Trio Of Triumphs Makes It Eight WSOP Bracelets For Benny Glaser

The 2025 World Series of Poker is now more than halfway complete, with 56 of the 100 live bracelets already awarded at the time of publishing. There has been more than $210 million in prize money paid out thanks to the over 110,000 total entries in the first four weeks of action.

The average field size to this point now sits at 1,967 entries. The smallest turnout, understandably, came in the $250,000 buy-in super high roller, which drew 63 entries at a quarter-million a pop. The largest field overall remains the 19,654 that turned out for the first event on the schedule, the Mystery Millions. The second-largest field was the 16,301 for the $500 Colossus.

There have been many exciting storylines so far, but the clear throughline of the summer has been the dominance of bracelet veterans. To this point, 31 of the 56 events that have wrapped were won by a player with a bracelet already to their name. That amounts to more than 55 percent. That leaves 25 new bracelet winners this summer, but there are several big names among them.

Hat Trick For Glaser

A red-hot Benny Glaser blazed his name in the poker history books with yet another win at the 2025 WSOP. The 36-year-old poker pro from Southampton, England took down the $2,500 mixed triple draw lowball event in the early morning hours of June 22 for his third bracelet of the summer and eighth overall.

Just a few weeks earlier, Glaser won back-to-back titles in the $1,5000 mixed Omaha and $1,500 dealer’s choice events. His trio of bracelets this year make him just the seventh player to earn as many in a single series, joining the likes of Scott Seiver (2024), Jeffrey Lisandro (2009), Phil Ivey (2002), Ted Forrest (1993), Phil Hellmuth (1993), and Walter ‘Puggy’ Pearson (1973) in that incredible achievement.

“It feels outrageous, honestly,” said Glaser. “Three in one series. That’s so many in one series and it’s not even over yet. It’s unreal.”

The upshot of all this winning in 2025 is that Glaser’s career bracelet count has grown to eight, which is good for seventh place all time. He broke out of an expanding glut of players at seven bracelets, and now sits just one win behind the late great Johnny Moss. Glaser is also the fastest to eight bracelets, just edging out Phil Ivey with 11 years between his first and eighth title. It took Phil Hellmuth 15 years to get to eight.

Glaser defeated a field of 463 entries for this latest triumph. The event featured a rotation of badugi, deuce-to-seven triple draw, and ace-to-five triple draw. In addition to the hardware, Glaser also earned $208,552. This brought his haul for the festival to $626,248, and his lifetime tournament earnings to more than $9.4 million.

This was Glaser’s third bracelet in a triple draw event, having won his first in the $1,500 deuce-to-seven triple draw in 2015 and taken down the $10,000 championship of the same game in 2023. He also has three victories in Omaha events, winning the $1,500 and $10,000 Omaha eight-or-better events in 2016 and the $1,500 mixed Omaha earlier this year. Rounding out his wins are the 2021 razz championship and this year’s victory in the $1,500 dealers choice.

Schulman And Rast Outlast Opponents For Seventh Titles

After four long days of competition and a heads-up battle for the ages, Nick Schulman joined one of the most exclusive clubs poker has to offer. Schulman took down the $10,000 no-limit deuce-to-seven single draw championship, capturing that particular title for the third time in his career.

To earn the gold, Schulman played WPT record-holder Darren Elias heads-up for nearly eight consecutive hours, with no dinner break, before finally closing out his seventh career gold bracelet. The 40-year-old poker pro hailing from New York became just the 13th player in history to have earned as many titles at the series.

The first-place prize, worth $497,356, is the largest ever awarded in a deuce-to-seven tournament. Schulman outlasted a record-setting field of 233 in this event, adding to an illustrious list of career highlights that also includes winning this event in 2009 and 2012. He also finished second in this tournament in 2015 and fifth in 2011.

“I’ve just been around so many great players, and I’ve just kind of seen them all,” Schulman told Card Player when asked about his dominance in this format. “It’s my favorite game to play. And I think anytime you’re doing something that you’re really enjoying, it’s, you know, it’s good.”

It was another close call for Elias, who remains one of the more decorated poker players without a WSOP bracelet. The four-time WPT champion had come close to this particular title twice before, finishing third in both 2017 and 2019.

