Six Hours, Two Bustouts: Jumalon Holds the Lead as Han Feng Rockets Into Second at the WSOP Main Event Final Table

Anyone expecting carnage on the opening night of the 2026 WSOP Main Event final table went to bed disappointed. Six hours of play produced just two eliminations, leaving seven players alive and every one of them still within reach of the $10 million first prize. The shape of the table did change, though: Lucas Jumalon held on to the chip lead, Han Feng climbed off the floor to second, and four players came back to a table where the pay jumps are already doing most of the talking.

Jumalon bagged 212,000,000 for 85 big blinds, with Feng second on 106,500,000 (43 big blinds) — the only two players above the nine-figure mark. Finland's Lauri Sääskilahti sits third with 84,500,000 (34 big blinds), and then the logjam begins: Rami Hammoud on 45,500,000 (18), Michael Gagliano on 42,000,000 (17), Jamie Shaevel on 33,000,000 (13) and Greg Mueller on 29,500,000 (12). In other words, the bottom half of the table returns in push-fold territory, which all but guarantees Day 2 will move faster than Day 1 did.

The first couple of hours followed a familiar rhythm: raise and take it down, or raise, call, continuation bet, fold. Nobody was in a hurry. That is hardly surprising given the money on the line — the pay jumps at this stage run into six figures, and ICM pressure kept the short stacks from picking marginal spots.

The first elimination did not arrive until nearly three hours in. Cyprus' Evagoras Evagorou, who came into the final table as the shortest stack, moved all in with a pair of jacks and was called by Jamie Shaevel holding ace-queen. An ace on the flop settled it, and Evagorou was out in ninth for $1,000,000. He made history as the first Cypriot ever to reach the Main Event final table, and he left the stage with a message for the next generation back home: keep dreaming, take small risks, and keep getting better every day.

France's Mario Boos followed him out in eighth. He had drifted down from the middle of the pack, and his pair of eights ran into the king-nine of Sääskilahti, whose rail erupted when the flop came down in the Finn's favour.

The undisputed showman of the evening was Han Feng, who took his seat in a pink feather boa and a white jacket with no shirt underneath. By his own admission he nearly talked himself out of it. The outfit cost $200, and there will not be a three-day fashion show: he joked that he would have had the sickest three-day wardrobe if he were willing to spend that kind of money, but he was not about to buy all of it and then bust on the first day.

The look grabbed the cameras; the poker earned the chips. Feng got his short stack in with ace-four against the ace-queen of Boos and was in bad shape until a four landed on the turn. That double-up launched him up the counts, and he closed the session by winning a huge pot with a pair of queens when Sääskilahti folded to a three-bet on the flop. He had come into the day near the bottom and finished it in second.

It was not a smooth ride for the 22-year-old chip leader. His biggest setback came against Michael Gagliano, one of the most accomplished players left in the field. Jumalon raised preflop, continuation bet, then fired a big bet on the turn with six high — but he could not pull the trigger on the triple barrel, and Gagliano took the pot with ace high after missing his nut flush draw.

That hand slowed Jumalon down for a couple of hours, and he ended the night roughly where he began. He was not bothered by it. He told reporters that this is exactly why you build a stack like that, that folding his way through was never going to be the plan, and that he is simply grateful to still be in the tournament. Asked before the final table whether the nerves had arrived, he shrugged it off — and after six hours in front of the ESPN2 cameras, he was still saying he is ready to win the whole thing.

The three-week break gave everyone time to get ready in their own way, and Rami Hammoud's method was the most inventive of the bunch. The Canadian made cut-outs of each of his opponents, sat down opposite them, and played the sound of Jumalon's rail through his headphones to rehearse the moment. He said the exercise made him genuinely nervous — which was the point. Now that he is actually here, the nerves are still there, but the situation is not foreign to him.

Greg "FBT" Mueller, the most experienced pro left, took the opposite approach and simply waited. He did not enter a single pot across the first 20 hands, then picked up a pair of kings and four-bet, forcing Hammoud to lay down ace-queen preflop. By the end of the night, though, Mueller was the one sitting with the smallest stack.

The remaining seven return on Tuesday at 4 p.m. PT, with ESPN2 coverage starting an hour later. They come back with seven minutes left in the 1M/2.5M/2.5M level, which means the short stacks will be forced into decisions almost immediately.

One rules note worth flagging: the shot clock that caused so much debate during the Main Event was ultimately removed for the final table, and by all accounts its absence has had minimal impact on the pace so far. The slow first day had far more to do with ICM than with the clock. If the logjam breaks the way most expect, Day 2 should deliver a rapid run of eliminations and leave just three players standing with the bracelet and $10 million on the line.