Greg Mueller Heads to WSOP Final Table With Poker Refocused
The Canadian ex-hockey pro says poker stopped feeling fun, but he bought in for the Main Event, trimmed about 7 to 8 pounds and will be back on ESPN2 when the final table starts Aug. 3.
Greg Mueller reached the 2026 WSOP Main Event final table with a very different relationship to poker than he had in his earlier years on the circuit. The Canadian ex-hockey player, now a three-time WSOP bracelet winner, has said the daily grind stopped feeling fun, but he also said he committed “with my heart and soul” to this Main Event and believes he can still play.
He described poker as something that takes up too much time and keeps him in a chair too long. In one interview, he said that if golf or dinner comes up while he is playing cash games, he is happy to deal himself out, because he would rather be active than sit all day. He also said tournament life can feel like having a boss, with no easy way to leave the table.
That reset shows up off the felt, too. Poker.org reported that Mueller took up golf during COVID and that it became his passion. After returning home from Las Vegas, he said he has been sleeping more, exercising, eating cleaner and doing enough stairs, lifting and walking to lose about seven to eight pounds, mostly so he looks better on ESPN.
He even contrasted that with his old routine in Vegas, where he said he would sit on his ass for 14 hours a day, play poker and gain weight. He also said that after sessions he used to hit Johnny Rockets around 2 a.m. for a milkshake, fries, a burger and dessert that felt about like four Tums.
Mueller’s run to the final table has also been built on a series of big hands. He entered on Day 1d, doubled his stack within three levels after flopping a set and eliminating an opponent who turned two pair, then bagged 41st with 1,389 players still alive. By Day 6 he was comfortably inside the top half, helped by pocket kings and a timely fold with pocket jacks.
On Day 7, he cracked Ori Elul’s kings with ace-jack after flopping an ace. He then climbed from 19th place with 21 players left on Day 8, moving steadily up the counts.
The key hand came with 17 players remaining, when Mueller and France’s Romain Lewis got all the chips in preflop in an aces-versus-kings cooler. Poker.org said the blinds were 400K/800K, Lewis opened to 1.6 million, Mueller three-bet to 6 million, and Lewis shoved 10.6 million before Mueller snap-called with more than 23 million in the middle.
He also doubled through Rami Hammoud with jacks against nines, then survived another huge flip against Michael Gagliano when queens held against ace-king. After that one, Mueller called it his biggest flip ever and said it felt nice to be on the right side.
His Main Event path has been long. Mueller’s first WSOP cash came in 2003, and after returning in 2005 he cashed four times, including a ninth-place finish in the $5,000 Limit event. He won his first bracelet in 2009 in the World Championship of Limit Hold’em and added a second about two weeks later in the $1,500 Shootout.
He went on to post a runner-up finish in 2012 and two third-place finishes in 2013, then made the final table of the $50,000 Poker Players Championship in 2018. In 2019 he was openly wondering whether modern, math-driven poker had passed him by, before winning the $10,000 H.O.R.S.E. event and quieting those doubts.
The Review-Journal said Mueller, who lives in White Rock, British Columbia, played professional hockey in Germany from 1992 to 2000 before moving into poker. He still plays in an adult hockey league, remains part of the Vancouver Canucks alumni association, and says hockey and golf are still the activities he enjoys most.
When the Main Event finally got down to nine players, everyone remaining was guaranteed $750,000. The final table is set to begin Aug. 3 and will air live on ESPN2.