Schulman now has more than $24 million in recorded tournament earnings to his name. In addition to his incredible record at the series, he also boasts a WPT main event title, having won the 2005 WPT World Poker Finals at Foxwoods for nearly $2.2 million. This win helped propel Schulman all the way up to second in the PokerGO Tour rankings.

It didn’t take long for the count of players with seven or more bracelets to grow yet again. Just over a week after Schulman joined the list, three-time $50,000 Poker Players Championship winner Brian Rast managed an epic comeback at the final table of the $10,000 razz championship.

At multiple points during the final table, the 43-year-old poker pro swung from chip leader down to a nub of a stack, only to fight all the way back to the top. After a long battle, the 43-year-old Poker Hall of Fame member closed out the title for his seventh career bracelet. Rast also has wins in a $1,500 pot-limit hold’em event back in 2011, the 2018 $10,000 no-limit deuce-to-seven championship, and a $3,000 no-limit hold’em six-max event from 2021.

“I feel like no one ever deserves to win a tournament because it’s so crazy what has to happen to win,” Rast told reporters. “I was very short at least twice, if not three times. I really liked my mindset on this one. I was just telling myself, even before the final table, to ‘just focus on your play. If you bust at this point, no matter what happens, you have a great life, you’re doing well, playing good poker.’ And that’s all I can control. That was the longest heads-up battle that I’ve ever had.”

In outlasting 134 players for this latest win, Rast banked $306,644 to eclipse $28.3 million in career earnings in the process.

Vieira, ODB, And Johns Get To Four

Just three months after earning the largest prize of his poker tournament career, Portugal’s Joao Vieira triumphed in another massive high roller at the series to secure his second-biggest payday ever, along with his fourth bracelet.

Vieira topped a field of 103 entries in the $100,000 no-limit hold’em high roller to earn $2,649,158 and the hardware. The 35-year-old former professional basketball player turned poker crusher has now cashed for more than $8.8 million dollars this year, with more than half of that coming from his $4.6 million victory in a $150,000 buy-in at the Triton Poker Jeju festival in the spring.

It was also this same event at the WSOP Paradise series in the Bahamas last December where Vieira settled for second place and $2,590,000.

“I’m not thinking about what happened six months ago, or what’s going to happen in the next six months,” Vieira told reporters.

With 3,636 total POY points, Vieira is now sitting inside the top 15 in the overall standings heading into the back half of the year.

Given the buy-in, there were still some big paydays for the rest of the final table, with Aram Oganyan narrowly missing out on his first bracelet, but taking home a $1,766,099 consolation prize. A total of $1,212,020 went to Belgium’s Thomas Boivin for third, while Isaac Haxton banked $857,253 for fourth place.

David ‘ODB’ Baker may act more as a fantasy poker commissioner during the summer these days, but he still has plenty of on-the-felt skills to show off as well. Baker took down the $5,000 no-limit hold’em seniors high roller for $646,845, the second-largest result of his career. It trails only the $1,015,000 he won as the champion of the 2019 WPT L.A. Poker Classic. This latest triumph brought the 52-year-old poker pro’s career earnings to over $8.5 million.

Baker has rightly built a reputation as one of the most consistent tournament poker players on tour over the last two decades. Since 2007, the only years in which Baker didn’t make at least one final table at the series were 2009, 2016, and 2022. His previous bracelets came in limit hold’em, razz, and an eight-game mix.

“This one just felt different,” Baker explained to PokerGO. “This was like a real score. Not only did I win the bracelet, but I won a lot of money, and just knowing that, I’m going to be able to take care of my wife and not have to grind so damn much.”

Rounding out the triplet of four-timers was limit hold’em legend Ian Johns. He secured his fourth as the champion of this year’s $10,000 limit hold’em championship, besting a field of 118 entries to claim the most prestigious title in fixed-limit two-card poker for a second time.

Johns also won the same tournament in 2016, just 10 days after taking down that year’s $1,500 H.O.R.S.E. title. His first bracelet win had come a decade before those wins, topping 341 entries in a $3,000 limit hold’em event for his debut triumph at the series.

“When I was 18 I started playing Limit Hold’em a lot online, I just became obsessed with that game and that game only – studied forums, played a gazillions of hands, playing eight tables – like for years and years,” Johns told PokerNews. “The satisfaction of getting it done and knowing that I can come here and be competitive over so many years, just feels really good.”

