Calvin Anderson and Naoya Kihara should have dinner together and compare notes. This past weekend, Anderson became the second player – after Kihara – to become a double-bracelet winner in the 2026 World Series of Poker.
But that’s not all, like Kihara, Anderson also won his two bracelets in back-to-back championship events. He previously won Event #48: $10,000 Razz Championship last week and followed that up with his most recent win in Event #54: $10,000 H.O.R.S.E. Championship.
The two bracelets bring Anderson’s career total to seven, putting him in rarified air. He is now tied with a group made up of Poker Hall of Famers or future Hall of Famers: Michael Mizrachi, Brian Rast, Scott Seiver, Daniel Negreanu, John Hennigan, Men Nguyen, and Billy Baxter. Only nine players have scored more than seven bracelets.
Anderson and Kihara are also in a small, elite group of players to win back-to-back championship events. The others are Doyle Brunson, Stu Ungar, George Danzer, Jason Mercier, and Greg Merson.
Despite the double bracelet week, Calvin Anderson sits in just 11th place on the 2026 World Series of Poker Player of the Year leaderboard. He received about 1,500 combined leaderboard points from the two tournaments, but with only one other triple-digit point cash, his points total is just 1,726.
Compare that to William Foxen, who leads the POY race with 2,720, nearly 1,000 more than Anderson. Foxen has “only” won a single bracelet, but that win was good for over 1,000 points. He also has four other finishes that got him more than 300 points each.
Naoya Kihara, by the way, is in fourth place with 2,007 points. Players’ top 15 points results count toward their total.
Anderson doesn’t care about all that, though. He told PokerNews, “I didn’t come into the series thinking I was going to win Player of the Year or try to win Player of the Year, necessarily. I just play the stuff I think I’m good at. I skipped a lot of tournaments…I just kind of played the stuff that I felt I was stronger, the stuff that I wanted to do. I think that’s better when you just do what you really feel like doing.”
Anderson will not nab back-to-back-to-back championship events, as he was knocked out of Event #60: $50,000 Poker Players Championship out of the money.
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