Naoya Kihara's Bid for Bracelet No. 4 Runs Into a 20-Million-Chip Wall

Naoya Kihara has three WSOP bracelets, $2.8 million in lifetime tournament earnings, and 11 career final tables. None of it was enough to survive the $5,000 Super Turbo Bounty.

Event #84 of the 2026 World Series of Poker at Horseshoe/Paris in Las Vegas played down to its final table on July 4, and the story that emerged is one of asymmetry: the chip leader sitting with 20.1 million in front of him has earned $163,571 in his entire career. The three-time bracelet winner who was grinding for No. 4 didn't make it to the last eight.

The chip leader sitting with 20.1 million has earned $163,571 in his entire career; the three-time bracelet winner grinding for No. 4 didn't make it to the last eight.

Kihara's Run

At two tables remaining, Kihara looked alive. He held 4,040,000 chips with 16 players left, a workable stack in a super turbo format where blinds punish hesitation. The Japanese pro, who has built his reputation on deep international runs across more than a decade, was in a credible position to reach his 12th career WSOP final table.

But the super turbo structure doesn't care about résumés. By the time the field collapsed from 16 to 8, Kihara was out in 10th place. The format that makes this event so volatile chewed through him and spit him out before the cameras warmed up.

He wasn't the only notable casualty. Khoi Le Nguyen, a one-time bracelet winner from Vietnam with $3.29 million in lifetime earnings and two career final tables, fell in 9th. Nicholas Pupillo ($408,729 in career earnings, three final tables) busted 12th. Pavlo Veksler of Ukraine, carrying just $13,795 in lifetime results, went out 11th.

Chen Takes Command

The player who survived all of it is Yenhan Chen.

Chen, from Taiwan, entered the final table with a stack that dwarfs the rest of the field: 20,100,000 chips. For context, that's nearly five times what Kihara held at 16 players. Chen's lifetime tournament earnings of $163,571 make him a relative unknown on the global stage, but chip stacks at a final table don't read Hendon Mob pages.

The bounty format adds another layer. In a Super Turbo Bounty, every elimination puts cash directly in the winner's pocket, which changes the aggression calculus entirely. A massive chip lead in this structure isn't just an advantage; it's a weapon. Chen can apply pressure on every all-in, knowing he can absorb a loss that would cripple anyone else at the table.

What the Numbers Say

The gap between Chen and the rest of the final table tells a stark story about how this event unfolded. At two tables, the field still included players with a combined five bracelets and over $9 million in career earnings across Kihara, Nguyen, and Colin Robinson (one bracelet, $2.96 million lifetime, five final tables). Robinson's chip count wasn't listed among the top stacks at 16 players, suggesting he was already short.

By the final table, all three were gone.

That left Chen holding a mountain of chips and a clear path to his first bracelet. The $5,000 buy-in Super Turbo Bounty doesn't produce the kind of grueling, multi-day narratives that define the Main Event. It produces coin flips, snap decisions, and outcomes that make experience look overrated.

Kihara will be back at it. A player with three bracelets and 11 final tables doesn't stop hunting because of one 10th-place finish in a turbo. But for now, Event #84 belongs to Yenhan Chen and the 20.1 million reasons he's the favorite to take it down.