The Muck · WSOP Daily Brief
Day 52
The summer is over, and it went out swinging. All four final-day bracelets landed Wednesday, and the biggest one got away from the biggest name: Phil Hellmuth spun 13 big blinds into a heads-up seat for bracelet 18, then ran into Darren Rabinowitz, who won the $5K 8-Handed for $695,256 a week after a two-outer ended his Main Event in 145th. In the $25K H.O.R.S.E., cash game specialist Alexander Kostritsyn took $872,052 and his first bracelet in his first live tournament cash in eight years, while Naoya Kihara finished third and quietly walked off with the POY lead. Nishant Sharma won the $800 Deepstack, and She Wong beat Ryuta Nakai in the Super Turbo to claim the last bracelet of the Vegas summer. The ledger now reads 99 of 100. The only bracelet left is the big one, decided August 3 to 5 on ESPN.
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Darren Rabinowitz won Event #99: $5,000 8-Handed No-Limit Hold'em for $695,256 and his second bracelet, beating Phil Hellmuth heads-up on the final day of the series, per PokerNews. Hellmuth started the day with roughly 13 big blinds, spun it into the final table chip lead, and settled for $464,286 as the runner-up. Rabinowitz estimated 1,500 spectators packed the Horseshoe and joked that it felt like 1,400 of them were against him. The heads-up battle ran over an hour despite the fast structure; Hellmuth doubled early with a turned straight through Rabinowitz's flopped two pair, but Rabinowitz ground him back down and won the final hand with top pair against Hellmuth's bottom-pair stand. Six days earlier, Rabinowitz busted the Main Event in 145th on what PokerNews called a brutal two-outer.
Why it mattersThis was as close as Hellmuth has come to 18 in years, on the literal last table of the summer, with the whole room pulling for him. And the man who denied him did it a week after the worst beat of his own summer. Rabinowitz told PokerNews he understood the rail but really did not want to lose to this guy. Redemption arcs do not get much cleaner, and Hellmuth's record chase now waits for another year.
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Alexander Kostritsyn won Event #97: $25,000 High Roller H.O.R.S.E. for $872,052 and his first bracelet, beating Ali Eslami ($578,718) heads-up, per PokerNews. It was Kostritsyn's first recorded live tournament cash in eight years; the cash game specialist told PokerNews he registered late after playing cash until four in the morning and has played only four tournaments this year. The POY drama resolved fast: Alex Foxen bubbled the unofficial final table when Kostritsyn beat him in a Razz hand, which prompted Shaun Deeb to walk over and personally thank Kostritsyn. Deeb then busted eighth for $88,909, and Naoya Kihara's third-place finish for $394,433 moved him into the Player of the Year lead, per PokerNews. Julien Sitbon, the overnight chip leader, laddered to fourth for $276,297.
Why it mattersThe table poker media spent two days hyping delivered: all three POY contenders busted in the same event, in the exact order that flipped the race. Kihara now leads the first-ever $1 million POY chase heading into the December finale at WSOP Paradise, and he came within two spots of a third bracelet this summer, which only Seiver and Glaser have done in recent years. Also, Deeb thanking the man who busted his rival is the most Deeb thing to happen all series.
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She Wong won Event #100: $1,000 Super Turbo No-Limit Hold'em for $216,286 and his first bracelet, defeating Japan's Ryuta Nakai ($144,101) in a 45-minute heads-up battle, per PokerNews live reporting. The one-day event drew 1,699 entries for a $1,495,120 prize pool. Wong won the final hand with ace-deuce holding against Nakai's nine-eight suited, shortly after picking off a river bet with a pair of sixes and a deuce kicker. Dzmitry Urbanovich, chasing his second bracelet of the summer after winning the $10K 8-Game, fell third for $104,032 when his ace-ten ran into Nakai's ace-king.
Why it mattersThe 2026 Vegas series ended at 20-minute levels with a call that most players could not make with a gun to their head. For Nakai, who bagged a top-ten stack in the $800 Deepstack on Tuesday and has now added a runner-up to his collection of near-misses, the first bracelet keeps hiding in plain sight. He left the summer as arguably the best player in Vegas without one.
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Nishant Sharma won Event #98: $800 Deepstack No-Limit Hold'em, outlasting a field of 2,036 entries for $196,659 and his first WSOP bracelet, per PokerNews, which dubbed him an Eastern Hemisphere crusher bringing his skills to Las Vegas. The event carried a $1,425,200 prize pool. Kfir Nahum, the Israeli who led the final 129 into the last day, did not finish the job; his final placement was not itemized in our sources.
Why it mattersSharma is one of India's most accomplished tournament pros, and the bracelet is the missing line on the resume finally filled in. An $800 buy-in event with a 2,036-entry field on the final day of the series is a genuine gauntlet: fast levels, desperate stacks, and everyone playing their last hand of the summer whether they like it or not.
