Benny Glaser Joins Johnny Moss at Nine WSOP Bracelets With $50,000 Poker Players Championship Title; Phil Ivey Third, 12-Bracelet History Bid Falls Short; Eelis Pärssinen Wins Event #64 for Second 2026 Bracelet, Daniel Negreanu Cashes Seventh for US$152,954

By Alex Drummond, Editor-in-Chief · June 26, 2026 · Fact-checked by Maya Chen

England's Benny Glaser, by general consensus the most accomplished mixed-game tournament professional of the modern era, captured the 2026 World Series of Poker $50,000 Poker Players Championship late Thursday night at the WSOP Thunderdome at Horseshoe Las Vegas, defeating American Josh Arieh heads-up after a five-day deep run through the 108-player field. The victory delivers US$1,343,764 in first-place prize money, the Chip Reese Memorial Trophy and his ninth career WSOP gold bracelet, a total that ties him with poker's most decorated 20th-century professional Johnny Moss and places him sixth on the all-time bracelet leaderboard. Glaser is now the only living player in the nine-bracelet range; the five names ahead of him are Phil Hellmuth (17), Phil Ivey (11), Erik Seidel (11), Doyle Brunson (10) and Johnny Chan (10).

The final hand fell in Omaha Hi-Lo 8 or Better. Glaser held A♥ Q♦ 7♦ 4♣, Arieh held A♠ 7♠ 4♦ 3♠, and the board ran K♣ 4♠ 3♥ Q♠ J♦, giving Glaser two better pairs against Arieh's two pair, eliminating Arieh in second place for US$895,837 and closing out the longest, most prestigious mixed-game tournament on the modern WSOP schedule. Glaser dropped to his knees and celebrated with friends in tears at the conclusion, telling reporters, "It's like a dream. This is the pinnacle of achievement in mixed games."

The Chip Reese Trophy gets a keepsake

Beyond the bracelet and the prize money, the 2026 PPC marks a historic first in the modern WSOP schedule: the winner received a miniature version of the Chip Reese Memorial Trophy as a keepsake, the first time in event history that the champion takes home a permanent reproduction of the full-size hardware that rotates through the WSOP's archive. The Chip Reese Memorial Trophy, named for the 2006 inaugural PPC champion who died in December 2007 at age 56, is widely considered the second-most-coveted award on the WSOP schedule after the Main Event bracelet. The miniature version is hand-finished by the Las Vegas-based silversmith who also produces the WSOP Main Event bracelets.

Phil Ivey's twelfth bracelet bid ends in third

Phil Ivey's pursuit of a 12th WSOP gold bracelet, a milestone that would have made him only the second player in WSOP history (joining Hellmuth) to reach the double-digit-plus-two threshold, ended on Thursday evening in 2-7 Triple Draw against eventual runner-up Josh Arieh. Ivey, who returned the day with 5,135,000 chips, second in the official chip counts, ran into the heater that Arieh has carried throughout the 2026 series and was eliminated in third place for US$600,698 after Arieh drew to a winning low against Ivey's pat 9-7. Ivey's career PPC ledger now reads three top-six finishes and one final-table appearance (2026); the closest he had previously come was a sixth-place finish in the 2023 nine-game iteration.

The 11-time bracelet winner played the event with a tournament image at the table that, in the words of one PokerGO commentator, "felt for the first time in years like Phil from the Bobby's Room peak." His Day 4 short-stack recovery from the lowest count of the final 15 to a top-three entering chip stack was the kind of single-session reversal that defined his career between 2009 and 2014. Whether he returns to the WSOP Hall of Fame ballot as an active candidate, he was a finalist for the first time in 2018 and was inducted in absentia, is a question the 2027 schedule will answer; the 2026 induction class is announced August 3 to 5 from the WSOP Main Event final table broadcast on ESPN.

The full PPC final-six payouts

Halifax pro Alex Livingston, the lone Canadian-flag player in the final 15 at the start of Day 5, finished outside the top seven cashes shown above. The 2026 PPC paid the top 21 finishers; the eighth-through-twenty-first prizes step down from approximately US$140,000 to a US$78,400 bubble. Livingston's exact finish position will be confirmed when WSOP.com publishes the full payout table on Friday morning. The run is, regardless of his official finish position, the deepest WSOP performance of his career since the 2019 Main Event third-place finish for US$4,000,000 and his first PPC cash.