Johns earned $282,455 for this latest victory after overcoming a stacked final table including a runner-up showing from high-stakes online legend Viktor ‘Isildur1’ Blom, who is having a standout summer despite still searching for his first bracelet. This was already the sixth cash and fourth final-table finish of the series for the Swede, who has already banked more than $900,000 in total cashes.

Linde And Racener Now Three-Time Champs

Dylan Linde topped a field of 194 entries in the $50,000 pot-limit Omaha high roller, securing his third career gold bracelet and the massive top prize of $2,146,414.

This was his largest payday yet on the poker tournament, outstripping the $1.6 million he earned for taking down the 2018 WPT Five Diamond World Poker Classic.

The 44-year-old professional player from Coeur d’Alene, Idaho now has more than $14.5 million in career earnings, with more than $4.3 million coming from his success in WSOP events. He captured his first bracelet in the 2021 $1,500 mixed Omaha eight-or-better event, topping a field of 641 to earn $170,269. His second came in a $500 no-limit hold’em online bracelet event. He outlasted 717 entries to secure the hardware and $60,336 in prize money.

The top three was rounded out by a pair of UK pros in Richard Gryko and Stephen Chidwick. Gryko, a PLO specialist, earned $1,000,423 for third place, while Chidwick banked $1,430,938 for second place. As a result, Chidwick is now in third place on the all-time PLO tournament money list with $7.5 million in earnings, just a couple buy-ins shy of leader Ben Tollerene.

“I’m kind of stunned,” Linde said following his victory. “It’s been a few really deep runs in a row. I feel very fortunate, and I mean, incredibly lucky to win such a large amount, my third bracelet, and to get heads-up with one of my best friends. I can’t imagine a better day.”

Earlier in the series, John Racener sped to victory in the $1,500 no-limit hold’em super turbo bounty event. The 39-year-old Floridian poker pro had just made his way to Las Vegas a couple days earlier, and overcame a field of 2,244 entries in the quick affair to earn his third career gold bracelet and the top prize of $247,595.

The 2010 WSOP main event runner-up now has over $13.8 million in career tournament earnings to his name. His previous two bracelets came in the 2017 $10,000 dealers choice championship and the 2024 $10,000 limit hold’em championship.

Koon Headlines Nine Who Earn Second Bracelets

The rest of the ‘rich getting richer’ crowd, when it comes to bracelet winners adding to their career haul, consists of nine players who had one prior victory at the series under their belts.

Jason Koon stands out among this crowd, with his win coming in the massive $50,000 no-limit hold’em high roller. His first win came in the $25,000 heads-up championship back in 2021. This latest win saw Koon earn $1,968,927 after topping a field of 171 entries. The 39-year-old 12-time Triton Poker champion has five multi-million-dollar scores on his long list of accomplishments, with another 10 cashes between $1 million and $2 million.

Koon has been particularly hot recently, cashing for more than $6.5 million since the start of May. This includes two wins at Triton Montenegro, which extended his lead as the tour’s title leader by seven more than any other player. The largest of this streak saw him take down the $150,000 event at that stop for just shy of $3.4 million. Koon climbed to 15th in the POY race thanks to this high-stakes spree.

“I’ve dedicated my entire life to being very good at this game,” Koon said after the win. “Every person in here is trying to win. It’s not like these guys have been around for 2 or 3 years. You’re talking about guys who have multiple decades of [scores] and somehow we’re still here and we’re playing the biggest game and winning. It’s amazing.”

Koon now sits in fourth place on poker’s all-time money list with more than $68.2 million in lifetime scores, just behind Chidwick, who surpassed $68.7 million thanks to his seven-figure payday in the $50,000 PLO event.

Another one-time winner to capture their second bracelet over the past fortnight was Tyler Brown. The 2023 Mystery Millions champ was reportedly almost disqualified late in the $600 no-limit hold’em/pot-limit Omaha mix event due to a color up dispute with tournament staff. Despite the distraction, he remained in the tournament, ultimately besting the 2,775-entry field to earn $178,126 and the hardware.

Ukraine’s Renat Bohdanov managed his biggest victory on the live circuit in a $3,000 buy-in no-limit hold’em event with 1,027 entries to earn a career-best score of $451,600. He previously took down a €350 buy-in event at the 2019 WSOP Europe for his first taste of gold.

