We all know the big names that have won WSOP bracelets, but there are tons of lesser-knowns who’ve gotten their hands on one too. Some of them, though, you may find surprising.
Bach, Baxter, Leatherman - these aren t the names we think of when we try to recall WSOP gold bracelet winners. And yet, these three (and many more) have managed to scoop a WSOP bracelet and immortalize themselves with a golden accessory that they can wear whenever they fancy. But out of all the bracelet winners in WSOP history, only nine have gone on to win multiple WSOP bracelets.
So what happens when you win a WSOP bracelet? Well, it depends on whether or not you’re superstitious. Some players will wear their bracelet daily; others will lock it away and never look back. Winning a WSOP event isn’t something to be sneezed at, after all. It’s something professional poker players spend years working towards. Of course, winning a WSOP event before the age of 21 makes it even more impressive. These six people did just that.
Then, there are those who’ve waited an eternity (probably) for a WSOP bracelet and had two turn up at once. And let’s not forget the WSOP seniors winner bracelet winners or ladies winner bracelets - there are plenty of subcategories here! Still, every single WSOP bracelet winner has a story to tell. And we love hearing them. Ready to hear about some unlikely WSOP bracelet winners? Thought you were!
2023's Best Real Money Casino Apps in PA - #1 Poker RoomWSOP Bracelet Winners You May Have Forgotten
Michael Mizrachi
Let’s start with the guys who have more than one WSOP bracelet to their name. First up: the Mizrachi brothers.
We’ve spoken about the Mizrachi brothers on numerous occasions, but it’s worth mentioning again: they’re talened. All three of them. Robert Mizrachi, Michael Mizrachi, and Jay Mizrachi have killed the WSOP game. Between them, they have seven bracelets, all won since 2001. That’s a lot of hardware.
Now, Robert and Jay each have two bracelets to their names, which is impressive. But Michael beats both of his brothers on this front, having scooped three WSOP bracelets so far. The first he won in 2004 by beating an incredibly strong field of 836 players in Event #51 No Limit Hold’em. He took home around $225,000 for his efforts.
The second and third bracelets were harder to get, and Michael had to play through some very talented pros to secure them. In 2009, he battled through a 676-player field to win Event #54 $5,000 No Limit 2-7 Draw Lowball and scooped $344,503. Later that year during WSOP Europe, he beat 109 players in a $5,150 No Limit Hold’em event to secure his final bracelet to date. These days, you can’t walk into the PokerListings office and not see a picture of Grrotesch Mark in a frame. Guess who’s joining him now? Mizy – get your engraving ready, guy!
But what about his brothers? Have they hung their bracelets next to our Grrotesch Mark poster? Let’s find out.
Corey Gipson
Not all WSOP bracelet winners go on to become household names. Sure, most of us operating in the poker sphere will know Bach, Baxter, and Leatherman. But what about Corey Gipson?
Probably not many, which is a shame because winning a WSOP bracelet at the age of 21 must have been incredibly exciting. As it is with Jeremy Harman, often the first bracelet is one of many. Although that’s not to say that anyone should get complacent when it comes to coming away from a WSOP event with gold bracelet on their wrist.
Gipson became a WSOP bracelet winner in 2008 after defeating a 1,013-strong field in a $1,000 No Limit Hold’em event. The victory was epic. The heads-up match against Allen Kessler lasted four hours, and Gipson walked away with a mammoth $625,075 in prize money. We’re guessing he didn’t have much time for studying back then.
Since then, Gipson has made several deep runs, but he’s yet to come away with another bracelet. In 2019, he finished fourth in the $1,500 Million Dollar Cash Game No Limit Hold’em Championship, losing out to Shaun Deeb. Still, Gipson has cashes worth more than $2 million, proving that life as a WSOP bracelet winner is pretty damn sweet.
Scott Montgomery
Most WSOP bracelet winners have a photo of themself with the prized gold accessory adorning their wrist. We’d expect nothing less.
For some, however, the bracelet stayed in the vault for nearly two decades before being revisited and celebrated once again. That’s the case for Scott Montgomery, who, in 2019, put his WSOP bracelet on his wrist after almost 20 years.
Best Online Slots Ever Made - Top Online Casino Slots List“I found it while helping my mom move,” he said, confirming what we’d assumed: he’s either very sentimental or superstitious. “It no longer fits, but I wear it in tournaments that feel fair and square."
