Event #93: $1,500 The Closer No-Limit Hold’em

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Jiang eliminated Maurice in fourth place, preventing the WSOPC record holder for most wins from finally claiming his first bracelet. Johnny plans to invest most of his winnings through his investment company and also play in WSOP Circuit events, including this week’s stop in Las Vegas. He arrived at the 2026 WSOP without major expectations, but managed to cash in two events and then went all the way to the bracelet in his third tournament. On the final day of Event #76, five players remained, and Negreanu got off to a rough start, losing nearly half of his stack to Chris Frank, who made a rivered flush. All three of his six-figure scores in his career came in WSOP events in this poker variant, and he won his first bracelet in 2014. However, that did not prevent the American from winning more than $3 million in live events.

Phil Hellmuth has won the most bracelets with 17 followed by Phil Ivey with 11 bracelets. The tournament grew slowly for over a decade, reaching 52 participants in 1982. The winner of the World Series of Poker Main Event is considered to be the World Champion of Poker.

Event #93: $1,500 The Closer No-Limit Hold’em

• Daniel Weinman from the US taking home $10.2m and the gold bracelet.
• He won his first two years ago in the $10,000 PLO Championship, earning nearly the same prize money as this time.
• Following 2006, new online gambling legislation restricted the number of online qualifiers to the event.
• Tony ‘Ren’ Lin has expanded his high stakes prowess to his home continent of Asia as he looks to add APT accolades to his esteemed poker resume.
• The winner of the tournament was a low-stakes live tournament regular from Montana, Brent Gregory.
• The first day of the final table was aired on ESPN2 and the final day on ESPN, with both days also streamed on ESPN3 and WSOP.com.

Last year he recorded a career-best cash of $520,000 in the Onyx Super High Roller Series $100K buy-in event, and now in Las Vegas he finished first in an $800 buy-in event. British professional Matthew Moss has played very little over the past seven years. Kupin managed to cut into the lead several times, but Aharoni quickly reestablished his advantage. However, his extensive experience in high-stakes games helped him take first place in the Big O Championship. “This is my favorite tournament because of the structure and the buy-in. Interestingly, Mateos showed resilience and made a re-entry at the end of the first day of play.

Instead, the event rivalled some of the biggest one day events of the serie, ending the festival on a strong note. Along with Zachary Fischer’s Main Event triumph, there were still two more WSOP Circuit rings to be awarded on the final day of the Cherokee series. During 8-handed play, Hynam shoved 8-4 suited into the short stacks, got called by Paulina Loeliger’s pocket aces, and still found a way to win. His final table run might not have been as wild as Mizrachi’s, but it was enough to earn him the gold. Andrew Ostapchenko closed out his best WSOP series in 10 years with his first bracelet.

He quickly took over the chip lead and eliminated four opponents in succession. Blumenthal entered the final nine with the second-largest stack, although the gap between him and two other contenders was minimal. For example, his career-best cash of $334,756 came in 2011 when he finished runner-up in a $1,500 WSOP No-Limit Hold’em Six-Handed event. To catch up with the Mizrachi brothers, Alex and Kristen still need three more bracelets.

Keijzer came out on top in this large-field event, a run that ended with a $67,850 payday. That guarantee was completely obliterated after reaching 351 entries, creating a $342,225 prize in the 1 p.m. An $1,100 Pot-Limit Omaha 6-Max tournament was spread, and it came with a $50,000 guarantee. Late registration will close at around 9 p.m., when level nine of the event is due to start. This event also has 30,000 starting stacks, but comes with 20-minute blind levels. Then at 6 p.m., final shuffle up and deal of the festival will be called to start the $600 No Limit Hold’em Turbo ($50k GTD).

The winner beat Linus Goh heads-up for the win, while Goh earned $30,349 for his near win. The field reached 215 entries before registration closed, making for a $209,625 prize pool, more than double the $100,000 guarantee. He beat Arie Kliper, who received $45,261, heads-up to close out the win.

Since 2022, the World Poker Tour’s biggest annual event is the WPT World Championship festival at Wynn Las Vegas, which features a series of big events over a two-week period in December. Brian Altman won Player of the Year during Season XVIII after winning the WPT Lucky Hearts Poker Open and finishing third in two other events. It was the perfect storm to grow the game, and the WPT played a significant role in poker’s popularity back then and still to this day.

