A crazy hand with a straight flush to full house appeared during the soft bubble phase of the WSOP Main Event.

During the soft bubble phase of Day 3 of the 2026 WSOP Main Event, Jason James beat his opponent's full house with a straight flush, but then suffered a bad beat in the next hand.

On the third night of this year's WSOP Main Event, a crazy unfolding hand unfolded – two players engaged in a fierce battle with a straight flush against a full house during the soft bubble stage of the World Series of Poker.

WSOP bracelet winner and Canadian pro Jason James emerged victorious in this upset, though he may still be pondering whether he could extract more value from Amarender Puri after the surprising showdown took place on the live stream.

And as if that wasn't dramatic enough, James suffered a brutal bad beat in the very next hand. Here's what happened.

A straight flush with a full house on the turn card

James opened and raised to 14,000 with K♠10♠, holding 364,000 chips. Puri called with J♣9♣ from his 536,000 chips. The rest of the players folded.

With 43,000 in the pot, the dealer flopped J♥J♠Q♠, giving Puri three Jacks and James a two-upper-file straight flush draw. James checked, Puri bet 16,000, and James called.

The turn card, 9♠, was the most active card in the deck. Puri upgraded to a full house, while James made a straight flush. Both players opted to slow-play their monster cards, checking twice quickly.

The river card, a 10♥, didn't change anything. James bet 50,000, Puri paused, then said, "I should have raised," while simultaneously tossing in a calling chip. However, he was glad he hadn't—James revealed a straight flush, and Puri slammed his fist on the table in disbelief, having avoided losing a significant amount of chips in the soft bubble phase of this $10,000 tournament.

As the table erupted in laughter at the hand, Puri added, "Wow! I almost hit 100k!"

James was unlucky

After feeling he should have gotten more payout from the previous hand, James suffered a bad beat in the next hand.

Steven Stanton, in the small blind, raises to 28,000 from his 156,000 chips with K♥Q♥. In the big blind, James, holding A♣Q♠, 3-bets to 159,000, effectively going all-in on Stanton. Stanton calls.

Stanton prayed for hearts, and they came—the flop of 9♥2♥2♦ gave James the lead but gave Stanton 12 cards to go. James escaped with the 3♠ on the turn, but the 5♥ on the river completed Stanton's flush.

A pot of 324,000 was pushed into Stanton's possession, virtually guaranteeing him a place in the money bubble on Thursday morning, while James could only reminisce about two televised high-scoring hands during the soft bubble phase.

Nevertheless, James finished 14th in the same event in 2024 with $450,400, and he knows better than most the highs, lows, and fluctuations required to make a deep run in the WSOP Main Event.

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