Bryce Yockey Wins World Series of Poker Dealers Choice For Third Bracelet

Bryce Yockey took down one of the most prestigious mixed-game poker tournaments of the year, and he did so in dominant fashion. The 38-year-old poker pro from Southern California ran away with the title down the stretch in the 2026 World Series of Poker $10,000 dealers choice championship, topping the field of 163 entries to earn $371,664 and his third career gold bracelet.

Six of the seven players who made the final table in this unique format, which allows players to choose from more than 20 different games, already had a WSOP bracelet in their trophy case. The lone exception was Schwartz, who has over $4.9 million in previous cashes on the circuit to his name. Five of the seven already had multiple wins at the series under their belts.

Yockey’s two previous wins both came in pot-limit Omaha variants. He took down the $10,000 pot-limit Omaha eight-or-better championship in 2017, and a $5,000 PLO in 2024. While he has had plenty of deep runs in other mixed game events, including finishing second in the 2024 $50,000 Poker Players Championship, he’d been eying an outright win in this particular event for a while now.

“I’ve wanted to win this tournament for a really long time,” Yockey told PokerNews reporters. “In terms of, like, mixed game tournaments, this one’s really unique because there’s just a lot of strategy beyond just playing the game that goes into it. People actually try to choose games to target you. Whatever they think you’re bad at, whatever they think they have an advantage at. Part of the game is also just learning to play that game, too, and just avoiding them in those situations when you can. I wanted to win this one for a long time.”

This triumph increased Yockey’s lifetime tournament earnings to nearly $8.4 million. It also came with 780 Card Player Player of the Year points. This was his first qualifying final-table finiosh towards the year-long race presented by CoinPoker. The 372 PokerGO Tour points moved him inside the top 40 on that high-stakes-centric leaderboard.

Yockey’s Ascent Begins

The final day began with 11 players remaining and Schwartz in the lead and Yockey in the middle of the pack. Duane Fontenot (11th), Koji Fujimoto (10th), and Tomasz Gluszko (9th) hit the rail in the first couple of hours of day 3 action.

During that time, Yockey overtook the lead, with his surge up the leaderboard starting with his elimination of Fontenot. He soon took all but a few big blinds from Lawrence Brandt to set up the next elimination. Owais Ahmed landed the final blow, making the nut flush in Big O to scoop the last of Brandt’s stack. He earned $35,253 for his eighth-place showing.

Ahmed was the next to fall. He got all-in on fifth street in stud eight or better with a pair of sevens and four to a low. Ryan Miller came along and wound up making the wheel to win both the high and low sides. Ahmed earned $44,592 as the seventh-place finisher.

As six-handed play wore on, Yockey continued to pull away from the rest of the field. At one point, not too long before the next elimination took place, he had more than six times as many chips as the nearest competitor. He experienced a few small setbacks ahead of six-time bracelet winner Jeremy Ausmus’s exit in sixth place, though. Four-time bracelet winner Chad Eveslage called Ausmus’ shove in no-limit hold’em with A♦J♣ and held against A♣4♣ to narrow the field to five. Ausmus earned $58,460 for his efforts, surpassing $29.7 million in career cashes in the process.

More Heavyweights Hit The Rail

Nick Schulman

Poker Hall of Famer Nick Schulman was sent packing in a hand of razz. The seven-time bracelet winner committed his final bet after the deal and was called by Eveslage, who wound up with a 10-9-8-4-3. Schulman was drawing live with one card to come holding J-7-5-3-A, but drew a king on the end to finish fifth ($79,331).

This was Schulman’s second final table of the series, having placed second in the $1,500 badugi to Michael Casella. With one title and eight final-table finishes on the year, Schulman has climbed to 22nd in the POY standings. He’s also ranked 16th on the PGT leaderboard. 

Yockey put some distance between himself and the rest of the field again during four-handed action. Both Schwartz and Eveslage were left on fumes in his wake. Eveslage soon made his final stand during a round of limit Omaha, getting all-in preflop with A♦Q♣3♠3♦. Yockey showed down the winner on a K♣Q♥6♦J♦6♥ runout with A♠10♠8♣7♣ making broadway. Eveslage settled for $111,305 as the fourth-place finisher. The two-time World Poker Tour champion now boasts nearly $13.3 million in recorded scores.

From Three To One In A Flash

Schwartz soon followed, replicating his third-place finish in the 2021 running of this event. He got all-in with three to a low on third street in stud eight-or-better and was up against split jacks for Yockey. Schwartz improved to threes and deuces by fifth, but Yockey had made jacks up on fourth. Neither player improved on sixth or seventh and Schwartz headed to the payout desk to collect $161,292. This was the sixth-largest payday of his career.

Heads-up play began with roughly an 8:1 chip lead for Yockey over Miller. The two-time bracelet winner fell even further behind when he ran into trip queens for Yockey in a hand of limit Omaha. His final few chips soon went in after a J♠8♠8♥ flop in the same game. Miller held K♠7♥3♦3♣ and was trailing the K♣J♦9♥6♣ of Yockey. The Q♥ turn and 5♥ river changed nothing and Miller was eliminated as the runner-up. The $241,152 payout was his third-largest yet.

Final Table Payouts

Photo credit: WSOP / Dominic Iaquinto, Travis Ball