Darren Rabinowitz’s empty chair earned him $3,394 dollars at the Wynn Signature Series while he was busy closing out the victory in the 2026 World Series of Poker Circuit Planet Hollywood main event. Rabinowitz had to skip day 2 of a $400,000 guaranteed $1,100 buy-in at Wynn Las Vegas in order to focus his efforts on the final day of the $1,700 WSOPC main event elsewhere on the Las Vegas Strip. The decision paid dividends, as he secured his fifth gold ring and the top prize of $175,430 as the champion, while his unmanned stack went on to place 20th.
This victory was the fourth-largest score of Rabinowitz’s career. The bracelet winner now boasts nearly $4.7 million in lifetime earnings across more than 500 recorded in-the-money finishes.
Rabinowitz had to resort to social media posts to find out how he fared at Wynn. His stack ultimately outlasted 24 other players before blinding out just a couple of spots short of the final two tables.
How’d I finish?
— Darren (@DarrenRabbi) January 13, 2026
Closing Out The Win
The turnout of 616 total entries saw the $500,000 guarantee nearly doubled in the WSOPC Planet Hollywood $1,700 buy-in no-limit hold’em main event. The top 93 finishers earned a share of the $933,240 prize pool, with several big names joining Rabinowitz at the business end of the tournament. Among them were bracelet winner and World Poker Tour champion Scott Eskenazi (20th), recent WSOP Paradise $2,500 turbo event winner Imari Love (13th), 2022 WSOPC Choctaw main event champion and 2023 North American Poker Tour Las Vegas winner Sami Bechahed (12th), bracelet winner and 2024 European Poker Tour Barcelona champion Stephen Song (10th), and high-stakes regular Victoria Livschitz (8th).
The final heads-up showdown for the ring pitted Rabinowitz against David DiBernardi. Rabinowitz showed down a royal flush in clubs at one point in the clash, which helped him regain control of the match after DiBernardi had come back from a healthy initial deficit. In the final hand, Rabinowitz’s top pair of sevens held up against his opponent’s second pair of fours. DiBernardi earned a career-best score of $116,917 for his second-place showing.
This victory put Rabinowitz inside the top 10 in the early 2026 Card Player Player of the Year race standings presented by CoinPoker.
Final Table Results
| Place | Player | Payout | POY Points |
| 1 | Darren Rabinowitz | $175,430 | 840 |
| 2 | David Dibernardi | $116,917 | 700 |
| 3 | Kayla Clackum | $81,321 | 560 |
| 4 | Katsumoto Sakaguchi | $57,545 | 420 |
| 5 | Drake Kemper | $41,439 | 350 |
| 6 | Jacob Mendelsohn | $30,378 | 280 |
| 7 | Yuanzhi Cao | $22,678 | 210 |
| 8 | Victoria Livschitz | $17,245 | 140 |
| 9 | Alan Merdita | $13,363 | 70 |
Photo credit: WSOP / Poker.Org
