. Hayasaki folds. Nguyen jumps up at the sight of his opponent's cards:

– Fuck! Alex, how did you make that call? That's insane.

"If you had a really good hand, you might not go all in" Foxen says.

The king-six flop was a good lesson for Hayasaka; he'll be more mindful of his button presses. The turn, however, adds a twist.

But the river is another six.

"Oh my God. I can't believe I just punted..." Nguyen is stunned.

Hayasaki stands up and apologizes just in case.

After the break, the television table is changed. Blom and Luck, who haven't shown any action yet, are removed, and the noisy D'Ambrosio is placed under the spotlight. The only more or less well-known player there is former Main Event champion Hossein Ensan.

D'Ambrosio, judging by the description, is a genuinely compulsive gambler who's been living in casinos for years, but, unlike Phil Ivey, he's a rather mediocre poker player. It's a bit odd that ESPN decided to make a hero out of him. Surprisingly (or not), Ensan will be the best player at this table.

Costabile is already very short, and his new all-in for less than 10bb Deeb is forced to call with the words:

– I hope I can help you double.

It wasn't meant to be.

David Costabile withdraws from the Main Event.

The player from UTG raises, Alex Foxen calls with 75s from the cutoff, JC Tran calls with 98s from the small blind.

Flop .

Everyone is checking.

Turn .

Tran leads, UTG folds...

...Foxen raises.

JC started the day with a fairly short stack, but he's making money at this table even more consistently than Foxen, like a robot. A raise won't scare him! Tran calls.

River – . Tran checks.

Foxen bets 42,000 – 80% of the pot.

Tran thinks for a long time, but ultimately gives up his cards. Foxen is ready to bluff even against the most dangerous opponent at the table, respect!

Deeb aggressively defends the big blind, check-raising the flop with a rather mediocre texture against UTG.

But Koppel isn't willing to fold his best second pair and makes the call.

Turn – . There's 34,000 in the pot. Sean bets 20,500. Koppel quickly calls.

River:

47,500 from Deeb. Koppel now considers this, but it seems more for the sake of form – after about a minute, he throws away his cards and quietly slams his fist on the table, acknowledging his opponent's strength.

Ensan's table shows mostly short-stack all-ins and the loud cheers they get under D'Ambrosio's leadership.

Michael Dentale, who lost the last 7 blinds with against is consoled by D'Ambrosio . He taps on his muscular shoulder and says: "Brother, you have my number, call me if anything happens."

After winning another all-in from the bottom with a micro-stack thanks to a called river, choreographer and UK talent show star David Welch performs a fiery dance routine.

Welch shoves AQo from the small blind. It's 15 big blinds, but D'Ambrosio calls in the big blind with 96s and, straining, demands an ace. But the first card is a six.

D'Ambrosio continues to beg for an ace. They tell him: "You could have just folded preflop?" The answer: "So I want to double my friend!"

It wasn't meant to be.

The friendly atmosphere at the table spills over into some revealing sizing for the final hand of the day.

Jimmy makes a big raise, 3.5 big blinds, with a premium hand, trying not to offend anyone. Varnell makes a huge squeeze play with another premium hand. Jimmy calls.

On the flop , Varnell makes a continuation bet of 38,000.

"That's brutal. By the way, I almost folded preflop! Yeah, fold, fold," D'Ambrosio says, showing his kings.

The final level was a disaster for Shiina Okamoto. She started with a 300,000 stack and finished with 69,600. First, in a three-bet pot, the short stack flopped a set of jacks against her flush draw. With , she had to unload about a hundred thousand.

Then she put in a squeeze play of 20,000 from the small blind holding , and received one call from the cutoff.

Already from the flop , Sheena called down and lost the absolute minimum. She called 15,000 on the flop and 50,000 on the turn. On the river , the opponent checked next and showed .

Where the rest went is unknown.

The leader at the end of the day is Michael Rossitto (USA) – 770,500.

The top bracelet winner is Isaac Baron (USA) with 506,500.

Alex Foxen finished the day with 493,500 (Kristen had 143,000, although he was down to less than 20 big blinds a couple of times).

Eliminated: Gus Hansen, Nick Schulman, Daniel Negreanu, Phil Ivey, Liv Boeree, and Dan Heimiller.