The 57th World Series of Poker ended in Las Vegas on July 15 after 51 days of play at the Horseshoe and Paris. Its 100 bracelet events drew a record 251,899 entries, the biggest turnout in WSOP history. Only one piece of gold remains unclaimed: the Main Event bracelet.

The summer delivered a one-spot miss at history, three players climbing to nine bracelets and a Player of the Year lead of just 22 points. The finale comes in August, when the Main Event champion is decided on ESPN.

WSOP 2026 Recap by the Numbers

Record fields arrived at both ends of the buy-in scale, from the $550 Mini Mystery Millions to the $10,000 Main Event. Four of them stand out.

The official figures confirm the scale. The record 251,899 entries beat 2025’s 246,960, while the total prize money finished below last year’s $481 million: a bigger field chasing a slightly smaller pool. WSOP CEO Ty Stewart said “Las Vegas remains the undisputed epicenter of the poker universe”.

The headline records from the official wrap-up:

The record turnout had a wider base too. The Main Event field included 431 women, 4.68% of the field, up from 369 and 3.79% in 2025, while the Ladies Championship set a field record of its own with 1,475 entries.

Nobody won three bracelets this summer, but three players won two each: Naoya Kihara, Calvin Anderson and Eelis Parssinen. The biggest single score belonged to Adrian Mateos: $4,334,411 in the $250,000 Super High Roller, a sixth bracelet, and the record as the youngest ever to six bracelets at 31.

Yuri Dzivielevski banked $2,841,432 in the $100,000 High Roller, while Jamie Dwan came from five to one down heads-up to win $2,276,691 in the $50,000 High Roller. Daniel Negreanu added $2,257,718 in the $100,000 PLO High Roller, and every WSOP 2026 bracelet winner and payout is listed on our results tracker.

Hellmuth Falls One Spot Short of Bracelet 18

The final day of the series produced its defining image. Event #99, the $5,000 8-Handed, drew 884 entries for a $4,066,400 prize pool, and Phil Hellmuth reached its final table as chip leader, chasing a record-extending 18th bracelet. His opponent later put the rail at 1,500 people.

Heads-up lasted more than an hour. The record 17-time champion Phil Hellmuth doubled early with a turned straight before being ground down. On the final hand he called off with bottom pair and an ace against Darren Rabinowitz’s top pair, and the $464,286 consolation leaves the record on 17.

The Redemption of Darren Rabinowitz

Rabinowitz collected $695,256 and a second career bracelet less than a week after a brutal two-outer had ended his Main Event run in 145th place. It was Rabinowitz who put the rail at 1,500, almost all of it against him, and his read on the moment was blunt.

“I wanted to beat him. I wanted to win.”

Three Nine-Time Champions and the Chasing Pack

Three players reached nine career bracelets over the summer, and Michael Mizrachi got there first.

His victory in the $10,000 PLO Championship was worth $1,350,203 and made him only the eighth player ever to reach nine. We covered Mizrachi’s ninth bracelet in the PLO Championship in full when it happened.

Shaun Deeb matched him days later in the $1,500 8-Game Mixed, where a stack down to 300,000 became $181,625 and a ninth bracelet. Benny Glaser completed the trio in the $50,000 Poker Players Championship, earning $1,343,764 and the Chip Reese Memorial Trophy while tying Johnny Moss.

In the chasing pack, Negreanu bluffed his way to bracelet eight in the $100,000 PLO High Roller, getting two river bluffs through against Martirosian heads-up. Nick Schulman won his eighth in H.O.R.S.E., a bracelet in a fourth consecutive summer.

Calvin Anderson won the Razz and H.O.R.S.E. Championships within a single week, moving from five bracelets to seven and becoming the 18th player to reach that mark. David Peters claimed a fifth for $1,001,391, the last seven-figure first prize awarded before the Main Event finale.

