Calvin Anderson Wins Second World Series Of Poker Razz Championship

It’s not often that a poker player gets to pass Phil Hellmuth and claim a World Series of Poker record. But in winning the 2026 WSOP $10,000 razz championship, Calvin Anderson did just that.

Anderson claimed his sixth career bracelet and won this championship for the second time, earning a first-place prize of $357,026. This victory pushed Anderson past Hellmuth as the winningest tournament razz player in WSOP history, with $759,280 in total earnings in the lowball stud variant. Anderson won his second overall career WSOP bracelet in the $10,000 razz event in 2018, the first of his three $10,000 buy-in mixed game titles to date. He is also the 2024 $10,000 eight-game championship winner. Anderson’s overall career earnings now sit at $8,462,984.

“It’s a really cool thing to win the same thing again,” Anderson told PokerNews after his win. “It kind of shows that it’s a testament to the skill set. Most people kind of shit on razz a little bit. I mean, almost the whole tournament everybody was like, ‘Oh, there’s no skill set in this and just all about getting lucky and all this stuff.’ That’s what you want people to think, right?”

Anderson joins Nick Schulman (eight), Yuri Dzivielevski (six), Kristen Foxen (six), and Adrian Mateos (six) in claiming major milestone bracelets in recent weeks at the WSOP.

It was not an easy or quick path to a sixth career WSOP victory. After two days of poker whittled the field from 155 down to eight, it took almost 12 hours in real time to get from the eight-handed final table to the last hand of the tournament.

The Rise And Fall Of Leknes

Anderson held the chip lead to start the final day of action in the $10,000 razz event, though he was virtually tied with Eric Rodawig at the top. Those two players would eventually battle heads-up for the title, but it was far from a linear path from start to finish.

Shane Littlefield was the first player to fall, going out in eighth place ($36,395) at the hands of Max Kruse early in the day. After an extended stretch of seven-handed play, Tobias Leknes knocked out Philip Sternheimer in seventh place ($46,385), eliminating the Triton regular and 2025 WSOP bracelet winner.

Kruse, who won a bracelet at WSOP Europe in 2022, also fell to Leknes. On Kruse’s final hand, his 7-4-3 to start failed to improve on all four ensuing streets, and Leknes’ made 8-6 low spelled Kruse’s end in sixth place ($60,868). Leknes made it three straight eliminations as he battered Yuval Bronshtein in back-to-back pots, finishing off the two-time bracelet winner in fifth place ($82,171) with a seven low, followed by an eight low.

Leknes’ run of three straight eliminations would be his peak, though. He got chewed up by the seemingly inevitable run of Anderson, who made a six low and had Leknes drawing dead by sixth street. Leknes settled for fourth place ($114,032).

Anderson was seemingly positioned to steamroll his way to a title from there. He had 6.6 million, to Rodawig’s 1.9 million, and Todd Dakake’s 900,000. But it would take more than four hours in real time for the field to go from three players down to heads-up.

A Three-Headed Marathon

Over the course of a long three-handed session, all three players managed to spend a stretch as the chip leader. Dakake’s time as top stack was particularly impressive, considering he was down to his last few bets on several different occasions.

Despite his run to the top, the bottom eventually fell out for Dakake. With the limits creeping up, he lost a big chunk back to Anderson, and then Rodawig finished the job. By seventh street, Rodawig made a nine-eight low, and Dakake missed his draw at a nine-five low, ending Dakake’s tournament in third place ($162,551).

Anderson started heads-up play with a lead and never relinquished it to Rodawig from that point on. The chips went in on fifth street, with Anderson showing a made eight-seven low, and Rodawig in trouble despite starting with 5-4-2. He had hit a jack on fifth, which was followed by a ten, and then a queen, which doomed Rodawig to a second-place finish ($237,851).

For his win, Anderson earned 720 Card Player Player of the Year points. His second qualifying result of 2026 puts him in 335th place on the year-long leaderboard presented by CoinPoker. Sternheimer, who tacked on 180 POY points for seventh place, cracked the top 50 and now sits in 43rd overall.

The $10,000 buy-in level also qualified Anderson for PokerGO Tour points. His 357 points for this razz win, combined with a previous PGT final table earlier in the year, put Anderson in 42nd place overall in the high roller tour’s season-long standings.

Final Table Results

Photo credit: WSOP / Dominic Iaquinto & Lennart Hennig