The 57th World Series of Poker opens on May 26 with 100 bracelet events across seven weeks at Horseshoe and Paris Las Vegas. Among the thousands of players who will sit down this summer, a handful of elite pros share one glaring gap on their résumé: zero WSOP bracelets.

These are not fringe names. The best poker players without a WSOP bracelet have combined poker earnings north of $250 million, collected dozens of WSOP final table appearances, and produced some of the most painful runner-up finishes in the sport’s history.

WSOPE Prague awarded 15 bracelets in April, but none went to any player on this list. The entire field of candidates arrives in Las Vegas intact, with more chances than ever: buy-ins from $300 to $250,000 and a parallel online series on GGPoker.

These droughts do end. Alex Foxen broke through in 2022. Isaac Haxton ended a 16-year WSOP wait in 2023. Darren Elias, Seth Davies, and Rainer Kempe all won their first bracelets last summer.

The question heading into this summer: who is next?

The Best Players Without a WSOP Bracelet

Ranked by WSOP earnings, total live results, and near-miss finishes. Every player listed here is actively competing heading into the 2026 schedule.

1. Ben Tollerene

“Ben86” built his reputation as the most feared online PLO cash game player on the planet before pivoting to live tournaments. He now has over $36 million in live earnings, two Triton Main Event titles (including March 2026), and a public endorsement from Jason Koon, who called him “one of, if not the most talented poker players of all time.”

The WSOP near-misses are brutal. In 2024, he finished runner-up in the $250,000 Super High Roller to Santhosh Suvarna for $3,537,135. Six months later at WSOP Paradise, he lost the $100,000 PLO Super High Roller final to Lautaro Guerra. Two shots at a bracelet. Two runners-up.

2. Niklas Astedt

The greatest online MTT grinder in history. “Lena900” has over $50 million in tracked online winnings, seven WCOOP titles, nine SCOOP titles, and 155 WSOP cashes across live and online events. He also holds WSOP Circuit rings, which are not bracelets.

His breakout live moment came in 2024 when he finished 3rd in the WSOP Main Event for $4,000,000. At the final table he told reporters the live grind was “a piece of cake” compared to 20-tabling SCOOP for 40 days. He has won every major online title that exists. The WSOP bracelet is the gap.

3. Christoph Vogelsang

Germany’s second-highest live earner behind Fedor Holz, with $45.9 million in career cashes and $10.35 million at the WSOP alone across 41 cashes. He turned 40 in 2026, making him newly eligible for the Poker Hall of Fame.

Three times he has finished 3rd in a WSOP bracelet event. The most expensive was the 2014 Big One for One Drop, where he banked $4,480,001 without winning. He was also knocked out by Dan Smith in the 2022 $25K Heads-Up Championship. Smith went on to win that event for his first bracelet, breaking his own years-long drought that very day.

4. Sean Winter

The highest-earning American tournament player without a bracelet. Winter has $36.8 million in live earnings, 14 WSOP final tables, and a high-roller résumé that puts him in contention for any $25K+ event he enters.

His closest call was the 2018 $50,000 High Roller, where he lost heads-up to Benjamin Yu. In 2023, he finished 3rd twice in the same week: once in the $25K High Roller 6-Max and again in the $25K Heads-Up Championship. Three near-misses, all at premium buy-ins.

5. Maria Ho

One of poker’s most accomplished and visible players. Maria Ho has 105 WSOP cashes, nine final tables, and $2.33 million in WSOP earnings. She is a Women in Poker Hall of Famer, a Game of Gold winner, and one of the most respected commentators in the game.

Her most painful near-miss remains the 2011 $5,000 No-Limit Hold’em, where she finished 2nd to Allen Bari for $540,020. She skipped the 2025 WSOP for the first time in 16 years. Whether she returns to a full schedule in 2026 is an open question, but if she does, the $1,000 Ladies Championship on June 25 and mid-stakes NLHE events are her natural path. Ho is also among the most accomplished female poker players in tournament history.

6. Viktor Blom

The player behind the “Isildur1” screen name rewrote online poker history in the late 2000s, playing in every one of the ten largest pots ever recorded on Full Tilt Poker. Since 2023, he has fully pivoted to live tournaments.

