Darren Rabinowitz Denies Phil Hellmuth Bracelet No. 18, Secures His Second

Phil Hellmuth’s 17th World Series of Poker bracelet was won in the wee hours of July 2, 2023, on the eve of that year’s main event getting underway. The victory came in a super turbo event, away from the fanfare or bright lights of a broadcast. Three years later, the Poker Hall of Famer came within one spot of adding a record-extending 18th win at the series in similar circumstances. The 61-year-old navigated his way down to heads-up play in the $5,000 no-limit hold’em eight-max event that wrapped on the final night of the 2026 WSOP, drawing throngs of in-person support on the rail in place of a fired-up livestream chat.

In the end, Darren Rabinowitz was able to defeat the all-time bracelet winner with the hardware on the line, earning his second career victory at the series and a career-best score of $695,256.

“I’m a poker fan, so I understand it, but I really didn’t want to lose to this guy,” Rabinowitz told PokerNews live reporters after closing out the title. “I wanted to beat him. I wanted to win.”

Phil Hellmuth

This score pushed Rabinowitz’s live earnings to $5.6 million, with over $1.8 million coming from his success in bracelet events. The longtime grinder’s previous win at the series came in a 2023 WSOP Online event. He took down the $1,000 buy-in championship that year for $91,861.

In addition to the money and the hardware, Rabinowitz also scored a massive 1,824 Card Player Player of the Year points for his latest triumph. This was his fourth final-table finish and second title of the year, having also won the WSOP Circuit Planet Hollywood main event. With 3,106 total points, he now sits inside the top 50 in the 2026 POY rankings presented by CoinPoker.

‘I’m The Best Player, And Everybody Knows It’

This heads-up finale wrapped up just before the end of July 15. Had Hellmuth extended the match a bit longer and come back to win, he would have done so on his 62nd birthday.

Card Player caught up with the all-time bracelet leader shortly after he finished second for $464,286 to learn about his experience.

“It’s just very frustrating. I put myself in a great position. I think I was never all-in and called, for eight hours or something like that,” said Hellmuth.

“The bracelet was sitting in front of me,” he lamented later in the video interview. Check out the full clip below.

“You gotta give him credit,” said Hellmuth of Rabinowitz. “He played tough. But I feel like I’m the best player, and everybody knows it. And it’s just a shame that I couldn’t win the bracelet.”

Caught @phil_hellmuth just before he left the Horseshoe for the final time this WSOP — right after his 2nd-place finish in Event 99: $5,000 8-Handed No-Limit Hold’em pic.twitter.com/l2Bk8zaE53

— Card Player: The Poker & Gambling Authority (@CardPlayerMedia) July 16, 2026

Action From Day 2

This event took just two days to narrow the field of 884 entries down to a champion. The $4,066,400 prize pool was split amongst the top 134 finishers. Notables like Eelis Parssinen (103rd),  Scott Seiver (102nd), Andrew Moreno (97th), Anthony Zinno (96th), Michael Moncek (82nd), Leo Margets (50th), Artur Martirosian (48th), Sam Soverel (45th), Joseph Cheong (43rd), Cary Katz (40th), Jennifer Harman (33rd), Cliff Josephy (29th), Ren Lin (28th), and Brian Rast (27th) all ran deep.

Five-time bracelet winner David Peters finished 16th for $27,537 on the heels of his win in the $10,000 six-max championship. Three-time bracelet winner Nick Guagenti soon followed in 15th place ($33,928).

With Adam Hendrix’s elimination in 10th place ($42,524), the final table was set with Hellmuth in the lead and Rabinowitz in fourth chip position. Rabinowitz’s climb up the leaderboard began when he knocked out Josh Norvock (9th – $54,204). Bracelet winner Nick Pupillo scored a couple of eliminations on the way to short-handed action, but was ultimately eliminated in fifth place ($168,402). Rabinowitz then busted Joshua Stewart (4th – $232,570) to set up a three-way clash with Hellmuth and Nicholas Palma, who had been verbally clashing with Hellmuth throughout this event and the series.

In fact, Hellmuth posted a video on the first day of the series that began with him saying, “Folks, I think I’ve been here like 20 minutes. One guy called me a pansy.”

“It was me, Nick Palma,” said Palma, as Hellmuth panned to show his antagonist sitting on his right.

Rabinowitz ultimately sent Palma packing in third place ($326,136). A♠J♠ held against A♣4♦ through a 10♣9♣7♦7♣K♥ runout to set the heads-up battle for the bracelet. Palma now has over $4.5 million in career cashes to his name after this podium showing.

Final Showdown

Fans gathered on the rail to see the clash, which began with more than a 3:2 advantage for Rabinowitz. The action was live-streamed for nearly an hour on a WSOP social media account, with six-time bracelet winner Martin Kabrhel offering some commentary from the sidelines while the action was filmed on a smartphone.

Hellmuth soon won a massive pot with a turned straight against the flopped two pair of Rabinowitz to overtake the lead. The stacks evened out when Rabinowitz turned a flush. Hellmuth made a flush of his own when a fourth diamond hit the river, but Rabinowitz’s was higher, and he took the pot to level the playing field.

Rabinowitz soon pulled ahead and then extended his lead, winning a few big pots without a showdown to approach a 2:1 advantage.

In the final hand, Rabinowitz raised to 2,000,000 from the button with 9♠7♦. Hellmuth called with A♥2♠ and the flop came down 9♣8♠2♣. Hellmuth check-called 3,500,000 with bottom pair and the 4♦ rolled off on the turn. Rabinowitz moved all-in with his top pair of nines and Hellmuth went into the tank. He eventually made the hero call for his remaining 10,200,000. The 7♥ completed the board, giving Rabinowitz two pair and the title.

Hellmuth earned $464,286 as the runner-up. He now boasts over $28.3 million in lifetime cashes, with more than $19.2 million of that coming from his 231 cashes in bracelet events.

This was the record-extending 15th runner-up finish for Hellmuth at the series.

Final Table Results

Photo credits: WSOP / Alicia Skillman, Travis Ball.