WSOP Top 10 Tuesday - from the World's Greatest Unknown WSOP Historian

PokerNews reposted the interview by itself: World’s Greatest Unknown Poker Historian....

The first Mixed Limit game was the 2007 $5,000 World Championship Mixed Hold 'Em (Limit/No-Limit) tournament. Omaha tournaments sometimes alternate Limit and Pot-Limit, while Mixed games can be any combination of Limit, No-Limit, and Pot-Limit.

Here are the top Mixed Limit players in bracelets, final tables (9th place or better), cashes, and winnings.

Mixed Limit Bracelets

• 10. 86 players tied: 1 bracelet
  
  
• 4. Chad Eveslage: 2 bracelets
  
  
• 4. Daniel Cates: 2 bracelets
  
  
• 4. John Hennigan: 2 bracelets
  
  
• 4. Loren Klein: 2 bracelets
  
  
• 4. Phil Ivey: 2 bracelets
  
  
• 4. Robert Mizrachi: 2 bracelets
  
  
• 1. Adam Friedman: 3 bracelets
  
  
• 1. Brian Rast: 3 bracelets
  
  
• 1. Michael Mizrachi: 3 bracelets
  

Mixed Limit Final Tables

• 6. Brian Rast: 6 final tables
  
  
• 6. John Hennigan: 6 final tables
  
  
• 6. Mike Gorodinsky: 6 final tables
  
  
• 6. Robert Mizrachi: 6 final tables
  
  
• 6. Scott Bohlman: 6 final tables
  
  
• 6. Scott Clements: 6 final tables
  
  
• 4. Marco Johnson: 7 final tables
  
  
• 4. Phil Ivey: 7 final tables
  
  
• 3. Chris Klodnicki: 8 final tables
  
  
• 1. Daniel Negreanu: 9 final tables
  
  
• 1. Shaun Deeb: 9 final tables
  

Mixed Limit Cashes

• 10. Jeff Lisandro: 15 cashes
  
  
• 10. Joseph Couden: 15 cashes
  
  
• 10. Josh Arieh: 15 cashes
  
  
• 10. Marco Johnson: 15 cashes
  
  
• 7. Max Pescatori: 16 cashes
  
  
• 7. Raymond Henson: 16 cashes
  
  
• 7. Shawn Buchanan: 16 cashes
  
  
• 6. David "ODB" Baker: 17 cashes
  
  
• 4. Jordan Siegel: 18 cashes
  
  
• 4. Robert Mizrachi: 18 cashes
  
  
• 3. Daniel Negreanu: 21 cashes
  
  
• 2. Scott Bohlman: 22 cashes
  
  
• 1. Shaun Deeb: 25 cashes
  

Mixed Limit Winnings

• 10. Elior Sion: $1,512,338
  
  
• 9. Chris Klodnicki: $1,598,980
  
  
• 8. Phil Hellmuth: $1,721,424
  
  
• 7. Mike Gorodinsky: $1,816,755
  
  
• 6. Daniel Negreanu: $1,940,347
  
  
• 5. Daniel Cates: $2,571,428
  
  
• 4. Matthew Ashton: $2,777,706
  
  
• 3. John Hennigan: $3,281,353
  
  
• 2. Brian Rast: $4,692,282
  
  
• 1. Michael Mizrachi: $4,747,431
  

Daniel Negreanu is the king of Mixed Limit poker, ranking 10th, 1st, 3rd, and 6th and the only player on all four lists. Brian Rast (not cashes), John Hennigan (not cashes), Robert Mizrachi (not winnings), Scott Bohlman (not winnings), and Shaun Deeb (not winnings) are all on three lists.

This isn’t really threadworthy but it is a nice piece of WSOP history I just stumbled across. Shows the sort of “small town” feel the WSOP and poker in general used to have, never mind the quality of the writing.

https://www.conjelco.com/wsop98/event20....

Not to be a hater, but I bet he's easily spent the most of anybody on that list to buy in. And is certainly well into the red.

