Hellmuth arrives late, triples his stack in WSOP $50K Poker Players Championship

Posted on: June 23, 2026 01:56 PDT

Day 2 of the $50K Poker Players Championship was all about the late reggers.

They included Phil Hellmuth, who joined at the same time he did last year. In 2025 he spun up a top-ten stack by day’s end. Could he repeat the feat, despite just coming back from a bout of Covid?

Daniel Negreanu was out by the time Hellmuth entered. It was mid-afternoon, but Hellmuth sat down and immediately tucked into a burrito in his own inimitable style. One for the cameras?

Phil Ivey was one of the last players to sit down, max late-regging with Jared Bleznick and Bryn Kenney, and helping push the field to 108 entries – one more than last year.

Glaser dominates Day 2

Benny Glaser finished Day 1 second in chips and quickly hit the top today, where he stayed until the final level of the day. He was pipped to the overnight chip lead by Kristopher Tong, but Glaser is the player everyone will be watching on Day 3.

Hellmuth had another dream Day 2 here, ending with exactly triple his starting stack. He didn’t quite finish in the top ten, but he’ll be very happy with his performance.

He’ll also be happy to leave Bleznick behind for the night. The two players got into it at the table today, and it left Hellmuth with a sour taste in his mouth. And possibly another bet on his hands.

Ivey also bagged a good stack – good for 22nd place and almost exactly in the middle of the pack.

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Stacked field

Putting the two Phils to one side, there are still plenty of killers lurking in the depths of the 2026 PPC.

Luke Schwartz, once the UK’s bad boy in the golden age of televised poker, has come back much quieter. Jason Mercier is always a problem with chips.

Chris Vitch, Gus Hansen, Chris 'Big Huni' Hunichen, Jesse Lonis, Chris Brewer, and Josh Arieh also made Day 3.

Luke Schwartz doesn't play a lot of events but is always a welcome sight at the Poker Players Championship.

Hayley Hochstetler

Just one thought. It’s great that the WSOP is streaming the Millionaire Maker. It’s one of the big WSOP events with rags-to-riches possibilities, and two million-dollar paydays up top. However, leaving the PPC to play on the outer tables doesn’t feel right.

Hopefully there’s better treatment in store, but the Millionaire Maker runs another two days on the TV stage, so the best that mixed game fans can hope for is a full stream of the final table of the PPC on Thursday. It feels like the tournament deserves more.

Day 3 of the $50K Poker Players Championship starts at 1pm on Tuesday. 17 players will get a minimum of $100,934 when the bubble bursts.