Poker Pro Jamie Shaevel Aims for WSOP Main Event Victory

Jamie Shaevel, a 39-year-old cash game grinder from Santa Monica, California, is making a strong run in the 2026 World Series of Poker (WSOP) main event. Shaevel has played this tournament 18 times, with his best finish being 100th place in 2011. His largest payout from the WSOP main event was $54,851.

Shaevel has accumulated over $402,000 in prior tournament cashes, with the majority coming from his nine cashes in bracelet events at the WSOP. He is guaranteed to more than triple his lifetime tournament earnings from this year's WSOP main event, even if he were to be the first to hit the rail after the final table begins.

Entering the final table, Shaevel is sitting third in chips, with 56,000,000, amounting to 37 big blinds. Shaevel started playing poker in high school and has been playing ever since, 20 years, basically. He has played poker as his primary source of income for a while now. Shaevel was the only player among the final nine to wait until day 2 to enter this event. On Day 6, Shaevel knocked out Christopher Chaudey with A♥A♣ against J♥J♣ near the end of the night. On Day 7, Shaevel won another big pot with pocket aces against pocket kings for Rami Hammoud. On Day 8, Shaevel ended the German’s run in 11th place by picking up J♠J♥ against the A♣10♥ of Tolga Karakaya.