These tournaments become a meeting place for the best players where their skills, strategies and psychology are put to a serious test. July 10 was a busy day for the poker room cashier at the Wynn Las Vegas, where four tournaments played down to winners at the Wynn Summer Classic. Three poker players escaped difficult fields to win sizable amounts of money and a coveted Wynn replica trophy. A total of 253 players bought into the tournament, putting $130,295 in the prize pool.

Initially offering only a few events, the WSOP now features dozens of tournaments in various formats, with No Limit Hold’em as its hallmark game. Global poker tournaments are becoming real events, attracting professionals and amateurs from all corners of the planet. However, since I play mainly high-stakes tournaments in the US, most of the players I’m familiar with are also high-stakes regulars.

In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic forced the postponement of the World Series of Poker for the first time in its history. In 2024, the festival saw 229,559 entrants from more than 100 countries with a record-breaking $437.4 million total prize pool. The biggest buy-in event in WSOP history is the $1,000,000 Big One for One Drop, held in 2012, 2014 and 2018. In 2026, the lowest buy-in event was $300 (The Gladiators of Poker) and the biggest buy-in event was $250,000 (Super High Roller). There was also still time for another legend to write himself into the record books.

On the previous day, a tilted Phil Hellmuth said his usual line that Pan would blow all his chips to someone later but that didn’t happen. He held the chip lead since Day 2 and kept his opponents at bay all the way to the trophy. This is his third bracelet and also his biggest career cash. The Romanian Narcis Nedelcu is a recognizable face in the poker world, having traveled the circuit for more than 10 years. For comparison, last year’s event had 486 entries, and in 2023 there were 642.

Inaugurated in 2018 the tournament has ever since held a $1,000,000 guarantee for first place. In the end, all 48 seats were filled, resulting in a first prize of $18.3 million. Among those who committed early to the event were Johnny Chan, Daniel Negreanu, Jonathan Duhamel, Tom Dwan, Laliberté, billionaire businessman Phil Ruffin and Erik Seidel. At the time of the original announcement, 15 of the maximum 48 seats had been taken.

Interestingly, another player also received $1 million in this tournament, as Jonathan Schiller pulled the top bounty. Higgins captured his first bracelet in Event #63, and the $1 million payday boosted his live tournament earnings to nearly $4 million. The largest-field tournament of WSOP 2026 was won by professional player Matthew Higgins from Georgia. At the Event #62 final table, Reichard moved into the chip lead after eliminating John Ciccarelli in 6th place. The $500 Salute to Warriors proved to be a true marathon for the Indian player, earning him both a career-best score and his first WSOP bracelet.

At the final table, down to nine players, Myles and five others were sitting with short stacks. In this event, Urbanovich made his way through a 199-player field and reached a final table that included stars such as Alex Foxen and Brian Rast. Stacey entered the final day of Event #77 in 15th place out of 18 players and reached the final table with the fourth-largest stack.

Thanks to this win, his total live tournament earnings surpassed the $6 million mark. Chun is a coach at Chip Leader Coaching, and before the start of play at the final table, he was advised by Kristen Foxen. On this page, you’ll find all the details about the Borgata Poker Open festivals happening throughout the year, including results, schedules, and online satellites for upcoming tournaments. The very first WSOP online bracelet tournament was in 2015, with the $1,000 WSOP.com Online No-Limit Hold ‘Em won by Anthony Spinella over a field of 905 for $197,743. In 2024, the WSOP Main Event saw a record 10,112 players. However, from 2017 entries in the Main Event increased year-on-year, with the 8,569 players in the 2019 WSOP Main Event the second-highest ever, just short of the record of 8,773 set in 2006.

Instead, he went the distance and claimed his fourth WSOP bracelet, defeating Aram Oganyan in a four-hour heads-up battle. Two years ago, he left his job at Hellman & Friedman to focus on poker and family. He had already won two bracelets, in Limit Hold’em and Dealer’s Choice, and famously finished 2nd in the WSOP Main Event fifteen years ago. A highly respected figure in the poker community, Racener is known for his consistency and well-rounded skill set. John Racener took down the first one-day tournament of this year’s WSOP — the $1,500 Super Turbo Bounty, which drew 2,244 entries. It was won by Jason Dong, a Canadian who picked up Limit Hold’em in his hometown and has been enjoying the game ever since.

