Cool Stories About WSOP Bracelets: The 5 Best Ever

Neymar Jr.’s Bracelet

Did you know that Neymar owns a WSOP gold bracelet? And he didn’t even win it.

It turns out the organizers of the World Series of Poker simply gifted the iconic champion’s trophy.

According to WSOP director Gregory Chochon, Neymar visited the series a few years ago (most likely in 2016). He was playing at a table with friends and asked to see the bracelet.

The organizers obliged — Neymar was impressed with the piece and started filming a video for his millions of Instagram followers, saying,

Seeing his reaction, the WSOP team didn’t hesitate long and decided to give him a bracelet as a gift. It was personally handed over by Tournament Director Ty Stewart.

In reality, a WSOP bracelet isn’t all that expensive — it costs around $1.5K. The Main Event bracelet, of course, is pricier, with its value estimated in the five-figure range

The Bracelet That Nearly Performed at the Super Bowl

This story was shared by Chris Moneymaker on the Chirp and a Chair Podcast.

Justin Timberlake was doing the halftime show for the Super Bowl that year. And he wanted to wear my bracelet because he wanted to do some kind of homage — he’s from Memphis — so he wanted to wear my bracelet during the show. I’m like, man, he can’t wear it — I mean, it’s huge.

So he took it to try, but he couldn’t perform with it while dancing. So he had my bracelet for about two weeks. I was just like, can I please have my bracelet back?

And it’s funny, because when I tried calling to get my bracelet back from Justin Timberlake — I had his number — I’d always get someone else answering like, “How do you have this number? Who are you?”

“You have my property.” But yeah, they took care of it.

A Watch Instead of a Bracelet

Did you know that the WSOP bracelet wasn’t always the official trophy? 

At the first WSOP in 1970, the winner received a silver cup. From 1971 to 1974, winners were given a “corny trophy.” In 1975, it was a sterling plate. It wasn’t until 1976 that bracelets became the standard prize. But in 1982, they briefly stopped giving them out.

Bracelets were seen as cheap and perceived as women’s jewelry. Organizers decided to try something new and awarded players gold watches instead. 

The idea flopped, and bracelets made a comeback in 1983. 

David Sklansky, who won two WSOP events that year, received two watches and later auctioned them off.

Two Drunken Bracelet Prop Bets

This story dates back to 2016. Vanessa Selbst, while drunk, made two prop bets totaling $3.8 million.

The first bet was with Dzmitry Urbanovich during the 2016 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure. It was Urbanovich’s first eligible year at the WSOP — he had just turned 21 and was having the best year of his career.

Vanessa proposed a bet: that Dzmitry would win three bracelets in a single series.

Urbanovich accepted and offered 200:1 odds. He bet $10K — if he pulled it off, he would’ve won $2 million.

A few months later, Vanessa made a similar bet with fellow Team PokerStars Pro Jason Mercier, though at slightly lower odds: 180:1 — if he pulled it off, he would’ve won $1.8 million.

Urbanovich didn’t win a single bracelet that year. But Mercier gave Vanessa a serious sweat. According to her, she made the bet with Mercier as a sort of hedge — figuring it was impossible for two players to each win three bracelets in one series.

Selbst tried to buy out the bet, offering Jason first $1K, then $100K. He declined.

Luckily for Vanessa, Mercier ended up winning two bracelets that year.

Only five players had ever accomplished triple win at one WSOP:

• Puggy Pearson (1973)
• Phil Hellmuth (1993)
• Ted Forrest (1993)
• Phil Ivey (2002)
• Jeff Lisandro (2009)
• Shaun Deeb (2018)

The Stolen Bracelet

In December 2011, 2010 WSOP Main Event champion Jonathan Duhamel was robbed. The criminals stole $150K in cash, a Rolex watch, and his WSOP Main Event gold bracelet. Thieves were arrested. Shockingly, one of the accomplices was Duhamel’s ex-girlfriend Bianca Rojas-Latraverse, who was sentenced to 3.5 years in prison.

About half the stolen money was recovered, but not the bracelet.

Then in February 2012, what was left of the bracelet was found completely by accident. Municipal workers cleaning the Ville-Marie tunnel in Montreal found it in the trash after emptying a sanitation truck.