Phil Hellmuth carried the chip lead into the final table of Event #99: $5,000 8-Handed No-Limit Hold'em on Friday at the 2026 World Series of Poker, putting him in position to chase his 18th bracelet. He sat on 10,000,000 chips as the six-handed final table formed.
The event drew 884 runners and built a $4,066,400 prize pool, with $695,256 reserved for the winner. Hellmuth had already outlasted Adam Hendrix, Cliff Josephy, Joseph Cheong and Brian Rast to reach this point, and his stack was still the one everyone else had to measure against.
That lead did not arrive by accident. Hellmuth entered the day as one of 77 players still alive in the $5,000 buy-in tournament, then kept pulling away as Josh Norvock, Connor Belcher and Max Kingstone fell. By the time the final table settled, he was ahead of Nick Pupillo and Max Kingstone, then saw the gap widen again after those eliminations.
The field around him still had reasons to keep pressing. Victor Li and Joshua Stewart were chasing their first bracelets, while Darren Rabinowitz, Nick Pupillo and Nicholas Palma were all trying to win bracelet two. Hellmuth and Nick Pupillo had already traded words earlier in the series, adding a little edge to a table that was suddenly playing for a seven-figure-night feel and a place in WSOP history.
For Hellmuth, the math was simple and unforgiving: one more run, five opponents left, and bracelet No. 18 within reach. The ballroom at the Horseshoe was nearly empty as tables were being broken down, but the only thing that mattered was whether the all-time bracelet leader could turn a chip lead into the one title that would matter most.
He won his 17th bracelet in 2023, and this final table was the next test of whether the record would grow again or stop one step short.