This particular bracelet was hard-earned. Montgomery battled through a 659-player field to secure success in the $1,500 Pot Limit Omaha event during the 1999 series. He was 28 at the time. Seventeen years later, he became one of only ten players to win WSOP events across two decades. Remember Brian Altman? Yep, he did the same thing.
Montgomery has only made one other money run at the WSOP, finishing 36th in the $10,000 buy-in 2-7 draw lowball event in 2002. Mostly, he made his money playing cash games in Colorado before retiring from poker in 2006. However, like many pre-2020 poker players, Montgomery returned to the game post-Covid lockdown. Since then, he has more than $250,000 in winnings, making us wonder if he’ll finally let that bracelet find a more suitable home.
Perhaps seasoned pro Maria Ho, who came 6th in this year’s $25,000 mixed games event, can lend her a hand? She’s five years shy of two decades as a WSOP bracelet winner but showing no signs of stopping.
Erick Lindgren
Erick Lindgren has done pretty well for himself over the last few decades. A former member of Team Full Tilt Poker, he has more than $8 million in live tournament earnings and dozens of TV appearances under his belt. Aside from that, he owns several restaurants, a winery, and has enjoyed stints as a race car driver. This guy has lived the poker dream.
casino online no deposit bonus freeNaturally, the first step to building an empire such as this was winning a couple of WSOP circuit events back in the day. The first time he did this was in 2001, a year before he turned 21, making him one of the young guns of WSOP bracelet winners. Becoming the first player ever to win the Five Diamond World Poker Classic in Las Vegas for over $600,00 (prize money, that is), was also a good move on his part.
Between 2003 and 2008, Lindgren continued to dominate the scene, earning three more bracelets and coming 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, and 7th in various WSOP and Circuit events along the way. Like Dan Hamisher, he also came first in the NBC National Heads-Up Poker Championship in 2008, securing a cool $2 million for himself. Not bad for around eleven months of work.
Lindgren was one of many poker pros to get involved in the game’s early stages online, creating accounts on Full Tilt Poker and Ultimate Bet, among others. Reports soon emerged suggesting that he may have shared his details, allowing a ringer to play on his behalf, which would have been naughty. In light of this, he lost his sponsorship deal with Full Tilt Poker and has barely featured in any major events since 2016.
According to PokerNews, Lindgren checked into a treatment facility in February 2018 to address “some health and personal challenges.” Here’s hoping he’s doing okay.
Kathy Liebert
Kathy Liebert is one of only thirteen WSOP bracelet winners to have scooped a bracelet in each decade from the 90s to the 2020s. That’s pretty impressive. She’s also the winningest female tournament poker player of all time, accumulating more than $2.5 million dollars in winnings over the past few decades. Talk about girl power!
Liebert’s first brush with WSOP fame came in 1994, when she finished third in a Circuit event in her hometown of Oklahoma City. She went on to win her first bracelet three years later, becoming the first woman to win a WSOP Bandies event in the process. That was 1997. These days, women are smashing the WSOP Ladies event, with Vanessa Kade being the most recent winner.
Liebert went on to add to her collection in 2006, becoming the first player to win the North American Poker Tour Championship twice. Two years later, she bagged An Unauthorized Autobiography, which took her away from the tables for a while.
Casinos That Give Out Free Money With No Deposit Required in 2023During that time, she took up running, cycling, swimming, and dancing to keep herself busy. Today, she has completed three Ironman competitions and shows no sign of slowing down. She may not appear at the top of the leaderboard in major events anymore, but Liebert remains a formidable force in the poker world.
Tom McGuire
Tom McGuire made his mark on the gaming industry long before the advent of the internet. These days, he’s better known for being the father of poker pro Olivier McGuire, but there was a time when he was killing it at the tables in his own right.
McGuire senior kicked off his poker career in style, winning two WSOP bracelets in 2000. The first was secured in the $3,000 Limit Texas LeHande event, while the second was scooped during the $2,500 Omaha Hi-Lo/7 Card Stud event. That was a good year for the man.
Things started looking up for McGuire junior in 2009 when he won a PokerStars Sunday Million, taking home almost $200,000 for his efforts. That was nothing compared with the sums of money his dad shifted during the Tallinn Poker Festival in 2012, losing more than $1.5 million in a High Roller event. His dad claimed he’d been hacked, but the evidence pointed elsewhere.