If I had three wishes, the sixth or seventh one might be a complete accurate database of everyone’s donkament results and net profits/losses, including deals and staking arrangements.

Oh snap... very cool!

I still remember when Kevmath decided to put all of his work into action. Doesn't seem THAT long ago until I also recall Tatjana Pasalic doing that first interview. Sort of the equivalent of the "face reveal" videos on YouTube in more recent years.

Be careful what you wish for! A lot of players would be very upset to be outed as losing players. It's a theoretically wonderful thing to want, but it'd be bad in general because it's not a zero-sum game (and that's not even counting expenses).

Benny Glaser rewriting records with a blowtorch.

Benny obviously read this and got fired up! 😀

These tournaments weren't originally on the schedule, but player demand and other factors got them added.

Biggest Originally Unscheduled Events

• 10. 5/16/86: The $5,000 No-Limit Deuce-to-Seven Draw is not on the original schedule but is "re-installed by popular demand by the players" according to the May 19, 1986 Las Vegas Sun, page 1B. That demand didn't end up being that high as just 19 players entered. Ron Graham won $142,000 and his only career bracelet.
  
  
• 9. 5/11/84: Pot-Limit Omaha earns an encore as a $5,000 buyin event after the $1,000 event draws 108 players (making 60 rebuys). In the higher-buyin event that featured 22 players who rebought 23 times, Dewey Tomko scored $135,000 and the last of his three career bracelets just ten days after his second.
  
  
• 8. 5/8/81: The $2,500 Ace-to-Five Draw is added after a $1,000 tournament was held two weeks earlier. Mickey Perry defeated a field of 37 players for $46,250 and his only career bracelet.
  
  
• 7. 5/5/85: The $2,500 No-Limit Ace-to-Five Draw with Joker is added as a "Special" event, likely because the previous event, the $1,000 Limit Ace-to-Five Draw, ended early. Dick Carson beat a field of 40 to pick up $50,000 and his only career bracelet.
  
  
• 6. 5/14/85: The original schedule had a $5,000 Pot-Limit Omaha on the schedule for this date, but it was reduced to a $3,000 buyin then to a $1,000 buyin, while the original $5,000 buy-in event ended up moving to the 17th. The lower-buyin event attracted 112 players, who made 98 rebuys. Zorn Venture (pseudonym of Zoran Siljanic) collected $105,000 and his only career bracelet.
  
  
• 5. 7/8/19: The $50,000 Final Fifty No-Limit Hold 'Em became the 78th tournament chronologically but is listed by the WSOP as Event #90 because it was inserted into the schedule so late. Danny Tang beat a field of 123 players to earn $1,608,406 and -- surprise -- his only career bracelet.
  
  
• 4. 7/17/06: The $1,500 Pot-Limit Omaha with Rebuys was added very late after players complain about the lack of rebuys in the original $1,500 PLO run earlier in the day. Although more players entered the non-rebuy event (525), the rebuy version ended up with a bigger prize pool when the 158 participants rebought 472 times. Eric Froehlich picked up the big prize of $299,675 and his second bracelet.
  
  
• 3. 5/5/86: The $1,000 Seven-Card Stud Hi/Lo was inadvertently omitted from the original schedule but players complained, so it was restored, according to Nolan Dalla in 2009. Tommy Fischer overcame a field of 184 for $73,600 and his second bracelet, one year after his other win in the $10,000 No-Limit Deuce-to-Seven Lowball.
  
  
• 2. 5/7/01: "The Oklahoma Johnny Hale Seniors World Championship of Poker" for players 50 and older had been a non-WSOP event called the Seniors World Championship of Poker since 1998 that featured Seniors Hall of Fame inductions. Jay Heimowitz won the $1,000 buyin event over a field of 340 players for $115,430 and his sixth bracelet.
  
