Finnish regulars Juha Helppi and Eelis Pärssinen competed for a bracelet in a $25k PLO/NLHE mix. The younger player emerged victorious.
A couple of weeks ago, Pärssinen won a bracelet in a PLO high roller tournament.
"It’s incredible, I’ve known Juha (Helppi) for 19 years. When I started to play poker, he was probably the biggest name in Finland. He was already an established no-limit crusher, and it’s unbelievable to get to play heads up against him here in front of my wife and best friend. A lot of the guys on the rail were also Juha’s friends."
Juha Helppi turns 50 next year. In 2019, he won a bracelet in a $10,000 LHE event, and in 2020, he won a $5,000 PLO bracelet online. He's been playing poker since the early 2000s and meets all the formal requirements for induction into the Hall of Fame. However, like other European poker stars, he's not even mentioned as a candidate.
This year, the voting format has changed. A committee of 33 current Hall of Fame members will determine the winners. Each member has four votes, and all candidates who receive 22 or more votes will be inducted. Under the previous rules, only one player was elected per year; an exception was made in 2025 following Michael Mizrachi's phenomenal performance.
Last week, the WSOP announced this year's final eight players:
- Shaun Deeb
- Jason Koon
- Isaac Haxton
- Chris Moorman
- Justin Bonomo
- Scott Seiver
- Mike Matusow
- Isai Scheinberg
The application process was publicly available on the WSOP website, so US players have a much better chance than European players.
Mike Matusow has been nominated for the 12th time, a record. The first time was in 2013, and he has been included on the list every year since 2017.
"Does Juha Helppi have a better HOF case than Mike Matusow?" Ben Wilinofsky asked. "Less than 20 spots separate them on the all-time money list, and only one major win. I guess really it comes down to what you value more: being a winning player or doing a lot of coke and being annoying on television but Daniel Negreaneau is your friend."
"Yes. Not close," Sam Greenwood says confidently.
Japan's Koji Fujimoto beat Nick Shulman in the 2-7 triple draw championship.
This is Japan's third bracelet at this series and its 11th overall. Fujimoto has been playing poker for three years, and has been working as a coach for the past year.
“I teach poker to the students for the last year. Three times a week. And I won the bracelet. So that makes the mixed games going up in Japan.”
Nick Shulman has a first place, two second places, and two fifth places in this series. Of his eight bracelets, three were won in the 2-7 game format.
The legendary Billy Baxter, who turns 86 in September, finished 8th in the tournament. He won all seven of his bracelets in lowball, five in 2-7.
Nick Schulman talked about what an honor it was to play beside Billy Baxter.
Some details of Baxter's legal battle with the US government can be found in our coverage.
In the $2,500 buy-in Big Bet Mixed Poker tournament, two Japanese players reached the final table but failed to reach third place.
The champion was mixed-game regular Dylan Smith, who had been practicing extensively on Phenom Poker in recent months.
Skye Chen won a record-breaking women's tournament. This year, participants made 1,475 entries.
Aubrey Williams took second place. She had been among the leaders since day two.
Williams had a comfortable lead in heads-up play, but the turning point came when Chen called all-in with A-high.
Chen opened with a raise, Williams called, the flop was checked, Williams bet 2/3 of the pot on the turn, and overbet on the river under her opponent's all-in.
"It really felt like she was representing something extremely strong. I just kept thinking and kept thinking, kept thinking, oh, just like this doesn't make any sense in terms of how it goes. The sizing just seemed like it was meant to intimidate me. I'm definitely not as studied or as experienced as she is. And so if I'm going to take a 50-50 to try to win the tournament right here, this is going to be the moment."
Diana Kaletina took 2nd place ($47k) in the $2,500 WPT Ladies High Roller at the Wynn Casino. Interestingly, Diana has been in Vegas alone for a while now; Mikita Bodyakovski left because he wanted to spend the summer in Europe for once.
Michael Mizrachi won his ninth bracelet in the $10,000 PLO Championship.