World Poker Tour — WPT World Championship at Wynn Las Vegas

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Borgata Poker Open usually takes place three times a year — in winter (January), spring (April–May), summer (July–August), and fall (November). To celebrate the launch of a brand new BetMGM Poker sponsored poker room, the Borgata hosted a new series called the Big Big Buy-In Event. There was $2 million in guaranteed prize pools for the series. The Borgata Winter Poker Open kicked off the New Year in style, with over $8 million in guarantees spread over 75 events. A lion’s share of the prize pool went to Todd Lewis who defeated William Klevitz in the final skirmish to claim the title and the first-place reward of $215,450. The Championship event managed to significantly surpass its $1M guarantee, attracting 572 entries and paying out almost $1.4 million in prize money to the top 72 finishers.

Getting to share some of the stories from a tournament day that weren’t the headlines but were memorable nonetheless was a very special opportunity. But it was also one of the first times that I was not just ‘allowed’ to bring my personality to the table but encouraged. Out of all the work that I did in poker, getting asked to be part of Poker Road Radio was always the work I remember most fondly. I’ve done a couple of one-off gigs with Mori’s (Eslkandni) production team when I still lived in Vegas, and I can imagine a world where I offer my services as a spotter for production for the Main. If they want only the fun and sanitized poker stories, that is what you write.

After two hours, Chin managed to turn the heads-up match in her favor and, over the course of just three hands, took all of Strelitz’s chips. Before that, the American’s best result in the series was a 4th-place finish in a $1K freezeout in 2022, which earned him $113,532. In heads-up play, Abhishek defeated 2014 WSOP Main Event champion Martin Jacobson. For Deeb, it marked his 17th WSOP heads-up appearance, and he entered the match with a 2-to-1 chip advantage. An hour later, Liberta called down a bluff from Michael Monroig holding only A-high and became the chip leader. Marco’s A♦5♦ flopped a straight against Rheem’s A♠4♣, bringing the tournament to an end.

With a $50k entry the mixed game event consists of 9 games and changed from being just a Horse event in 2009. The first World Series took place in 1970 and featured no tournaments at all. The World Series of Poker (WSOP) is on of the biggest live poker festivals and is held every year in Las Vegas. The biggest fields came from low buy-in events like the Colossus ($500), Monster Stack ($1,500), and Millionaire Maker ($1,500), each of which drew thousands of entries across multiple starting flights. The $300 Gladiators of Poker NLH (Event #88) was the lowest buy-in bracelet event, won by Johnny Oshana for $250,000. The international diversity reflects the global reach of modern tournament poker.

The ESPN family of networks aired 36 hours of Main Event coverage leading up to the November Nine on a 30-minute delay, showing the hole cards of all players who voluntarily entered the pot once the hand ended. Caesars Entertainment, via WSOP.com, streamed final-table coverage of all bracelet events on a 5-minute delay, although without pocket cams. In recent years, the prize pool for the WSOP Main Event has become so large that the winner instantly becomes one of the top money winners of WSOP and even in tournament poker history. Since its inception, Stu Ungar and Johnny Moss are the only players to have won the Main Event three times. As of 2025, nineteen different players have won the twenty-four awards, with Daniel Negreanu and Shaun Deeb as the only players to win the award more than once. For non-players, selection is based on positive and lasting contributions to the overall growth and success of poker.

This indicates a multi-tabled tournament with a guaranteed prize pool. Events are hosted in iconic destinations like Macau, Sydney, and Manila, attracting a diverse and competitive player base. Established in 2007, it has been pivotal in meeting the growing demand for competitive poker in Asia and Australia, driven by the global poker boom.

Outside of the Main Event, the WSOP schedule would also continue to grow, with 15 events scheduled in 1990. The start of the 1980s was heralded by back-to-back wins for Stu Ungar and the following year, the field surpassed 100 for the first time. The following year, the tournament saw its first buy-in of $5,000 and this was increased to $10,000 in 1972. The World Series of Poker (WSOP) is a live poker festival latest online poker news held every year in Las Vegas.

In addition to No Limit Hold’em, the series features a variety of poker formats, including PLO, Big O, HORSE, TORSE, and more. The series usually takes place in winter (January), spring (April–May), summer (July–August), and fall (November). Phil Hellmuth has the most bracelets of all-time, having won 17 between 1989 and 2024.

The Slovenian talent claimed his second bracelet of the year after already triumphing in the $25,000 6-Handed High Roller. Earlier this year, he scored $103K in South Korea and now he’s crushed that personal best by nearly eight times! Although he had flown under the radar until now, he shared that he’s been grinding hard for the past six or seven years, and this win marks his breakthrough. The deck was on his side during heads-up play, as he picked up pocket aces twice and ace-king also twice in less than an hour. The Brazilian and French crowds turned the heads-up of the Tag Team Event into a World Cup final.