At the 2025 WSOP, Blom reached four final tables and was in the Player of the Year race for most of the summer before Shaun Deeb pulled away. At WSOP Paradise in December, he made it to heads-up in the $10,000 Super PLOSSUS but lost to Tom Vogelsang on a cooler. He has 23 WSOP cashes and the volume is only increasing.

7. Punnat Punsri

The 2025 GPI Player of the Year and the first player from Asia to win the award, edging Jesse Lonis by just eight points. Punsri has $35.7 million in live earnings, six Triton titles, and a growing list of WSOP near-misses.

Just six weeks ago, he finished runner-up in the WSOPE Prague GGMillion$ High Roller to Christian Pedersen. Before that, he was 2nd in the 2022 Poker Hall of Fame Bounty and 3rd in the 2022 $50K NLH High Roller. He has stated publicly that winning a WSOP bracelet for Thailand is a career goal.

8. Thomas Boivin

Belgium’s all-time money leader announced himself on the global stage during the 2025 WSOP with three seven-figure scores in a single summer. He finished 3rd in both the $100,000 High Roller and the $250,000 Super High Roller, then added a 5th in the $250K WSOPP Triton Invitational in December.

Those three results alone totaled $5.56 million. His closest brush with a bracelet before the high-roller breakout was a 2nd in a 2017 $1,500 NLH Shootout. At 35, he is entering his peak years with serious volume at the top end of the schedule.

9. Antoine Saout

The only player in WSOP history to reach three Main Event final tables. Saout finished 3rd in 2009 for $3,479,485, 5th in 2017 for $2,000,000, and 7th at the 2009 WSOPE Main Event. No bracelet from any of them.

The Frenchman’s $10.36 million in live earnings comes largely from those deep Main Event runs. He plays a selective schedule focused on the Main and mid-stakes events. If anyone on this list is going to win a bracelet through sheer Main Event persistence, it is Saout.

10. Steve O’Dwyer

With $47 million in live earnings, O’Dwyer ranks 16th on the all-time money list. He has won titles on virtually every major live circuit: EPT, WPT, Triton, US Poker Open. The one piece of hardware missing from his collection is WSOP gold.

His inclusion on this list comes with a caveat. O’Dwyer rarely plays the full Vegas summer, citing an aversion to the Las Vegas grind and large crowds. Several notable pros are skipping or reducing their 2026 WSOP schedule for similar reasons. His realistic 2026 path runs through the WSOP Online series or the September WSOP Europe rather than seven weeks at the Horseshoe.

How Much Has the WSOP Paid These Players Without a Bracelet?

All ten players, one table. Sorted by WSOP earnings: the money the WSOP has paid out without ever awarding a bracelet.

*Astedt’s ~$8M reflects live tournament earnings only. His $50M+ in online tournament winnings are tracked separately and are not included in the Hendon Mob live totals used for every other player in this table.

Look at the gap between WSOP earnings and total live earnings. Punsri has $35.7 million in live cashes but barely $1.5 million from the WSOP. O’Dwyer sits 16th on the all-time money list with $47 million but has less than $1 million from WSOP events. For these players, the WSOP bracelet drought is partly about opportunity: they simply do not play enough WSOP events to give variance a fair shot.

Then compare Vogelsang and Astedt, who have 41 and 155 WSOP cashes respectively. Their droughts are not about volume. They have been there, repeatedly, and lost at the final table.

Honorable Mentions

Six more players who belong in this conversation but fell outside the top ten for reasons of WSOP volume, recent activity, or realistic 2026 attendance.

Players Who Recently Broke the Drought

Ten players who hadn’t won a WSOP bracelet have been scratched off this list in the past four years. Every one of them was considered among the best in the game before they won. Some waited over a decade. Here is when and how they finally got their bracelet.

The Pattern

Nine of these ten breakthroughs came in one of three event types: $25K+ high rollers, $25K heads-up championships, or online bracelet events. Not one came from a flagship $1,000 or $1,500 open-field NLHE tournament.

That tells you something about where bracelet droughts end for elite pros. Smaller fields, higher buy-ins, and formats where skill edges are largest. For the candidates still on the list above, the $250K Super High Roller on June 13 and the WSOP Online series running in parallel are statistically the most likely paths to a first bracelet.

The one exception is Kempe, who won a $10K Super Turbo Bounty with a faster structure and a mixed field. But even that was a $10,000 buy-in with a sub-200 player field.

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Last updated May 2026, ahead of the 57th World Series of Poker.