Minnesotan Richard Alsup Wins $1.3 Million at WSOP Monster Stack

Richard Alsup, a Minnesota-based poker pro, won the 2026 WSOP $1,500 Monster Stack no-limit hold'em event, earning $1,302,125. Alsup outlasted a field of 11,933 entrants to claim his victory. The tournament had a prize pool of $15,841,057. Alsup earned 1,440 Card Player Player of the Year points.

Alsup's victory was not his first at the WSOP. He had previously won an $800 no-limit hold’em deepstack at the 2022 WSOP. This win, however, was on a much larger scale, both in terms of the prize money and the number of entrants.

Aaron Massey, a tournament veteran with over $6 million in career earnings, also navigated his way to the monster stack final table. Massey picked up pocket aces under the gun, min-raised, and Eyster three-bet big from the cutoff with A♣K♣. Short stack Nikolaos Angelou of Greece woke up with pocket kings in the small blind and four-bet shoved. Massey was all too happy to five-bet shove over the top, and Eyster called with his kings. By the turn, Massey was sweating just one out, the case king, and held to scoop the massive pot. Angelou was out in eighth place ($190,000).