For more than a decade, Benny Glaser has built a reputation brick-by-brick as one of the toughest mixed-games players in the land. And last night, he captured what is the Crown Jewel of the World Series of Poker, the $50,000 Poker Player’s Championship.
Glaser won his ninth bracelet, $1.3 million, and will have his name etched onto the Chip Reese Memorial trophy forever. He will also surely be inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame when he’s eligible in 2029 when he turns 40.
He is now one WSOP win away from joining Phil Hellmuth, Phil Ivey, Doyle Brunson, Erik Seidel and Johnny Chan with double-digit bracelets. He came as close as possible to winning his ninth in the $10,000 Limit Hold’em Championship 10 days ago, but stalled in second against Dong Chen.
How hard was this year’s field of 108? The final 15 players owned 65 WSOP bracelet between them. Some of those notables include Hellmuth and his 17 bracelets (14th for $109,459), Chris Brewer (12th for $109,459), Jesse Lonis (tenth for $122,709), and Alexander Livingston (ninth for $144,054).
Jason Mercier was the first to be bumped from the final table of seven, followed by Kristopher Tong, Paul Volpe and Maxx Coleman. That left Ivey, Glaser and Josh Arieh all in contention for the one of the most prestigious prizes in poker.
Even Phil Ivey needs to get cards, and while he made it a fight through several levels of game changes, he was never able to gather any momentum. While Glaser sat between them folding hand after hand, Ivey and Arieh battled against each other, with Arieh scoring the knock-out blow during a round of 2-7 Triple Draw after Ivey paired his hand.
The two entered heads-up play nearly even in chips, but the deck was on Glaser’s side, and when that happens to someone as good as he is, the task is impossible even for a player like Arieh, who has been one of the WSOP stars for as long as Glaser been at it.
Thanks to the deck, Glaser quickly stopped the Arieh in his tracks, preventing the New Yorker from winning his eighth bracelet. Instead, it would be the classical guitar-playing brit who would end up with all the chips and all the accolades that come with it.
2026 WSOP $50,000 Poker Players Championship Final Table Results
| Place | Player | Country | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Benny Glaser | United Kingdom | $1,343,764 |
| 2 | Josh Arieh | United States | $895,837 |
| 3 | Phil Ivey | United States | $600,698 |
| 4 | Maxx Coleman | United States | $417,607 |
| 5 | Paul Volpe | United States | $301,405 |
| 6 | Kristopher Tong | United States | $226,172 |
| 7 | Jason Mercier | United States | $176,732 |