Pärssinen wins Event #64 in first-ever all-Finnish WSOP heads-up; Negreanu seventh

The other major bracelet result of the night came in Event #64, the $25,000 High Roller PLO/NLH Mixed, where Finland's Eelis Pärssinen defeated countryman Juha Helppi heads-up after a two-and-a-half-hour battle to claim US$1,172,296 and his third career WSOP gold bracelet. The result is doubly historic: it is the first time in WSOP history that two Finnish players have played heads-up for a bracelet, and Pärssinen now stands alone as the most decorated Finnish player in WSOP history, with three career titles. The closest comparable result was Naoya Kihara's two-bracelet 2026 series (Events #58 $1,500 2-7 Triple Draw and #44 $25K Heads-Up), making Pärssinen and Kihara the two players to have won two bracelets at the 2026 WSOP.

The final hand of the heads-up match fell in Pot-Limit Omaha. Helppi held J♦ J♥ 9♥ 8♦ against Pärssinen's A♠ K♣ J♣ 5♠; the board ran A♣ K♠ 8♣ on the flop, drawing Helppi to a one-out gutshot, then 10♣ on the turn (locking up Pärssinen's nut flush with the K-high backdoor) and 8♠ on the river. Pärssinen and Helppi played the final 11 levels and nearly twelve hours total on Day 3 to produce the result. Pärssinen's first WSOP bracelet was Event #64 in 2021 (then run as a $5,000 PLO/NLH 8-Handed) for US$545,616.

Of immediate interest to Canadian readers: Daniel Negreanu cashed seventh in Event #64 for US$152,954, his third cash of the 2026 series. The Toronto-born seven-time bracelet winner's series ledger now reads: 26th in Event #47 ($25,000 PLO High Roller, US$69,531), eliminated before late reg closed in Event #60 ($50,000 PPC), and seventh in Event #64. The three cashes combine for US$292,016 in 2026 prize money. Negreanu remains the all-time career WSOP money leader at over US$33.97 million; the 2026 series, while quiet by his standards, has put him in the cash for three of the eight bracelet events he has entered.

Other Thursday-night news

Two additional bracelets crossed the finish line Thursday. American Lionel Barracano won Event #61, the $1,000 Super Seniors, for US$226,540 and his first WSOP gold bracelet. The Super Seniors event, restricted to players aged 60 and over, drew 2,074 entries against a US$1,866,600 prize pool. Barracano's win marks a rare retiree-circuit storyline at the WSOP and his first major live cash beyond the US$50,000 mark.

The other Thursday-evening completion was Event #65, the $1,500 Freezeout No-Limit Hold'em, which is in progress on Friday with its Day 4 final-table session. Quebec native Frederic Normand, the year's first Canadian bracelet winner in Event #21 ($1,500 PLO Hi-Lo, US$235,377), entered Day 4 with a position outside the official top-ten chip counts; his exact stack and seat position will publish Friday morning.

The Canadian summer to date

With Negreanu's Event #64 cash now official and Livingston's PPC finish pending publication, the 2026 series Canadian-flag notable cashes total has surged past US$3 million. The three gold bracelets and US$2,395,570 in combined first-place prize money is unchanged, but the cumulative notable cashes figure now stands at approximately US$3,098,000 with Livingston's PPC payout still to be added.

What to watch Friday

Three threads continue Friday. Event #65, the $1,500 Freezeout, plays its Day 4 final table with Quebec's Frederic Normand still in the field. Event #67, the $10,000 Limit 2-7 Championship, opens Friday afternoon. Event #63, the $1,000 Mystery Millions, runs its Day 1D, with cumulative entries expected to clear ten thousand by close of registration. Event #69, the $25,000 No-Limit Hold'em High Roller, opens Saturday afternoon. The WSOP Main Event begins July 2 with three Day 1 flights.

Ontario players watching from home can follow the live updates on PokerNews, WSOP.com and the PokerGO live stream. The regulated Ontario market overview is on the best poker sites in Ontario page; the WSOP Super Circuit Canada qualifiers operating in August are covered on the GGPoker Ontario page; and the four-week tournament guide is at Ontario poker tournament schedule.

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