Naoya Kihara actually thought about sitting out this year’s World Series of Poker.
June is a busy time in Japan for those in finance industry, and the 44 year-old former PokerStars ambassador hardly plays poker anymore.
But came he did, and immediately made himself the talk of the Horseshoe by winning two WSOP bracelet in four days to triple the number of bracelets.
It’s been a long time for the 44-year-old, who became the first player from Japan to win a WSOP bracelet 14 years ago in a $5,000 Pot-Limit Omaha event.
Kihara has made a handful of WSOP final tables since then and even locked up his biggest cash of his career when he finished third in the $50,000 Poker Players Championship won by Dan Cates in 2022 for $639,257.
Kihara not only won his second and third bracelets, but he did it in historic fashion by winning two back-to-back “championship” events, which carry buy-ins of at least $10,000.
He started his double-dip by winning all the chips in the $10,000 deuce-to-seven single-draw lowball championship, which brought in 198 entries.
Kihara took the lions share of $428,923 of the $1.8 million prize pool. David Lin emerged as the runner-up from a final table that included John Cynn in third for $198,302, Rutaro Suzuki in fourth for $139,038, and Shaun Deeb in fifth for $99,557.
Suzuki, Kihari’s countryman, was also going for his third WSOP bracelet.
The very next “championship” event was the $10,000 Seven-Card Stud Championship, which started four days later. The 130 entrants built a prize pool of $1.2 million, and again, all the chips would end up in front of Kihari. He won another $310,970.
Quibang “James” Cheung was the runner-up for $201,308, followed by Allen Kessler ($139,036), Jeremy Ausmus ($98,782), Chris Brewer ($72,254) and Michael Mizrachi ($54,458).
Mizrachi is of course the both the 2025 Main Event and Player’s champion (an event he won four times), which got him snap-inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame.
Kessler is 15th on the WSOP all-time list for cashes with 323, and his 61 final tables put him at number 19. Although he owns five WSOP Circuit rings, he has yet to win a bracelet. He’s finish second five time.
Cheung was also going for a double-dip after winning a $1,500 stud event in May. It’s his first bracelet.
Kihari’s win ensures that the streak of a player winning at least two bracelets in a series continues. It started in 2000 with Chris Ferguson.
