WSOP: Taylor Atchison and Dylan Smith Score Debut Bracelets

Two of the latest bracelets to be handed out at the 2026 World Series of Poker highlighted one of the strengths of the festival: its wide variety of games and formats.

The first winner was Taylor Atchison, who took down the $1,500 stud eight-or-better event for his first victory at the series.

The second saw World Poker Tour champion Dylan Smith emerge victorious in the $2,500 big bet mix, which includes seven poker variants with no-limit and pot-limit betting. Like Atchison, Smith made his debut in the winner’s circle at the series with this victory.

Read on for more info on these two latest triumphs.

Event No. 69 – $1,500 Stud Eight-Or-Better

Taylor Atchison has upped his tournament game in a big way this summer. The Minneapolis, Minnesota resident recorded his first five-figure score midway through June with a 15th-place showing in the $10,000 Big O championship for $39,786.

Less than two weeks later, with just the sixth cash on his resume, Atchison captured his first WSOP gold bracelet. He beat out 647 entries in the $1,500 stud eight-or-better to earn the hardware and $159,276.

“Nowadays, I play everything except no-limit hold’em,” Atchison told PokerNews. “Like everybody, I grew up playing hold’em, but now I play a lot of Big O. Over the past couple of years, I have tried to expand to play all of the mixed games.”

This breakthrough win also came with 840 Card Player Player of the Year points. This was his first-ever POY-qualified score.

The strong turnout for this event (up over 5 percent from the 615 entries of 2025) created a prize pool of $858,892. The top 99 finishers made the money, with notables like Jason Daly (21st), Ben Yu (20th), Brian Rast (18th),  Ryan Hoenig (15th), Kane Kalas (9th), David Bach (6th), and Adam Owen (5th) running deep.

Reno’s Daniil Fedunov was ultimately the runner-up, with his flush running into Atchison’s full house in the final hand. Neither player had a qualifying low, which sent the scoop and the title to Atchison. Fedunov earned $106,162 for his second-place showing.

Final Table Results

Event No. 71 – $2,500 Mixed Big Bet

Dylan Smith’s largest win on the circuit came when he took down the 2024 WPT Rock’n’Roll Poker Open main event in December of 2024, earning $662,200 for that win in a large-field no-limit hold’em tournament.

While he has had plenty of his success in the NLH streets, Smith is hardly a one-trick pony. He has also proven capable in the mixed-game realm, with marquee deep runs in both the 2025 WSOP $10,000 dealers choice championship (2nd – $230,374) and the 2024 WSOP $50,000 Poker Players Championship (4th – $363,914).

With a couple of big wins in pot-limit Omaha as well, Smith is exactly the type of player who might excel in the $2,500 big bet mixed event, a tournament that features a rotation of no-limit hold’em, no-limit deuce-to-seven single draw lowball, pot-limit Omaha eight-or-better, pot-limit five-card double draw high, pot-limit Omaha, Big O, and pot-limit deuce-to-seven triple draw lowball.

It should come as little surprise, then, that Smith was able to navigate his way through a field of 388 entries on his way to securing his first bracelet and the $182,591 top prize. This score grew the New Jersey native’s earnings to nearly $5.9 million.

This win also came with 900 POY points. This was his second title and fourth final-table finish of the year. He’s now ranked 161st in the overall standings presented by CoinPoker.

Big Names In Big Bet

Smith was not the only well-rounded rounder in the mix, though. He had to contend with the likes of Patrick Leonard (18th), Carol Fuchs (14th), Nick Marchington (9th), Brad Owen (8th), Steve Billirakis (7th), and Renan Bruschi (4th) down the stretch. This was just the second WSOP final table for Owen. The popular poker vlogger previously finished sixth in an online no-limit hold’em event back in 2023.

Three-time bracelet winner Naoya Kihara came agonizingly close to a third bracelet of this summer and fourth overall, but ultimately bowed out in third place ($78,984).

That left Smith with roughly a 4:1 chip lead over bracelet winner Matt Vengrin going into heads-up play. He was soon able to convert that advantage into the title, winning the final hand with an 8-7-6-4-3 against a 10-8-7-5-2 for Vengrin in pot-limit triple draw deuce-to-seven lowball. Vengrin earned $118,647 as the runner-up. 

Final Table Results

Photo credit: WSOP / Miguel Cortes, Dominic Iaquinto