Alexander “joiso” Kostritsyn Wins His First WSOP Bracelet in the $25K High Roller H.O.R.S.E. ($872K)

Alexander “joiso” Kostritsyn Wins the $25K High Roller H.O.R.S.E. ($872K)

These days, you’re far more likely to find Alexander “joiso” Kostritsyn battling in the biggest mixed-game cash games — live in Bobby’s Room or online on Phenom Poker — than playing tournaments. He stepped away from the tournament grind around 14 years ago.

At WSOP 2026, he entered just four events and won one of them. He even registered for the $25K H.O.R.S.E. after finishing a cash-game session that ended at 4 a.m.

Event #97: $25,000 High Roller H.O.R.S.E. Final Table Payouts (148 entries):

Place	Country	Player	Prize
1		Alexander Kostritsyn	$872,052
2		Ali Eslami	$578,718
3		Naoya Kihara	$394,433
4		Julien Sitbon	$276,297
5		Yueqi Zhu	$199,071
6		Ari Engel	$147,648
7		Walter Chambers	$112,825
8		Shaun Deeb	$88,909

A special mention goes to Naoya Kihara, who finished third. Despite planning to retire from poker, the Japanese pro won two WSOP bracelets in 2026 and earned more than $1.68 million during the series.

Darren Rabinowitz Defeats Phil Hellmuth Heads-Up to Win the $5K 8-Handed NLHE ($695K)

A painful elimination from the Main Event ended up leading Darren Rabinowitz to his second bracelet. He busted in 145th place for $65K after his opponent hit one of only two outs. Instead of dwelling on the bad beat, Rabinowitz immediately registered for the $5K 8-Handed NLHE and went on to defeat Phil Hellmuth heads-up for the title.

Event #99: $5,000 8-Handed No-Limit Hold’em Final Table Payouts (884 entries):

Place	Country	Player	Prize
1		Darren Rabinowitz	$695,256
2		Phil Hellmuth	$464,286
3		Nicholas Palma	$326,136
4		Joshua Stewart	$232,570
5		Nick Pupillo	$168,402
6		Victor Li	$123,846
7		Max Kingstone	$92,527
8		Connor Belcher	$70,245

Nishant Sharma Wins His First Bracelet in the $800 Deepstack NLHE ($196K)

Nishant Sharma is a regular on the Asian tournament circuit.

Last November, he scored a career-defining victory in the $9K APT Championship in Taipei for $1.1 million. Throughout his career, he has recorded dozens of cashes across Vietnam, Macau, Taiwan, and Malaysia. This was his first tournament victory in the United States.

Sharma defeated poker YouTuber Chung-Tang Lin (Sharpedo Poker) heads-up. After the win, he said he was proud to bring a bracelet home to India and disappointed that he wouldn’t have time to attend the official winner’s ceremony and hear the Indian national anthem.

Event #98: $800 Deepstack No-Limit Hold’em Final Table Payouts (2,036 entries):

Place	Country	Player	Prize
1		Nishant Sharma	$196,659
2		Chung-Tang Lin	$131,002
3		Jason Wheeler	$95,018
4		Ian Schechter	$69,677
5		Steven Daly	$51,663
6		Atanas Pavlov	$38,737
7		Javier Fernandez	$29,376
8		Alexandru Vasilescu	$22,534
9		Alexander Voros	$17,487

She Wong Wins the Closing $1K Super Turbo ($216K)

She Wong has been playing poker since 2013 but only began taking tournaments seriously over the past two years.

Despite the hyper-turbo structure, the final table featured several accomplished players. Runner-up Ryuta Nakai previously finished in the top three of the $25K Heads-Up Championship, while Dzmitry Urbanovich, who finished third, won the $10K 8-Game Mixed Championship.

Event #100: $1,000 Super Turbo No-Limit Hold’em Final Table Payouts (1,699 entries):

Place	Country	Player	Prize
1		She Wong	$216,286
2		Ryuta Nakai	$144,101
3		Dzmitry Urbanovich	$104,032
4		Maxwell Franklin	$75,988
5		Cynthia Vencebi	$56,164
6		Antuan Bunkley	$42,012
7		Nick Yunis	$31,810
8		Jongwook Lee	$24,382
9		Hai Nguyen	$18,922

David Peters Wins His Fifth Bracelet in the $10K 6-Handed NLHE Championship ($1M)

David Peters endured a frustrating WSOP.

Time after time, he built a big stack only to fall short of a deep run. That approach produced around $90K in winnings before he finally broke through by capturing his fifth bracelet.

Event #94: $10,000 6-Handed No-Limit Hold’em Championship Final Table Payouts (558 entries):

Place	Country	Player	Prize
1		David Peters	$1,001,391
2		Fahredin Mustafov	$660,933
3		Calvin Anderson	$445,268
4		Dominykas Mikolaitis	$306,313
5		Justin Liberto	$215,270
6		Vladas Tamasauskas	$154,625

Joshua Wang Defeats Erik Seidel Heads-Up to Win the $3K PLO ($407K)

Joshua Wang is a recreational player.

After reaching the final table, he immediately paid tribute to his opponents, saying he had learned poker by watching videos featuring many of them.

Event #96: $3,000 6-Handed Pot-Limit Omaha Final Table Payouts (892 entries):

Place	Country	Player	Prize
1		Joshua Wang	$407,137
2		Erik Seidel	$271,371
3		Robert Mizrachi	$185,282
4		Christopher Vitch	$128,819
5		Pakinai Lisawad	$91,232
6		Biao Ding	$65,840

24-Year-Old Garrett Dwire Wins the $500 Summer Saver on a Field of 4,622 Entries ($210K)

Garrett Dwire is currently attending law school at the University of Minnesota while working as a law clerk at Osterbauer Law Firm.

He discovered poker as a teenager. Last year was his first trip to the WSOP, and he failed to record a single cash. This summer went much better: one cash, one bracelet, and a career-best score. Before this event, he had earned roughly $90K in live tournament winnings.

Event #95: $500 Summer Saver No-Limit Hold’em Final Table Payouts (4,622 entries):

Place	Country	Player	Prize
1		Garrett Dwire	$210,000
2		Amadeus Janotta	$142,500
3		Frank Cimperman	$105,500
4		Xiang Lin	$79,000
5		Mark Evangelista	$60,000
6		Karen Sarkisyan	$45,000
7		Gerald Esposito	$34,500
8		Krishna Hari	$27,000
9		Ming Chen	$21,000

Main photo by Jess Beck, source: PokerNews.