Young American, Feisty Finn Heads-Up For WSOP Title

The next world champion of poker will either be a 22-year-old recent college grad and poker pro from Spokane, Washington, or a 39-year-old sales executive and poker amateur from Helsinki, Finland.

Young Lucas Jumalon entered the final table of the World Series of Poker Main Event with a massive chip lead and has maintained that lead wire to wire. But to win $10 million and the WSOP bracelet, he’ll have to fend off the challenge of Spain-based Finn Lauri Saaskilahti, who started the final table in seventh place out of nine and enters Wednesday night’s heads-up play well within striking distance.

Jumalon and Saaskilahti are the last two standing (or more accurately, sitting) after a string of rapid eliminations Tuesday night at Horseshoe Las Vegas cleared the field of all other challengers, including the two most experienced poker pros in the field.

Michael “Gags” Gagliano couldn’t get off the short stack for most of the second night of the three-night final table and finally busted to Jumalon in fourth place when his K-Q suited got unlucky against K-J offsuit. Just two hands later, Greg “FBT” Mueller got outplayed by Saaskilahti, misreading the Finn’s all-in river bet as a bluff, making the call, and exiting in third place, ending play for the night.

Whereas Monday’s action took more than five hours to get from nine players down to seven, the rising blinds forced patience to evaporate faster on Tuesday, and it took less than three hours to go from seven contenders to two.

When play resumes Wednesday night — the ESPN delayed stream begins at 10:30 p.m. ET — Jumalon will sit behind 328,000,000 in chips and Saaskilahti behind 225,000,000, just shy of a 3:2 advantage for Jumalon. While the heads-up match can potentially end at any moment, they’re also deep-stacked enough — Jumalon has 109 big blinds, Saaskilahti has 75 — that it wouldn’t be a shock to see them still playing when the sun rises on the East Coast.

The road from seven to two

The first elimination Tuesday came 12 hands in, when Jamie Shaevel shoved in his few remaining chips with K-6 on a 7-4-3 flop and Jumalon called with K-10. Cash game specialist Shaevel, who doesn’t play many tournaments but has nonetheless made the money in the Main Event a staggering eight times now, didn’t improve on the turn or river and got bounced in seventh place.

Canada’s Rami Hammoud departed next, also moving his last few chips in against Jumalon while trailing after the flop and failing to connect on one of his overcards or his flush draw.

Han Feng, who started the final table in eighth place but improved to the second-largest stack entering Night 2, ultimately finished in fifth place, ejected on a brutal beat. On the short stack, he opened with pocket aces, Saaskilahti made a massive three-bet with pocket nines, and after much consideration, Mueller folded pocket jacks rather than risk a fifth-place finish. Feng, of course, called off the rest of his chips with his aces and seemed in great shape after 10-8-3 flop, all diamonds, with the ace of diamonds in his hand. But a J-Q runout gave Saaskilahti’s nines a backdoor straight, sending Feng to the rail.

With four players remaining, the two biggest stacks, Jumalon and Saaskilahti, dueled in the most consequential hand of the night, the Finn making a tough but correct all-in call on the turn and dodging Jumalon’s 13 outs on the river:

Soon after, Jumalon turned a jack to eliminate Gagliano, and with three players remaining and no more pay-laddering left to do, short stack Mueller loosened up a little — and paid the price. Saaskilahti sneakily limped in from the small blind with pocket kings against Mueller’s 10-4 offsuit in the big blind, which, unfortunately for the veteran Canadian pro, connected with the A-A-4 flop. The pot remained small after a jack on the turn, and when a harmless three hit on the river, Saaskilahti overbet all-in, making it look like a bluff. Mueller thought a while before making the call and seeing the bad news.

Here are the places and payouts at the final table so far:

Jumalon and Saaskilahti were seated together as early as Day 5 of the tournament, so there’s quite a bit of history built up between them at this stage. By sometime Wednesday night or Thursday morning, one of the two will have won $10 million and the other $6 million, and one of them will be the 2026 Main Event champion.