Lucas Jumalon wins epic WSOP Main Event for $10m in Las Vegas

The 22-year-old American player Lucas Jumalon went wire-to-wire in the WSOP Main Event to win his first bracelet in the event they all want to win. Etching his name in poker history, the Spokane, Washington hopeful took the title after a brief but thrilling battle against Finnish player Lauri Saaskilahti in Las Vegas.

His previous biggest win was a Daily Deepstack event in Las Vegas for $22,495, but Lucas Jumalon changed all that during one crazy month in Las Vegas. Midway through the 2026 WSOP Main Event, the 22-year-old had joked with Lauri Saaskilahti that it would be funny if he and the Finnish player ended up being heads-up for the bracelet. On Wednesday night, they were, and the pair served up a WSOP classic on ESPN.

The Main Event heads-up battle hinged on three big hands. The first was a domination that very nearly produced a brutal bad beat, as Jumalon’s ace-nine overtook Saaskilahti’s ace-ten on the turn with a three-outer nine, only for the fortune to reverse on a river that gave the Finn a flush and a double-up.

In the very next hand, however, all the momentum and virtually all of the chips went to the American. On a board with four spades, Jumalon’s shove was polarising. It was either everything or nothing, and when Saaskilahti made the call with only a pair of jacks, he was shown the bad news. Jumalon had a flush and suddenly, Saaskilahti had only 10 big blinds.

They all went in soon after behind ace-seven, only for Jumalon’s king-six to flop a six and turn another for trips that confirmed the result before the river card fell. It was an astonishing end to a thrilling final table that on earlier days had seen Michael Gagliano lose to a suckout, and the irrepressible Han Feng surge to prominence only to have his aces cracked.

Here's the moment that 22-year-old Lucas Jumalon became the champion of the world.

THE DEFINING MOMENT.

The entire 2026 World Series of Poker Main Event comes down to this hand. pic.twitter.com/HQLnuTTpPM

— WSOP - World Series of Poker (@WSOP) August 6, 2026

Youth triumphs as Jumalon joins poker greats

In taking down the 2026 World Championship and winning a life-changing $10,000,000 and the bracelet, Lucas Jumalon achieved what many had backed him to do on Polymarket and in the corridors of cardrooms up and down the country. Going wire-to-wire and see out his enormous chip lead, there were many twists and turns along the way, but ultimately the bookies favorite got the job done.

“I’m so happy for Lucas, [he] seems like a great kid, very well deserved.” Joe Cada said on X in congratulating his fellow world champion. Back in 2009, Cada became the youngest-ever world champion when he beat the late, great logger Darvin Moon heads-up for the title. While Jumalon’s opponent Lauri Saaskilahti was a markedly different character to Moon, the achievement held echoes of that triumph 17 years ago at the Rio.

Jumalon seems like a modest young man surrounded by a great family and support network, not dissimilar to the 2013 champion Ryan Riess. ‘The Beast’ as he was known, had just turned 23 years old when he became one of the youngest champions in history and he remains one of the best ambassadors for the game to this day, like Cada. Jumalon could well do the same.

“Youth is served at one of the most spirited final tables of all time,” said World Series of Poker Chief Executive Officer Ty Stewart after the conclusion of the World Championship. “The 2026 Main Event and its live television coverage reminded us why we love this game and the people who play it.”

After three weeks of waiting, the final table lived up to its billing and Jumalon’s victory, while predictable from a betting perspective had more twists than we could have hoped for as poker fans. The 22-year-old world champion takes over the reigns from Michael Mizrachi, a man twice his age.

The 2026 WSOP Main Event finally has its latest champion, and poker might just have a new young hero to inspire a generation.