  
• 1. 2020 Online WSOP (all of it). COVID-19 cancelled the original Las Vegas festival and its 87 live and 14 online tournaments. WSOP.com hosted the replacement festival, which consisted of 86 tournaments from July 1 to September 7. A hybrid Main Event began in November on GGPoker and December on WSOP.com before concluding with live final tables in Rozvadov and Las Vegas and a heads-up match between the two champs, Damian Salas ($1,550,969) and Joseph Hebert ($1,553,256) that was delayed into early 2021 and won by Salas for another $1,000,000. In total, 285,632 players entered with 32,308 taking home $188,654,662 in prizes.
  
  

Not counting the 2020 Online WSOP, five players nabbed their only career bracelets in these events. Most (86%) of the 2020 winners were first-time champions, 56 of whom haven't returned to the winner's circle yet (congrats to Alek Stasiak, Allen Chang, Connor Drinan, Daniel Dvoress, Fedor Holz, Michael Lech, Nick Guagenti, Nicolo Molinelli, and William Romaine, who have each won another bracelet. Super congrats to Guy Dunlap who now has four).

[Sorry, this is a day late... got caught up in prepping for my annual trip to Vegas]

I don't think you ever did a list of:
1) oldest bracelet winners
2) youngest bracelet winners
3) unusual bracelet/circuit ring winners (like Ryan Depaulo winning in a whole foods parking lot etc..)
4) bracelets won by age (ex 20-29 year olds, 30-39 year olds, etc...)

Have already written entire articles on #1 & #2, so they'll become Top 10 lists at some point. Ditto for Main Event winners.

#3 is a great idea, but I don't know if I have anywhere near ten yet.

I don't have access to the WSOP's birthday information, so I can't do #4.

Thanks for the suggestions.

Schulman just picked up his third NL 2-to-7 title to crown himself the king of the game.

I posted this question elsewhere: who has the most bracelets from a given event? So e.g. Schulman now has three from the $10K NL 2-7 SD. Rast and Grinder both have three from the $50K PPC. Friedman won three straight $10K Dealer's Choice tourneys. And, of course, Stuey Ungar shipped three Mains.

Obviously, it gets to be a tricky convo since there have been multiple $1,500 NLHE events per year, but to simplify things, I'm willing to count that as one – if you've won four $1,500 NLHE over the years, then I'll consider that four of what I'm talking about.

I did a cursory glance for all players with seven or more, but it's theoretically possible that someone with "only" five won all of theirs in (say) $2,500 Stud8. I also notice that Billy Baxter won five no-limit 2-7 events with three different buy-ins. However, they were the only tourneys of that game in those respective series, so one can argue they were the same tourney. So five strikes me as the answer, although with a qualifier.

The official answer is Bill Boyd, who won all four 5-Card Stud events from 1971-74. One of those was probably a walkover and one was heads up, but that's what the record books show.

Oh nice... but is that not the same concept as Billy Baxter?

1975: $1,000 NL 2-7
1978: $10,000 NL 2-7
1982: $10,000 NL 2-7
1987: $5,000 NL 2-7
1993: $5,000 NL 2-7

Even though the buy-ins (still think that word should be "buys-in," by the way) are different, it was the only NL deuce event at each of those WSOPs, meaning it's effectively the same tourney.

Boyd won the no-limit five-card stud in 1971 ($1K), 1972 ($10K), 1973 ($10K) and 1974 ($5K). Three different buy-in amounts, but it was the only 5CS event at each series, so it's considered as the same tourney.

Yes, you're absolutely right.

I'd be happy to see the frauds that are basically shills exposed.

On the flip side, these tournaments were on the schedule but didn't happen for various reasons...

Most Disappointingly Cancelled Tournaments

• 10. 1976 $1,000 Razz: This tournament was on the original schedule as page 23 of the April 14, 1976 Las Vegar Review-Journal says "May 10-11 Other events: 5 card stud, razz, ace-5, lo ball." No reason for the cancellation is known, but it was probably because of low turnout. (Note: No results are known for the 1972 Razz either, but I have several reasons to believe that the event did take place, and Amarillo Slim Preston won it.)
  
