Sasha Liu commands the chip lead in the WSOP Main Event

Sasha Liu Commands Chip Lead in Main Event WSOP

Sasha Liu surged to the top of the chip counts in the 2026 WSOP Main Event at the close of Day 3, bagging a monstrous stack of 2,364,000. The iconic $10,000 buy-in tournament attracted 9,208 players — cementing it as the fourth-largest field in World Series of Poker history. The prize pool stands at a staggering $85,634,400.

Liu jumped into the action at the start of Day 2, immediately asserting her dominance to increase her starting stack more than sixfold in the opening level. She entered Day 3 weaponised with a seven-figure stack and proceeded to double it by the session's end, securing a commanding lead of nearly 400,000 chips over her nearest challenger, Martin Zamani.

Rounding out the top three is Levon Khachatryan, who is riding high off a career-best summer performance where he finished runner-up in the $25,000 High Roller PLO for a hefty $1,440,680 score.

Six former Main Event champions remain in the hunt, including heavyweights Hossein Ensan, John Cynn, Ryan Riess, Stoyan Madanzhiev, Greg Raymer, and Chris Moneymaker. Day 3 was not without its casualties — Phil Hellmuth and his eldest son Phillip III were both eliminated. The latter's exit sealed the fate of the elder Hellmuth's side bet against Shaun Deeb. The sole remaining representative of the Hellmuth clan is Nicholas Hellmuth, who battled through to Day 4 on the bubble, clinging to a short stack of 53,000 chips.