Jerome Neppl Wins First WSOP 2026 Bracelet In $500 Industry Employees NLH

Jerome Neppl led the entire tournament and won Event #3: $500 Industry Employees NLH for $64,083.

Only casino industry workers were allowed to play this event (dealers, reporters, etc.). The tournament drew a total of 906 entries. Neppl finished Day 1 as the chip leader and controlled the action for most of the final table.

Jerome Neppl works as a poker dealer and came to Vegas to deal at the WSOP. Now his colleagues are joking that he can wear the bracelet during shifts and tease every player at the table.

The first-place prize was worth $64,083 — a best cash and truly life-changing money for Neppl. Before this event, his only ITM finish was for $613.

The newly crowned champion is now preparing to move from New Mexico to Florida.

“This money is life-changing and will help me get debt-free”

Event #3: $500 Industry Employees No-Limit Hold’em Final Table Payouts

Place	Country	Player	Prize
1		Jerome Neppl	$64,083
2		Sean Hamrick	$42,680
3		Skyler Halama	$29,678
4		Michael Schlittler	$20,988
5		Nicholas Baldev	$15,098
6		Andre Welt	$11,052
7		Antony Diep	$8,235
8		Armando Viramontes Serna	$6,247
9		Jessica Odom	$4,828

Other WSOP News: Ren Lin Reaches Final 5 Of $5K 8-Handed NLH

The payout for 5th place is $120,035. The winner will receive $502,985. The tournament attracted 570 entries in total.

Position	Country	Player	Stack
1		Chenxiang Miao	90 BB
2		Daniyal Gheba	72 BB
3		Xiaohu Liu	28 BB
4		Ren Lin	25 BB
5		Peter Mugar	22 BB

Vanessa Selbst Deep Runs In $1,500 Omaha Hi-Lo 8 Or Better

Retired poker pro Vanessa Selbst advanced to Day 3 with a stack of 11 BB.

There are 17 players remaining, and everybody is short-stacked. Jason Daly leads the field with 21 BB.

Play will resume today. The winner will take home $191,362.

First WSOP $25K NLH Heads-Up Championship Stream Starts Saturday At 02:30 GMT

The stream will be available on the WSOP YouTube channel.

Organizers promise that every event stream this year will feel like a Main Event broadcast. There will be multiple TV tables, and the production crew will be ready to capture action from anywhere in the tournament area.

Day 1A has already attracted 56 registrations (the field is capped at 64 players). Among those already registered are Daniel Negreanu, Martin Kabrhel, Shaun Deeb, Michael Mizrachi, Viktor Blom, Scott Seiver, Samuel Mullur, Adrian Mateos, Chris Nguyen, Alan Keating, and others. Players eliminated on Day 1A will have the option to re-enter in Day 1B.