  
• 9. 1978 $5,000 Pot-Limit Five-Card Stud with 32-Card Deck: Despite the demise of Five-Card Stud in 1974, a special Pot-Limit Five-Card Stud tournament was scheduled. However, the WSOP's first short-deck event was cancelled, probably due to lack of interest.
  
  
• 8. 1972 $5,000 Seven-Card Stud: Not enough players had signed up, so the tournament was cancelled when Johnny Moss was too tired to play. Because Eric Drache was disappointed that he couldn't determine how many players had registered for the stud event, he became the WSOP's first tournament director the next year. (Source: Jonathan Grotenstein and Storms Reback's "All In", page 33).
  
  
• 7. 2021 €1,000 NLH Classic Freezeout: The No-Limit Hold 'Em event was on the original WSOP Europe schedule but later removed. The €2,800 Closer No-Limit Hold 'Em was later added to the schedule instead.
  
  
• 6. 2024 Online $5,300 No-Limit Hold 'Em: The Nevada/New Jersey/Michigan high roller was canceled due to insufficient entries. When the satellite didn't end in time, only four of the required eight players had signed up.
  
  
• 5. 2025 Online $250 NLH Mystery Bounty: The Nevada/New Jersey/Michigan/Pennsylvania Hold 'Em tournament experienced technical difficulties early on Day 2 and was canceled. Players who had collected bounties were allowed to keep them. Everyone who reached Day 2 were refunded and were given $500 tournament tickets for a future event.
  
  
• 4. 2021 WSOP Circuit Championship: The WSOP Circuit Championship bracelet event was quietly cancelled as the WSOP attempted to figure out what to do with it. It had bounced around to five venues in its first five years before staying with Harrah's Cherokee in North Carolina five straight years. The 2020 event was held online because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The Circuit Championship returned in 2022 and 2023 as part of the Las Vegas festival before getting shipped off to the Commerce Casino in Los Angeles in 2024.
  
  
• 3. 2016 WSOP Asia-Pacific festival: When the World Series of Poker Asia-Pacific debuted in 2013, the World Series of Poker Europe was also held later in the year. The following year, the WSOP decided to alternate years for the two festivals, starting with Asia-Pacific in 2014. The World Series of Poker Europe duly followed in 2015, but the Asia-Pacific festival was cancelled in 2016. The World Series of Poker Europe then resumed as an annual event in 2017.
  
  
• 2. 2020 WSOP Europe festival: Around the time that the schedule for the 2020 WSOP Europe festival would normally have been announced, the WSOP was cancelling its live Las Vegas festival. The WSOP could have fit in the entire WSOP Europe schedule between the replacement online festival and the hybrid Main Event that started on November 29. Instead, the WSOP decided not to gather large crowds to play poker yet, and a WSOP Europe announcement was simply never made.
  
  
• 1. 2020 Las Vegas festival: The entire live World Series of Poker in Las Vegas was initially postponed then ultimately cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. An online version was later created, but it awarded the least in prizes since 2009 and saw a massive drop from 8,569 players to 1,379 for the Main Event.
  

According to

https://www.pokernews.com/news/2025/06/miami-john-cernuto-wsop-poker-celebration-of-life-48852.htm

pokernews

Poker Players Remember “Miami” John Cernuto at Celebration of Life During 2025 WSOP

I just saw that the 2014 WSOP Event 47 was $1500 Ante Only NLHE. Was this the first bomb pot event or did they act preflop?

Wasn’t there but I would be shocked if they did not have preflop action.

From the structure sheets that I've been collecting:

* All players will post the required ante each hand of play.
* Pre-flop: Action will start with the player to the left of the dealer button. Players act in turn having the option to fold, bring in for the minimum amount posted for each level, or raise. The remaining players in the hand will have the option to fold, call, or raise.
* Post-flop: Action will start with the player to the left of the dealer button. Players act in turn having the option to check, or bet the minimum bring in up to and including all-in. The remaining players in the hand will have the option to fold, call, or raise.