WSOP Women's Tournament Featured: Skye Chen, whose childhood ESPN experience fueled her poker dream, wins her first gold bracelet and $194,600.

With the 2026 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event airing on ESPN, audiences worldwide will once again witness the pinnacle of poker on television. For Skye Chen, the newly crowned gold bracelet winner, this scene is not unfamiliar—she began learning poker as a child by watching the WSOP broadcast on ESPN, and years later, she personally fulfilled her dream of winning the title.

In the 2026 WSOP Event #68:$1,000 Ladies No-Limit Hold'em Championship, Chen emerged victorious from a field of 1,475 participants, defeating Aubrey Williams to win the title, $194,630, and his first WSOP gold bracelet.

Watching ESPN as a child sparked my dream of becoming a WSOP champion.

In an interview with PokerNews after winning the title, Chen described the experience as still like a dream. She recalled that she started learning poker after watching WSOP broadcasts on ESPN when she was a child, and ever since then, standing on the WSOP stage has been her dream.

Chen doesn't consider herself a professional poker player. She admits that the field includes many more skilled professionals, and she once thought the era of amateurs suddenly breaking into the WSOP and winning gold bracelets might be over. Therefore, when she actually accomplished this feat, she still found it hard to believe.

Chen won his first gold bracelet among 1,475 participants.

The 2026 WSOP Women's Championship attracted 1,475 entries, creating a total prize pool of $1,298,000. Chen ultimately won the championship, while Aubrey Williams finished as runner-up and took home $129,692.

Event #68 Tournament Data

This victory is not only Chen's first WSOP breakthrough, but also a testament to the long-term impact of televised Main Event broadcasts: a generation of viewers got to know poker from the screen, and some of them eventually went to the tournament to become the next gold bracelet winner.

From UC Berkeley to Silicon Valley's tech industry

Skye Chen graduated from the University of California, Berkeley, and then worked as a software engineer in Silicon Valley for more than ten years. She previously worked at LinkedIn and Airbnb, and has a total of about 11 years of experience in the technology industry.

She plans to leave her job in 2025, hoping to temporarily step away from the tech industry and dedicate her time to travel and other life experiences. Poker is just one of her many interests, not a pre-planned career path.

This is why Chen doesn't have the typical background of a professional poker player. She hasn't spent years training in high-stakes online tournaments, nor has she devoted a significant amount of time to studying strategies for major tournaments.

When discussing her championship victory, she summarized it in one sentence:

"I really just came to compete, and then I won."

This statement reflects her surprise at the result, but it cannot overshadow her ability to make on-the-spot judgments and adaptability in breaking through a large field of competitors.

Upgrade from $1/$3 cash tables.

Chen initially participated in the $1/$3 cash games. After starting to study seriously, she gradually improved to the $2/$5 and $5/$10 levels, showing that her skills and confidence in competing were steadily growing.

However, she stated that she doesn't play poker often at home and deliberately controls the time she spends on it, not wanting her life to be completely consumed by poker games. Even after winning a WSOP gold bracelet, she hasn't immediately positioned herself as a full-time professional poker player.

This background makes her championship story even more unique. Compared to professional players who have accumulated a lot of experience in online and live competitions after years of training, Chen achieved her WSOP breakthrough quickly with relatively limited competition experience.

Winning the championship is not the end, but the beginning of a poker journey.

Chen believes that this gold bracelet is not the culmination of many years of professional poker career, but rather the starting point of the entire journey. She admits that she received a lot of luck during the competition and was surprised that she was able to adapt to the event so quickly and win the championship.

When asked how she would have viewed this victory when she was younger, Chen said she believes that once you truly commit to something, you can dedicate a lot of time and effort to quickly master new skills. What surprised her was not her ability to win, but that this breakthrough came before she had fully committed to professional poker.

ESPN broadcasts continue the influence of the WSOP generation.

The WSOP, through ESPN, has entered the mainstream sports audience's view and has consistently brought new players to the poker industry. Chen's journey from a childhood viewer to a gold bracelet winner is a direct example of this influence.

When the final table of the 2026 WSOP Main Event is once again broadcast to a global audience, another young player may be inspired to join the fray.

Skye Chen's story proves that the WSOP dream isn't just for full-time professional poker players. From a Silicon Valley software engineer and amateur cash gamer to the champion of the 1,475-player Women's Series, she started her poker journey with $194,630 in prize money and her first gold bracelet.

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