Andrey Zhigalov’s second bracelet came in a $1,500 H.O.R.S.E. event for the second time, having already won the same tournament at the 2018 WSOP. The 36-year-old Russian-born pro now has more than $1 million in career tournament earnings after beating out the 867-entry field to earn $197,923.

Allan Le took down this year’s $1,500 razz event for his second bracelet. He outlasted a field of 472 entries for $126,363, defeating Shaun Deeb heads-up for the hardware. Incredibly, this was Le’s very first razz event ever, having only played the game in events like dealers choice and the eight-game mix.

“I only entered it because I busted out of the $1,000 PLO for three bullets,” Le told Card Player. “And that’s the maximum you could register for.”

It was a win-win in the $500 Salute To Warriors, which saw Joey Couden best 3,937 entries for his second gold bracelet and the top prize of $187,937. The other clear winner was veterans groups like the United Service Organizations who are set to receive over $155,000 raised from this tournament. $40 from each buy-in was set aside for that donation.

Jason Daly surged across the finish line in the $2,500 mixed Omaha and stud eight-or-better event, scooping the final four knockouts after chopping up the sixth-place finisher. Among those to fall during Daly’s final push to the title was all-time bracelet leader Phil Hellmuth, who ultimately fell just a couple of spots shy of capturing a record-extending 18th bracelet.

Just a few minutes after eliminating Hellmuth in third place, Daly closed out the victory to earn his second career bracelet and the top prize of $244,674. This was the second-largest score for the 41-year-old Texas resident.

A new top tournament score for longtime live scene fixture Tyler Patterson also came with his second bracelet. The WPT champion from Washington navigated his way through a 1,421-entry field in the $3,000 no-limit hold’em six-max event to earn $574,223, surpassing the $4 million earnings mark for his career.

Dennis Weiss triumphed over a massive field of 489 entries in the $25,000 pot-limit Omaha high roller, earning his second bracelet and the staggering $2,292,155 top prize. The German PLO specialist’s first win came last fall, when he took down a €5,000 PLO event at WSOP Europe for $177,486.

Former WSOP main event third-place finisher Michael Duek took second for $1,528,077. Duek has been particularly successful in PLO events as well, climbing to eighth on the all-time money list in just the last few years. Bracelet winner Jeffrey Hakim took third for $1,062,669.

Davies And Sternheimer Chief Among First-Timers

Seth Davies has been on fire the past couple of months, accumulating nearly $12 million dollars across nine cashes since the start of May. Along the way, he has made five final tables, finishing third once, second twice, and winning twice.

The latest win was the biggest of Davies’ career. He beat out 63 entries in the $250,000 super high roller to earn $4,752,551 and his first WSOP gold bracelet. The two-time Super High Roller Bowl champion had set his highest-score record less than a month earlier, when he finished as the runner-up in the $200,000 Triton Montenegro Invitational for nearly $4.2 million.

Alex Foxen, who currently leads the PGT points race and sits in third in the POY standings, was the runner-up for $3,060,314. Foxen came ever so close to winning this event a second time, having taken it down back in 2022 for a career-best score of nearly $4.6 million.

Third place finisher Thomas Boivin earned his second seven-figure score in the span of a week, having also placed third in the $100,000 buy-in. The two paydays added more than $3.2 million to the Belgian’s tally.

The sixth final table was the charm for mixed-game specialist Philip Sternheimer. After many close calls over the years, the German-born, UK-based poker pro finally broke through to hoist the gold. He topped a record field of 386 entries in the $10,000 Omaha eight-or-better championship to secure a $763,087 payout.

Bruno Furth, who won his second bracelet earlier in the series, finished as the runner-up, just edging out other multi-time WSOP champions like Shaun Deeb (3rd), Brian Hastings (4th), and Chris Vitch (5th).

More Bracelet Breakthroughs

That leaves another baker’s dozen of first-time champions. First up is $500 Colossus winner Courtenay Williams. The Los Angeles player overcame a 16,301-entry field, besting a final table that included Ryan Leng (7th) and Matt Glantz (3rd). The $542,540 first-place prize represents almost five times Williams’ previous combined live tournament earnings.