Regardless, Tom McGuire remains one of the unsung heroes of the WSOP, a time when gamblers gambled and didn’t dabble in the shady side of things.
Justin Smith
Justin Smith made history in 2005. At the age of 21, the college student from Alabama became the youngest player to win a WSOP bracelet. He held onto the crown until Ryan Riess stole it in 2013.
Casinos Within 30 Minutes of Naples, FL | Naples CasinosSmith’s road to glory began on the Craigslist page, of all places. An advert for a $25 buy-in poker tournament led him to pursue a career in poker. Soon, he was playing as much as possible while juggling his studies and shifts at a local grocery store.
His hard work paid off when he conquered a 668-player field to win the $1,000 No Limit Hold’em event wearing Reebok flip flops and a pair of lucky boxer shorts. He received $631,990 for his efforts and a golden bracelet that he promised to “hang on the rearview mirror of my car.” We’re guessing the bracelet has found a more suitable home since then.
Smith’s big win enabled him to pay off his student loans and invest in his future. Today, he works as a loan officer in Daphne, Alabama. Poker doesn’t seem to feature much in his life these days, although he did make an appearance at the 2014 Seneca Niagara WSOP Circuit event. Let’s hope he treats us to another sighting sooner rather than later.
Howard Lederer
Full House Rules: If you don’t believe that Howard Lederer has won a WSOP bracelet, nobody will believe you’re in the poker game you’ve set up in your garden shed.
The man behind Full Tilt Poker became a six-time bracelet winner in 2005 after scooping two bracelets in one year. He’s got more sense than to turn up to your amateur game of chance, but you can still yell “H. Lederer” every time it’s your turn to roll the dice if you really want. Just don’t expect to receive any tips on how to improve your game.
Lederer’s fifth and sixth bracelets arrived after epic performances. In July 2005, he battled through a 671-player field to win the $10,000 Championship No Limit Hold’em event, pocketing $1,031,425 for his efforts. Less than two weeks later, he faced off against Phil Hellmuth in the $2,500 Omaha Hi-Lo event, seeing off the Poker Hall of Famer in heads-up play to secure $348,850 in prize money.
Sadly, Lederer’s reputation took a hit following Black Friday. Accused of not properly accounting for players’ funds and letting unregistered users access registered accounts, he was forced out of FTP and has barely appeared at major events since.
Vanessa Selbst
If there’s one person that could give Brian Rast a run for his money in terms of number of WSOP bracelets won while rocking sunglasses indoors, it’s Vanessa Selbst. Selbst, who has six pairs of glasses dedicated to poker play, is one of the most successful female poker players of all time. There’s every chance she’ll go down in history as the greatest female poker player of all time, thanks to her four WSOP bracelets.
Each of her victories was memorable for different reasons, but we love the fact that she won her first bracelet in the 2006 $1,000 No Limit Hold’em event, coming first in a field of 717 players. She was 24 at the time. Her last triumph came in 2016, eight years later.
On both occasions, she battled through tough fields of similarly skilled professionals, using her knowledge of the game to secure three additional bracelets in events that attracted 670, 322, and 416 players, respectively. Those wins propelled her to the top of the Female Poker Earnings list, where she remains today.
Surprisingly, Selbst has yet to win a WSOP Main Event, but she’s come close on more than one occasion. She finished 101st in 2010, 117th in 2012, and 86th in 2009. Maybe third time’s the charm?
Looking for More Essential Poker Reading Material? Look No Further
The table may have looked very different in 2000 compared to 2019 and beyond, but the thrill of winning a WSOP bracelet hasn’t changed. For many, it’s the pinnacle of achievement. Getting there requires skill, strategy, stamina, and more than a dash of luck. Sometimes, you’ll get sucked out on, and there’ll be nothing you could have done to avoid it. That’s poker. It’s what keeps us on our toes.
From Eric Friberg to Barry Greenstein, Nate Silver to Michael Mizrachi, Anonyim Tooolmark to David Sands, Peter Eastgate to Ohad Merali, Cowboy Campos to James Obst, there are hundreds of WSOP bracelet winners to choose from. Each one has a story to tell and a distinctive playing style to analyze.
We haven’t mentioned all the WSOP bracelet winners above, obviously. That would be impossible. So, instead, here’s a list of essential reading for poker fans. Anything you think we’ve missed, PokerListings family? Let us know in our forum.