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Adam Hendrix, who returned to Event #99 third in chips hunting his first bracelet, was eliminated in tenth place, one spot short of the final table, per PokerNews. The report notes he got his money in good and the deck turned against him. David Peters, fresh off his fifth bracelet Tuesday, fell in 16th in his bid for a same-week double, and Jennifer Harman busted 33rd before the first break.
Why it mattersHendrix has more than $10.5 million in live earnings and remains the most decorated empty trophy case in poker. Bagging third of 72 on the final day and busting on a cooler in tenth is the kind of exit that follows a player into the offseason. The bracelet math resets in December, but the summer window is shut.
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With Wednesday's four bracelets, every open event of the 2026 WSOP is complete, and poker.org's full winners list shows 99 of 100 bracelets decided. The only one outstanding is Event #82, the Main Event, which resumes August 3 at Paris Las Vegas with the final table playing out live on ESPN through August 5. Housekeeping note: our Tuesday brief said the count stood at 96 with four to play, which adds to 100 and would have required the Main Event to be finished. It is not. The correct arithmetic was 95 plus four; we double-counted one somewhere along the way, and the official ledger is 99 of 100.
Why it mattersThe 2026 Vegas series is in the books: 100 events, 99 champions crowned, one bracelet in a display case waiting for the August Nine. Now come three weeks of chip-leader profiles, solver discourse, and the strange silence of a poker world holding its breath. We regret the phantom bracelet.
All four final-day bracelets landed Wednesday, July 15: Kostritsyn ($25K H.O.R.S.E.), Rabinowitz ($5K 8-Handed), Sharma ($800 Deepstack), and Wong ($1K Super Turbo). That closes the Vegas ledger at 99 of 100. Correction from yesterday: our count of 96 was one high; the true pre-final-day number was 95. The Main Event bracelet is decided August 3 to 5 on ESPN.
First bracelet and first recorded live tournament cash in eight years for the Russian cash game specialist, who beat Ali Eslami heads-up, per PokerNews. Registered late after playing cash until 4 a.m.
Second bracelet, won by beating Phil Hellmuth heads-up to deny bracelet 18, one week after busting 145th in the Main Event on a two-outer, per PokerNews.
First bracelet for the Indian pro, who topped a 2,036-entry field and a $1,425,200 prize pool, per PokerNews.
First bracelet, beat Ryuta Nakai heads-up in 45 minutes to win the last event of the summer, topping 1,699 entries, per PokerNews live reporting.
Other notable final-day exits in Event #99 per PokerNews: Jennifer Harman (33rd), Artur Martirosian (48th), Niall Farrell (59th), and Sean Winter (68th), plus Josh Norvock, the Day 1 chip leader, in 9th for $54,204.
Spun roughly 13 big blinds into the final table chip lead and a heads-up seat for bracelet 18 before falling to Rabinowitz, per PokerNews. The record chase resumes in December at the earliest.
Lost a 45-minute heads-up to She Wong in the last event of the summer, per PokerNews live reporting. Still no bracelet for one of Japan's best.
The consolation prize for missing a third bracelet of the summer: the Player of the Year lead, per PokerNews.
The overnight chip leader got short, doubled repeatedly, and laddered to fourth before busting to Kostritsyn in Stud, per PokerNews. Still chasing his first live bracelet.
Tripled early at the final table but bowed out eighth, per PokerNews. His POY repeat bid now runs through Paradise.
Fell to Kostritsyn in a Razz hand, per PokerNews, surrendering the POY lead he carried into the day. Exact payout not stated in our sources.
Got his money in good one spot from the final table and lost, per PokerNews. $10.5 million in earnings, zero bracelets, one long flight back to Alaska. Payout not stated in our sources.
The same-week double after Tuesday's $10K 6-Max win was not to be, per PokerNews. Payout not stated in our sources.
Third place in the $25K H.O.R.S.E. vaulted him past Foxen and Deeb into the lead. Three final-day scenarios were possible and Kihara hit his. Updated point totals were not published in our sources; the race is decided at WSOP Paradise in December.
Busted 10th in the H.O.R.S.E. to Kostritsyn in Razz and lost the POY lead with it, per PokerNews. Entered the day at 3,283 points; where he sits now depends on the small 10th-place points, which our sources do not itemize.
The reigning POY added final table points but not enough to take the lead, per PokerNews. He did find time to personally thank Kostritsyn for busting Foxen, which is the competitive spirit in its purest form. The first-ever third POY title now requires a Paradise heater.
For the first time the POY race is decided outside Vegas, with the summer standings as the launching pad. A hundred-ish points separate the top three by our last confirmed figures, and the Bahamas schedule will decide who banks the seven-figure prize pool's top share.