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Player Rivers Straight Only to Bust Minutes into WSOP Main Event Day 1c
A North Carolina contractor's 2026 WSOP Main Event dream was cut short mere minutes into Day 1c, falling victim to a brutal rivered straight that ran into a turned boat.
TL;DR
Dewitt Newkirk, an amateur player with no prior Hendon Mob results, became the first elimination of Day 1c of the 2026 WSOP Main Event, losing his entire 300 big blind stack in a cooler against Stephen Graner. This marks the third consecutive day an early Main Event bust-out has involved pocket aces.
The 2026 World Series of Poker Main Event continued its dramatic opening days, and Day 1c proved no exception, delivering an astonishingly swift and brutal elimination just minutes after the legendary Jamie Gold announced, "shuffle up and deal." As the cards hit the felt on Saturday, July 4th, North Carolina general contractor Dewitt Newkirk found his Main Event aspirations extinguished in a hand that saw him river a straight, only to discover his opponent had already turned a full house. This early exit cost Newkirk a staggering 300 big blinds from his starting stack in the $10,000 buy-in tournament, making him the first casualty among over 925 initial entrants for the session.
Newkirk's departure continued an unusual streak for the 2026 Main Event, where early eliminations have become a recurring theme, often involving pocket aces. On Day 1a, a player gambled with ace-king and ran directly into pocket rockets. Day 1b saw a similar fate, with a player flopping a set, getting all-in, and then being outdrawn by pocket aces hitting a runner-runner flush. Day 1c upheld this pattern, with pocket aces once again playing a pivotal role in sending a player to the rail.
The hand that ended Newkirk's Main Event journey was a classic cooler, meticulously reported by *PokerNews* live reporter Laura Fryer. With the board showing **10 _♦_ 10 _♣_ 9 _♥_ A _♥_ J _♣_**, both Newkirk and his opponent, Stephen Graner, had approximately 60,000 chips each when the hand began. Newkirk, holding **Q _♥_ 8 _♥_**, had rivered a straight, a strong hand that would typically win a significant pot.
However, Graner had him squarely beaten. Graner's pocket aces had not only given him a pair but, crucially, had turned into aces full of tens on the turn (**A _♥_**). When Newkirk made a 20,000-chip bet on the river, Graner moved all-in for Newkirk's remaining 26,100 chips. Newkirk, contemplating the sizeable bet, deliberated before ultimately declaring, "I think I have to call." He did, only to be met with the grim reality that his straight was far behind Graner's turned boat.
"Damn," Newkirk reportedly muttered as he made his way out of the tournament area, the weight of the early bust-out undoubtedly settling in. It was a swift, decisive, and undeniably painful end to his Main Event run, highlighting the unforgiving nature of high-stakes poker where even strong hands can be rendered meaningless against a superior holding.
In a testament to his resilience, or perhaps a desire to quickly re-enter the competitive fray, Newkirk wasted no time. Immediately after his Main Event elimination, he registered for Event #85: $1,000 No-Limit Hold'em, demonstrating a true poker player's spirit to bounce back from adversity.
Adding to the day's narrative, another elimination soon followed, once again featuring pocket aces. This time, it was a pre-flop aces versus kings all-in cooler. Abbas Heidari's pocket aces, however, failed to hold up against Michael Tweedlie, who spiked a set to deliver a crushing bad beat, further cementing the unpredictable and often brutal nature of the early stages of the WSOP Main Event.