The near-misses cut just as deep. Erik Seidel fell one place short of an 11th bracelet, one that would have tied Phil Ivey for second on the all-time list, when his flopped nut straight ran into Joshua Wang’s top set at his 43rd WSOP final table.

Naoya Kihara was denied a third bracelet of the summer on the final day. A win would have made him the third player in three years to do it, after Scott Seiver in 2024 and Benny Glaser in 2025.

Breakout Stories and Historic Firsts

Kristen Foxen won her sixth bracelet in the $25,000 High Roller, banking $1,773,083 for her career-best live score. Husband Alex Foxen added his fourth in Event #44, the $10,000 Super Turbo Bounty, giving the couple a bracelet each in the same series.

Naoya Kihara had already made history of his own in Week 2, winning back-to-back $10,000 championship events in the 2-7 ($428,923) and the Stud ($301,970). Only five players had done it before: Brunson, Ungar, Merson, Danzer and Mercier.

The historic firsts stacked up alongside them:

Josh Reichard finally broke through after years of near-misses, including a runner-up finish in the 2023 Mini Main Event, third in the 2025 Millionaire Maker and two more third places earlier this summer.

The youngest breakout belonged to Brayden Lou. Still at college and aged 21, he took the $500 Freezeout at only the fourth live tournament of his life.

Off the Felt: Shot Clocks and Hall of Fame Votes

The WSOP introduced a shot clock under Rule 80 on Day 7 of the Main Event, following a roughly 15-minute tank by Loren Klein on Day 6. Players now get 20 seconds before the flop and 30 per street after it, with six 30-second extension chips each.

Reception split the room. Shaun Deeb said on the ESPN broadcast that it “should have been done a lot sooner”, while Chris Brewer called it unfair on recreational players, with David Williams, Mike Matusow, Sam Greenwood and Patrick Leonard also critical.

The finale itself has a new stage. Main Event coverage returned to ESPN this summer, backed by a multi-year Warner Bros agreement carrying the action internationally and a redesigned final table arena.

The 2026 Poker Hall of Fame ballot brings eight finalists: first-timers Shaun Deeb, Jason Koon, Isaac Haxton, Chris Moorman and Justin Bonomo, alongside Scott Seiver, Mike Matusow and Isai Scheinberg.

Under the new format, the 33 living members cast up to four votes each, anyone named on 22 or more ballots is inducted, and up to six could enter at once. The Class of 2026 is announced during the final table broadcast.

A 22-Point Player of the Year Lead

Shaun Deeb ended the Las Vegas leg on top of the official standings with 3,410 points, 22 clear of Naoya Kihara on 3,388. Alex Foxen sits third on 3,381, leaving just 29 points across the top three.

The final $25,000 H.O.R.S.E. High Roller settled the Vegas-leg order: Kihara finished 3rd for $394,433, Deeb 8th and Foxen 10th. All three secure $100,000 WSOP Paradise packages, and the title is only settled when Paradise concludes on December 18.

For the first time the race spans three festivals, from WSOPE in Prague to the Bahamas leg in December.

The full Player of the Year standings and history live on our dedicated page, which we will keep updated until the race is settled, while the official WSOP Player of the Year leaderboard shows the raw points.

The 100th Bracelet and the One Still to Come

She Wong won the final bracelet of the Vegas leg in the one-day $1,000 Super Turbo, beating a field of 1,699 entries for $216,286. Wong was in tears as his rail rushed in.

“I’ve been waiting for this for a long time.”

Two more late results deserve their place in the story. Alexander Kostritsyn‘s win in the $25,000 H.O.R.S.E. was worth $872,052 and marked his first recorded live cash in eight years, while Nishant Sharma became the eighth Indian bracelet winner by taking the $800 Deepstack for $196,659.

The final nine of the Main Event return on August 3 to 5 on ESPN’s networks. Lucas Jumalon carries 194,000,000, over a third of everything in play, with $10,000,000 waiting for the winner and every finalist guaranteed $1,000,000. You can follow the Main Event finale coverage as it plays out.