Next up on the first-timers list was Chang Lee, a South Korean high-stakes cash game player who had reportedly played in only one other tournament before opting to fire in the $25,000 buy-in no-limit hold’em event at the series.

Lee beat out a field of 392 entries to take home $1,949,044. Andrew Ostapchenko took second for $1,299,333, while Eli Berg finished third for $894,265.

Igor Zektser weathered a rollercoaster heads-up match to close out the title in the $1,500 Big O event. There were 1,499 total entries made in the five-card pot-limit Omaha eight-or-better tournament, with Zektser earning $297,285 from the $1,989,922 prize pool after scooping the final pot.

Colorado’s Mark Darner walked away with $496,826 as the champion of the $2,500 no-limit hold’em event. This was a new high score for Darner, topping the $132,169 he earned as the fourth-place finisher in the 2014 $3,000 six-max event. He now has more than $1.8 million in recorded scores to his name.

Jonathan Stoeber emerged victorious from the field of 4,481 entries that turned out for the $800 deepstack event, securing $352,610. This breakthrough came nearly a year after Stoeber’s closest call in a bracelet event, which saw him place sixth in the 2024 WSOP Online $777 event for $35,574.

Limit hold’em was once dominant in the live poker world, especially on the cash game scene, but has long since been replaced. That doesn’t mean the format doesn’t have its devotees, though. A total of 491 entries turned out for this year’s $1,500 limit hold’em event at the series, an increase of nearly 11 percent over 2024. Canada’s Jason Duong emerged victorious in the end, walking away with $130,061.

Klemens Roiter had already accumulated multiple millions in recorded tournament earnings prior to showing up in Las Vegas for this year’s WSOP. The 34-year-old Austrian boasted nine six-figure scores already, including several deep runs in high-stakes events. What Roiter had not yet done, though, was lock up a major title on the live circuit.

Roiter finally broke through to make a statement win this summer, outlasting a massive field in the $1,500 Monster Stack to earn the hardware and the top prize of $1,204,457. David Uvaydov settled for second place and $802,346.

More than a decade after recording his debut cash, Argentina’s Carlos Leiva survived a field of 1,932 entries in the $1,000 pot-limit Omaha event to take home $237,852 and the bracelet. This was the second-largest score on Leiva’s résumé, trailing only the $440,000 he secured with a win in the 2023 Enjoy Poker Tour Gran Final Millonaria.

51-year-old day trader and poker hobbyist Veerachai Vongxaiburana scooped the title and the $784,353 top prize in the $10,000 Big O championship. The Las Vegas resident topped 400 entries on his way to securing the gold, including runner-up Phil Hui, who narrowly missed out on his fifth bracelet.

58-year-old Brett Lim topped a massive field of 7,575 entries in this year’s $1,000 seniors event. The tournament was composed entirely of players aged 50 or older, each hoping to get their hands on the gold and the top prize of $653,839.

Samuel Rosborough of Texas was the last player standing from a field of 2,320 entries in the $1,500 buy-in no-limit hold’em freezeout to earn $410,426.

New York native Matt Vengrin recorded his first WSOP cash all the way back in 2007, finishing ninth in a $1,500 no-limit hold’em event at his first final table. He would go on to record more than 100 in-the-money performances at the series between that first run and this year’s festival. Along the way, he came painstakingly close to winning his first bracelet several times, including three runner-up finishes and one third-place showing.

Finally, more than 18 years after that first cash, a now 40-year-old Vengrin broke through and secured his first bracelet. He defeated a field of 1,564 entries in the 2025 WSOP $1,500 pot-limit Omaha eight-max event, earning $306,791 for the win.

“It feels as good as I thought it would,” Vengrin said on social media after the win.

If you were to craft the most difficult path to a WSOP title, it would likely resemble the one that Kristopher Tong traveled along his way to winning the $10,000 H.O.R.S.E. championship. Five of the seven players standing in Tong’s way at the final table owned at least two WSOP bracelets. Future Poker Hall of Famers Scott Seiver (seven times a WSOP champion) and Jason Mercier (six bracelets) were both in contention, as was recently crowned five-time bracelet winner Bradley Ruben. But Tong would not be denied. He overcame a field of 207 players to win a career-best $452,689 and his first bracelet.

• Photos by PokerGO, Poker.org, WSOP