Apparently, complaining about the lack of visibility works…
The 2026 World Series of Poker Europe’s €5,000 Main Event has completed the three-Day Ones and its Day Two proceedings, and they have not wasted any time. The money bubble has popped in the tournament late Monday night (Czech time), and every member of the 356-player field is now assured a piece of the prize pool that shattered its €10 million guarantee. Taking the field to Day Three as the leader is Thomas Eychenne, who will hold 2.01 million chips when the cards fly on Tuesday.
Let’s All Gather Together
The 2026 WSOP-E Main Event drew 2,617 entries to set a new record, but there would be an asterisk next to it. This year’s event featured unlimited rebuys, which some people took advantage of to the extreme. Unlike the Las Vegas version of this tournament (a $10,000 buy-in freezeout), the European version had to resort to the “re-entry” gimmick to fill its field.
Still, the 2,617 entries built a major prize pool of €13.085 million, once the late registration on Day Two closed. 393 players would receive a piece of the payout pie, with the min-cash of the tournament a €10,000 double-up. The eventual champion of the 2026 WSOP-E Main Event will earn a two-million-euro payday; in fact, both the eventual champion and the runner-up will take home seven-figure paydays.
At the start of the day, Austria’s Daniel Rezaei was atop the standings with his 639,000 in chips, but he had some big guns coming after him. One of poker’s Triple Crown winners, Roberto Romanello, and the U.S.’s Alex Keating were in third and fourth places, respectively, and looking to take down Rezaei. With 904 players remaining in the tournament, however, it was going to be a long day, as the plan was to play to the money on Monday.
Late Registration? We Don’t Need…Well, Yes We Do!
Late registration for the 2026 WSOP-E Main Event was open until the start of the second round of Day Two, and plenty of players would take advantage of not only that but the re-entry option. Mustapha Kanit would get knocked out by Oskar Massesson after Massesson rivered a Broadway straight; as soon as that final card was on the felt, Kanit was at the cage to re-enter the tournament. But none of Kanit’s machinations would match those of Michael Moncek.
Moncek, a noted high roller player, certainly seemed to come to the 2026 WSOP-E Main Event with the intent of making it deep. Moncek would spew off TWELVE bullets, three for each session played to that point (the three-Day Ones and Day Two), before being dismissed cruelly. He got it in good with pocket Aces against Aliaksei Boika’s pocket Queens and even caught an Ace on the flop, but Boika proceeded to four-flush Moncek to end his tournament without even sniffing the money bubble, and €60,000 poorer.
The news was not much better for a couple of other champions. Defending World Champion Michael Mizrachi departed at the hands of Robert Heidorn, who caught a Queen on the turn to top Mizrachi’s pocket nines and end his tournament. Dan ‘Jungleman’ Cates also went down on a tough beat, his A-K falling to Akihiro Konishi’s A-Q when a Queen appeared in the window and nothing came to rescue ‘Jungleman.’
Meanwhile, Eychenne was ascending the leaderboard. He would scoop up a considerable number of chips when he miraculously caught a King on the river with his pocket Kings to top Panagiotis Christou’s pocket Aces, cracking the million-chip mark at 1.15 million. He continued to climb the leaderboard, using ‘Presto’ to make a set of fives against Marc Delimal, to eclipse the 1.5 million chip mark.
Late in the evening, multiple eliminations took out enough players to bring the tournament to the money bubble. On that bubble, two players were at risk; one was Symeon Alexandridis, who failed to hit with his Big Slick against Daan Mulders’ pocket tens and was eliminated. The other was perennial WSOP Player of the Year candidate Shaun Deeb, who saw his pocket sevens called down by Simon Levy’s K-Q; the nine-high runout gave Deeb an unnecessary straight, and the double-up, making Alexandridis the unfortunate ‘bubble boy.’
As soon as the bubble popped, the cage became a busy place. Players such as WSOP bracelet winners Thai Ha, Gilles Silbernagel, and Giuseppe Zarbo would all head to the rail. The final numbers for the 2026 WSOP-E Main Event Day Two action showed that 356 players would come back on Tuesday for action, while Eychenne looks to add to his trophy case (Eychenne won the 2025 European Poker Tour stop at Barcelona) as the chip leader.
1. Thomas Eychenne (France), 2.01 million
2. Daan Mulders (Netherlands), 1.721 million
3. Giovanni Zanette (South Africa), 1.467 million
4. Yuhan Wang (China), 1.374 million
5. Rokas Asipauskas (Lithuania), 1.35 million
6. Gabriel Martini Nobrega (Brazil), 1.241 million
7. Alex Anton (USA), 1.183 million
8. Eimantas Adomavicius (Lithuania), 1.168 million
9. Niklas Deitmer (Germany), 1.159 million
10. Alex Keating (USA), 1.15 million
Lurking down the leaderboard are some more familiar names. Chris Hunichen (1.047 million) and former World Champion Jeff Madsen (1.016 million) are both in the million-chip club, and Rezaei is still in the running with his 967,000 in chips. Arguably the biggest story of the 2026 WSOP-E Main Event is the return of Annette Obrestad, who will be a part of the Day Three festivities with a decent 581,000, but showing ‘Annette_15’ the ropes of today’s poker world is two-time WSOP Women’s Champion Shiina Okamoto, who is just off the million-chip club with 982,000 in markers.
Six levels of play are scheduled for Tuesday, which should bring the 356-player field down under 100 players by the close of action. As the final table is scheduled for April 12, WSOP officials will have to find a way to slow attrition so they have a final table to play.
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