More First-Time Winners Bank Bracelets At 2026 WSOP

The 2026 World Series of Poker is roughly two-thirds of the way through its 100-bracelet schedule, with 66 live events completed so far. Over 138,700 entries were made across those events, with more than $239.2 million in prize money paid out along the way.

The champions of the finished tournaments alone account for over $41.1 million, with the four latest champions adding just shy of $1 million with their triumphs inside the Horseshoe and Paris Las Vegas.

The four winners came out on top in three no-limit hold’em events, but the tournaments were separated by more than just price points. Lionel Barracano took down the $1,000 super seniors, which requires entrants to be at least 60 years of age to play.

Ciro Gonzalez’s win came in the $1,500 freezeout, one of the select tournaments on the agenda to forego the modern conceit of re-entry, making for an old-fashioned one-and-done approach regarding tournament life. 

Finally, Breno Drumond and Henrique Lessa took down the $1,000 tag team event, which sees pairs of players take turns guiding their stack throughout the tournament.

Here is a closer look at how this trio of tournaments played out.

Event No. 61 – $1,000 No-Limit Hold’em Super Seniors

A total of 3,323 entries turned out for this year’s super seniors event, making for a prize pool of $2,924,240. This tournament, which first debuted in 2015, adds another 10 years to the 50-year age requirement of the standard seniors championship.

The hefty turnout was more or less on par with the 3,338 entries made in 2025. This year, the top 499 finishers made the money, with a min-cash being just over twice what players posted to participate.

In the end, France’s Lionel Barracano came away with the title and the top prize of $355,263. The amateur has been playing for two decades, with his first WSOP cash coming in 2017. Before this victory, his top score on the live circuit had been a 12th-place finish in the 2024 running of this same tournament for $22,598.

Plenty of accomplished players joined Barracano in making deep runs, including bracelet winners Antonin Teisseire (39th), Rob Hollink (25th), and Greg Raymer (12th). The 2004 WSOP main event champion made it to the fourth and final day in this tournament, but lost a crucial coin flip with pocket sevens against A-J to fall just a few spots short of the final table.

Barracano defeated another bracelet winner, Kevin Song, heads-up for the title. Song took out Donald Briggs in third place ($176,564) to enter the final showdown with the lead, but Barracano won a huge clash early with pocket jacks to earn a commanding chip advantage. The final hand pitted two pocket pairs against each other preflop, with pocket fives holding off pocket fours. Barracano flopped a set and turned a full house to close out the win. Song earned $236,712 as the runner-up, the third-largest score of his career.

Final Table Results

Event No. 65 – $1,500 No-Limit Hold’em Freezeout

While Barracano came out on top in the super seniors, Ciro Gonzalez fared less well in the tournament. He and a friend traveled to Las Vegas for the event to celebrate both turning 60. Gonzalez didn’t cash in that tournament, but decided to hop into the $1,500 freezeout. It was a call that turned out to be quite profitable.

The jewelry business owner from Cancun, Mexico was the last player standing from the 2,617 that turned out for this throwback event, which eschewed the multi-entry and re-entry formats in favor of a one-entry-per-player approach. He earned $449,067 and his first bracelet for his efforts.

Before this breakthrough performance, Gonzalez’s top result was the $5,672 he earned a few days earlier with a 15th-place finish in a $3,000 five-card pot-limit Omaha bounty event at the Wynn Summer Classic. Now, he is a WSOP champion.

“I have some results, right, but nothing like this. I’m so excited. But the bracelet is the most important for me. The money is always good, and we play for that, but the bracelet is something special,” Gonzalez told PokerNews reporters.

In addition to the hardware and the money, Gonzalez also scored 1,200 Card Player Player of the Year points. This was his first POY-qualified score of 2026, but it alone was enough to move him within reach of the top 300 in the year-long standings, which are presented by CoinPoker.

Among the notables who went deep in this event were Martin Zamani (46th), Jared Jaffee (34th), Nick Palma (24th), Martin Jacobson (18th), Antoine Labat (14th), and Aram Zobian (8th).

Final Table Results

Event No. 66 – $1,000 No-Limit Hold’em Tag Team

The tag team event drew 1,375 entries before registration closed, making for a $1,210,000 prize pool in the diverting dual-player tournament.

For the second straight year, it was a pair of Brazilians who came out on top. In fact, Breno Drumond and Henrique Lessa are reportedly poker students of the two winners from 2025, Kelvin Kerber and Peter Patricio, who offer coaching services.

“It’s been seven years of hard work chasing this dream. We come here to live this dream, and now we are living it,” Drumond told PokerNews via translation.

Drumond brought some experience playing heads-up for a bracelet to the table, having placed second in last year’s $2,500 freezeout for $298,690. Lessa’s previous top score saw him take down a €2,700 buy-in at the 2025 European Poker Tour Barcelona stop for $471,510.

Japan’s Ruka Yamauchi and Shotaro Murase were the runners-up. Notables who ran deep included Vincent Moscati, who finished seventh with his teammate Jennifer Zewe, and bracelet winner Orson Young, who placed fourth alongside Christine Brewer.

Final Table Results

Photo credits: WSOP / Alicia Skillman, Lennart Hennig, Dominic Iaquinto, Miguel Cortes