Dwan defeats Poker Royals to win the $50k High Roller event and a $2.2 million prize.

Jamie Dwan defeated top players such as Daniel Rezaei, Bryn Kenney and Daniel Negreanu in the WSOP $50,000 High Roller event to win his first gold bracelet and $2,276,691 in prize money.

On Saturday, July 11, the final 13 players returned to Horseshoe and Paris Las Vegas to compete for the 2026 World Series of Poker (WSOP) title in the #90:$50,000 High Roller No-Limit Hold'em event, which attracted 202 entries.

Returning players had already secured at least 122,526 in prize money with $, but everyone had their eyes on the larger 9,595,000 in total prize pool for $. After nine hours of intense competition, Jamie Dwan from the UK won 2,276,691 in first-place prize money for $ and his first gold bracelet.

This is a new career high in prize money for 26-year-old Dwan – his previous career total was $806,208, a significant difference. According to The Hendon Mob, his previous best result was $76,254, achieved in fourth place at the 2025 EPT Malta €3,250 Mystery Bounty event.

Event #90: $50,000 High Roller No-Limit Hold'em Final Table Results

Poker went home

"This is my first time playing in a $50K event. This is the most I've ever invested in a tournament. It's a huge attempt, and I just won it," Dwan excitedly told PokerNews after his victory. "It's all unreal, it feels crazy. It's like a daring attempt at the end of a series. I've been winning all summer. I thought, I'll give it a try. I'll give it a shot, you know. It feels like a dream, it's not real at all."

Although this is his biggest live prize to date, Dwan is an accomplished online player with millions in winnings online, although his largest virtual prize is only $120,000. And he has never won a gold bracelet online.

“This means a lot to me,” Dwan said of the gold bracelet. “My mother isn’t in good health, and the only thing I wanted to do this summer was to go back to her with a gold bracelet. I did it, and I did it at one of the biggest tournaments this year. It means a lot, a lot.”

"My mother is not in good health, and the only thing I want to do this summer is to go back to her with a gold bracelet."

Just before this year's WSOP in Las Vegas, Dwan had already won a gold medal at the WSOP International Tour in Aix-en-Provence, winning the #11: €3,500 Super High Roller event, with a prize of $58,921.

Dwan's victory was hard-won—he had to overcome a 5:1 chip deficit against bracelet winner Daniel Rezaei in heads-up play, not to mention that the final day also included two Poker Hall of Famers, Erik Seidel and Daniel Negreanu, female Poker Hall of Famer Kristen Foxen, and Bryn Kenney, the all-time leading earner in poker history.

“It’s part of the poker dream,” Dwan said of the circuits he had to traverse on his road to victory. “I remember looking at these guys when I first started playing poker. I didn’t even play with them often, but I beat them without ever really having the biggest stack…you know, hovering around for a while, and then winning a big coin flip against Negreanu—one of the guys who got me into the world of poker. It all felt unreal, like a dream, so crazy.”

Dwan has his ways; he'll catch you.

In the first three hours, Chris Brewer (13th place, $122,526), Sebastian Gaehl (12th place, $122,526), Seidel (11th place, $146,295), and Eric Yanovsky (10th place, $146,295) were eliminated. Then, Foxen's two black Jacks collided with Josef Schusteritsch's two red Kings, resulting in Foxen's elimination in ninth place and the final table being formed.

Negreanu was seeking his second gold bracelet this summer, but his journey ended after his AK failed to win a coin flip against Dwan's Pocket 9. He was followed by Daniel Smiljkovic, whose A-4 failed to beat Paulius Vaitiekunas' AK.

Three-time bracelet winner Timur Margolin was eliminated after his pocket queens were overtaken by Kenney's A-10 when his chip stack became shorter. Schusteritsch, with a shorter stack, was then eliminated in fifth place.

During the four-player phase, Rezaei accumulated a significant chip stack and made the most of it, especially after the dinner break. After Dwan luckily doubled up with a Q against Vaitiekunas' K, the latter's chip stack dwindled. Rezaei acquired most of the remaining chips, and Dwan officially eliminated Vaitiekunas a hand later.

In the very next hand after that, Rezaei eliminated Kenney, who finished third with $1,041,908. According to The Hendon Mob, this brings Kenney's total lifetime winnings in poker history to $89,094,210.

Rezaei started heads-up play with a 5:1 chip lead over Dwan, but the two engaged in a back-and-forth battle, with the chip lead changing hands multiple times. In the final hand, Dwan had built a solid lead, with his AJ beating Rezaei's A-10.

Rezaei won his first gold bracelet in the 2025 WSOP Paradise event #4:$50,000 High Roller Turbo event last December, earning $1,900,000, but failed to add another piece of hardware in this $50k High Roller event. Nevertheless, he still finished as runner-up, earning $1,517,782, while the top prize went to Dwan.

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