Michael led throughout the tournament. He also started the final table as the chip leader, but at one point, he let Jesse Lonis pass him.
With eight players remaining, they played for the largest pot of the tournament.
At the 100,000/150,000 level, Lonis opened with a raise to 550,000 from UTG with , and Michael in HJ called with .
On the flop of , Lonis bet 1.5 million, Michael called.
On the turn card, the , Lonis bet 4.5 million. Mizrachi thought for a long time and announced all-in for 8.3 million. Lonis, with a pair and a gutshot, made the call.
On the river came a . Mizrahi had more than 20 million, Lonis had 4.5 million left, and was soon eliminated.
Michael hadn't relinquished his lead, holding 65% of all chips in the top five and 80% in the top three. Heads-up, his opponent managed to close the gap a bit, but was unable to offer any real resistance. Things could have changed, but on the final hand, Mizrachi got it all in while trailing and rivered a gutshot.
"I think he made an amazing play," Mizrachi said in reflection. "But I was probably the wrong person to do it against. The Gorilla puts a lot of pressure. I know if I busted, I'm gonna come seventh. [If I folded] I know I could ladder up. But we don't play to ladder up. We play to win. So I'm going to take that shot against him."
During the final table, Poker.org's Sarah Gehring chatted with Michael's son, who was working on the television crew for the tournament.
When you’re at work… but your dad is Michael Mizrachi and going for his 9th @WSOP bracelet 🎥😬 pic.twitter.com/5U1f2MdBf7
— Poker Org (@pokerorg) June 30, 2026
"I mean, he can work production but not when his dad's at the table," Shaun Deeb said, surprised. "WTF. Do better WSOP."
Ethan "Rampage" Yau won a $5k hybrid tournament that was played online up to the final table and finished live.
The final table turned out to be quite stellar.
Ethan's summer is going well. In June, he played four sessions on Hustler streams and won $1.6 million.
Ethan played the final table with a Pokemon card he bought for $340k in February and tried to sell for $750k in May, but it seems he found no takers.
Commenters on the post about the sale began to make ironic comments:
– "I guess Triton high roller series new went over very good for you?'
– "Getting ready for WSOP I see lol."
But he who laughs last laughs best...
The $1,000 Mystery Millions tournament saw 22,811 entries.
Limit game specialist David "ODB" Baker snuck into the final table, while the much-forgotten 2014 PCA champion Dominik Panka finished second. American live grinder Matthew Higgins took first place.
Higgins has amassed a decent collection of second- and first-place finishes in WSOP Circuit events over the years, but he's never come close to a seven-figure score.
“This is a huge confidence builder. Like I said, I'm in probably a $300,000 downswing since I won the Choctaw Maine in November, so it's huge. Massive."
Amateur Jonathan Schiller won the $1 million bounty.
Brian Smith, who finished 5th and screamed at the top of his lungs during every final table, promised to donate part of his winnings to charity.
Taking the stage to collect envelopes midway through the second day, Brian urged everyone to donate to cancer research charities, specifically Purple Pansies. After these words, he pulled out an envelope for $100,000. Smith's primary job is running a large consulting firm.
"I donate any winnings, even if I'm losing the entire series. I lost $150,000 but managed to win back $100,000 in the end—I'll definitely donate $10,000."
At the 2024 World Series of Poker, Smith finished 26th (out of 20,647 entries) in the $300 Gladiators of Poker event.
His exit was then accompanied by a scandal involving Meng Nguyen. Smith, with a short stack, won a triple all-in, but lost a significant portion of his stack. Suspicion for the missing chips, not without reason, fell on the "Master." We covered that episode in detail.
Shaun Deeb finally won his ninth bracelet in the $1,500 8-Game event.
"I don’t cash a lot this summer but when I do I make it count," Sean wrote after the tournament.
At the Wynn Summer Classic series, which runs concurrently with the WSOP, Gia Skhulukhia took 2nd place in the $10k NLH Championship event.
Johannes Starver won the tournament ($1,824,370), while Gia took home $1,244,978, the best prize of his career.
