22-year-old professional poker player Lucas Jumalon from Spokane, Washington, bested a field of 9,208 players and won the 2026 World Series of Poker Main Event for $10 million at the Horseshoe Las Vegas Center Strip Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada, on Wednesday, 5 August.
The WSOP is the most prestigious poker tournament series in the world, continuously running annually since 1970. Its $10,000 buy-in Main Event is the most anticipated tournament on its schedule every year.
This year, the World Series decided to move the nine-player final table to August for dramatic effect—thus, the final stages of the fight for poker’s most coveted title can be played separately from all other WSOP events for more focused attention from the poker world. The final nine players of the final table were already determined on 13 July; they had to wait until 3 August to restart play and see the event through its conclusion.
In the lead-up to the final table, a Hungarian player named Gábor Winkler was among those who were able to make a deep run. He eventually finished in 213th place for $57,500.
The final two players standing were Lauri Saaskilahti of Finland and the eventual winner, Lucas Jumalon.
A key hand in the heads-up stage occurred with nearly evenly matched stacks: Saaskilahti sitting on 66.5, and Jumalon sitting on 72 Big Blinds. Saaskilahti made a very loose call on the ♣4♠A♠K flop in a limped pot, holding ◆J◆3. Jumalon bet ⅓ pot with ♠Q◆5. The ♠J on the turn gave Jumalon a straight flush draw, and Saaskilahti a pair of Jacks. The player on the button really sized up, betting 2X pot this time, which was called again loosey after a bit of tanking.
The ♠6 on the river brought Jumalon his nut flush. When Saaskilahti checked the action over to him, he overbet the pot again, putting an additional 45 Big Blinds into the middle. This made Saaskilahti deploy some speech play to induce a tell. During his talk, he said out loud: ‘I feel like you have complete air’—that was a read as bad as it could be, as his opponent was holding the actual nuts.
The Finnish poker pro eventually called, which meant that a massive 115 BB pot went Jumalon’s way.
From that point on, it was an uphill battle to climb for Saaskilahti. He shoved his last ten Big Blinds into the middle with ♠A◆7 pre-flop, which was called by Jumalon holding ♠K◆6.
Six proved to be a lucky number for the young American card player again, as two of them were dealt on the board, and thus he outdrew his opponent’s hand. Lucas Jumalon became poker’s new WSOP Main Event champion!
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