Jumalon Leads Saaskilahti Into WSOP Main Event Heads-Up
The final two reached a $10 million duel after 10 days, with Saaskilahti’s late run ending Greg Mueller’s title hopes.
Lucas Jumalon and Lauri Saaskilahti were the last two players standing in the 2026 WSOP Main Event after 10 days and a field of 9,208 entries, with Jumalon holding a 328 million-to-225 million chip lead and the $10 million top prize still in play.
Cards were due in the air at 6 p.m. local time, with ESPN set to pick up the live stream at 10:30 p.m. ET until a winner was crowned. The final table day opened with Draymond Green handling the shuffle-up-and-deal announcement inside Horseshoe Las Vegas, and Jumalon kept the lead he had held since the start of the final table.
Jumalon also handled two of the key knockouts on the way down to heads-up play. He sent Jamie Shaevel out in seventh and Rami Hammoud out in sixth, and Michael Gagliano later fell in fourth for $2.75 million after a king-queen versus king-jack hand went badly for him on the turn.
Saaskilahti took a different route to the finish. He started the day among the top three stacks, slid down the leaderboard, then later made the call that eliminated Greg Mueller in third place, which locked up the final duel against Jumalon.
The two had even told each other at the end of Day 5 that they would be the final two standing, and that prediction came true. By the time play ended, Saaskilahti had momentum, but Jumalon still had the edge going into heads-up.
The winner was set to bank an extra $4 million on top of the $6 million already guaranteed to both players, along with the bracelet and the Main Event title. The WSOP decided to give a bracelet to winners after the first event in 1970 to set the series apart.
There is also some heads-up history behind the matchup. PokerNews noted that this is only the third time the Main Event final day has started heads-up, and since 2001 the player leading at the start of heads-up has lost five times. This year, Jumalon’s stack represented 59.3% of the chips, below the historical average chip-leader share of 64.1%.
If Saaskilahti won, he would become the first player from Finland to win the Main Event bracelet. Paul Beitelspacher also said Jumalon would become the second-youngest Main Event bracelet winner at 22 if he finished it off.
