Tyler Brown Dodges Being DQ’d, Wins WSOP Second Bracelet

Tyler Brown was reportedly almost disqualified late in the $600 no-limit hold’em/pot-limit Omaha mix event at the 2025 World Series of Poker.

Despite a dustup with tournament staff, he remained in the tournament, ultimately besting the 2,775-entry field to earn $178,126 and his second piece of WSOP gold. The win gave the 2023 WSOP mystery millions champ more than $3.3 million in tournament earnings, with about two-thirds of it coming from his success at the WSOP.

However, his second win was almost nixed before he even made the final table.

Color-Up Dispute Nearly Leads To Disqualification

With about 30 players remaining in the event, tournament staff began coloring up some smaller denomination chips. When one of the floors reached Brown’s stack, they didn’t agree on how much to color up.

The two argued for a bit and Brown eventually cursed at the floor about the situation. Consequently, the staff gave Brown a one-round penalty.

“We were in the middle of a level, in the middle of the hand. Two people sitting next to me, one guy bet and got shoved all-in on. While this chaos is happening, he’s waiting on a decision when he’s all-in, me and the floor are yelling back and forth at each other, and he [the floor person] is grabbing my chips out of my stack, telling me, ‘This is my way, we’re coloring up exactly what I want, too bad.’ I’m trying to stop him, he’s reaching over me to grab chips out of my stack… it was quite a scene,” said Brown in a social media video post.

The tournament staff apparently wanted to color up three million worth of his smaller denomination chips and he only agreed to coloring up 2 million initially. Later on, Brown alleges that the floor staff he was first speaking to claimed that he had refused to color up any of his chips. He responded with an expletive that led to him earning the one-round penalty.

“I got threatened to get DQ’d twice,” Brown said later on in the video.

Brown ultimately did color up the 2 million he claims he initially offered and everyone moved on from there. For more on his side of the story, check out the video posts embedded below.

pic.twitter.com/DSycHUt0Yh

— Tyler Brown (@TheBestPanda00) June 10, 2025

Back To Poker

After tournament staff and Brown put the issue behind them, the focus returned to the massive tournament at hand. Brown was the chip leader when the final table was set, with World Poker Tour Social Media manager Easton Oreman hot on his heels.

Noah Bronstein won a flip with A-J against the pocket tens of Jiaze Li (9th – $15,779) to narrow the field to eight. Bjorn Gravlien then won with pocket aces against pocket kings during a round of PLO to send Oliver Tot packing in eighth place ($20,411).

Brown then knocked out Caio Sobral (7th – $26,679) and Jacob Mendelsohn (6th – $35,235) in rapid succession to narrow the field to five.

Bryan Andrews then got the last of his short stack in with A-10 leading the 8-2 of Brown who called from the big blind (the shove was for fewer than four big blinds).  Brown made a flush with his deuce of diamonds to score the knockout, ending Andrews’ run in fifth place ($47,013).

Bronstein was the next to fall. He got all-in with K-Q-J-8 and queen-high clubs facing K-K-10-2 with king-high diamonds for Gravlien. The pocket pair held up through an eight-high runout and Bronstein settled for $63,367.

Closing It Out

Oreman was down to just a few big blinds when his last hand arrived. He got all-in with a diamond draw in pot-limit Omaha, and was up against jacks up for Gravlien. The river improved Gravlien to jacks full to see Oreman knocked out in third place ($86,268).

Heads-up play began with roughly a 5:3 lead for Brown. The final hand saw all the chips go in after a K♦J♥7♦ flop. Brown had top set with K♥K♣Q♦6♠ and was up against straight and flush draws for Gravlien, who held A♦10♦8♥2♥. The 10♣ turn and 8♣ river kept Brown’s set ahead, bringing the tournament to a close. Gravlien was awarded $118,618 as the runner-up.

Final Table Results

Photo credit: WSOP.