Eelis Parssinen Wins Third Career World Series Of Poker Bracelet

Finnish high-stakes pot-limit Omaha and no-limit hold’em crusher Eelis Parssinen has been red-hot in 2026. He has cashed for just shy of $7.8 million across 19 in-the-money finishes so far this year, with nine final-table finishes and three titles won along the way. That accounts for almost a third of his total career haul of $23,820,066.

The two latest triumphs came within a week of each other at the World Series of Poker. On June 19, the 37-year-old poker pro emerged victorious in the $25,000 pot-limit Omaha event with his second career bracelet and $2,270,000. On June 25, he added to his trophy case yet again, topping a field of 214 in the $25,000 no-limit hold’em and pot-limit Omaha mixed event to earn his third bracelet and another $1,172,296.

Parssinen is the first Finnish player ever to have won three bracelets. This triumph broke his tie with two-time bracelet winner Juha Helppi, who finished runner-up in this event to fall just short of the same record himself.

This was the second NLH/PLO mixed bracelet for Parssinen, who broke through with his first win at the series in a $5,000 buy-in of the same format back in 2021. His impressive performance in this dual-game tournament is particularly meaningful to Parssinen.

“The more that I think about it, I probably value this one more than the $25k PLO since I play both games. Here, you have to be good enough at both, but I think it’s close. It’s unbelievable. I can’t find words right now. Obviously, I was so lucky to be on the right side of the coolers, to be on the right side of the hands that are supposed to go all in no matter what. It’s crazy to think it’s even possible to run like that,” Parssinen told PokerNews live reporters after closing out the win.

Rankings Points Galore

This latest triumph came with 1,260 Card Player Player of the Year points. That pushed Parssinen’s total to 6,081, which is currently good for third place in the 2026 POY standings presented by CoinPoker. He trails only Alex Foxen (6,759 points) and Brandon Wilson (6,715) on that leaderboard.

Parssinen also scored 700 PokerGO Tour rankings points for the win. That catapulted him into the outright lead in the PGT rankings with 1,691 total points towards that high-stakes-centric race. He sits just ahead of Yuri Dzivielevski (1,602 points)
and Sean Winter (1,575 points). Winter finished third in this event to bolster that total. It was his 11th PGT-qualified score of 2026.

Winter moved into 20th in the POY rankings, as well.

Big Names In The Mix

The 214-entry field made for a $5,029,000 prize pool in this combo event, with the top 33 finishers earning a share. Plenty of poker tournament stars ran deep, including four-time bracelet winners Joao Vieira (32nd) and Chance Kornuth (31st), eight-time bracelet winners Nick Schulman (27th) and Michael Mizrachi (25th), Dan Smith (20th), Naoya Kihara (18th), Maurice Hawkins (17th), Nick Pupillo (16th), and Cary Katz (15th).

The third and final day of play inside the Horseshoe and Paris Las Vegas began with 14 players remaining and Helppi in the lead. Parssinen sat in fifth chip position when cards got in the air.

Two-time bracelet winner Dylan Weisman (13th) was among those to hit the rail as the field marched down to the final eight. Parssinen busted China’s Yang Wang in ninth place ($92,887) to move into second ahead of the official final table.

Three-time bracelet winner Dylan Linde bowed out in eighth place ($117,835) when his single-suited pocket queens were outflopped by the double-suited pocket queens of Edward Leonard. The flop brought two queens to give Leonard quads and a virtual lock on the hand. Linde was drawing dead after the turn and headed to the rail.

Negreanu Logs Biggest Score Of The Summer

Daniel Negreanu has had a relatively quiet year at the series thus far, by his lofty standards. He had seven cashes for just over $308,000 before making this final table. That was enough to see the seven-time bracelet winner make history as the first player to ever surpass $25 million in WSOP earnings, though.

Negreanu was among the short stacks when the final table got underway. Though he outlasted Linde, it wasn’t by much. His final stand came shortly after Linde departed, during a round of PLO. The chips went in on a J♦9♠3♦6♠ board with Negreanu holding A♦K♠5♥4♦ for the nut flush draw and a low straight draw. Helppi had Q♣10♣10♠8♥ for a high wrap. The 3♣ river missed both players and Helppi’s pocket tens played to earn him the pot and the knockout.

The $152,954 payout for seventh was the largest yet this series for Negreanu. The Canadian all-time money leader now boasts more than $57.4 million in overall earnings on the tournament circuit, the 11th-highest total of any player.

Parssinen Picks Up Steam, Goes Runner-Runner

AP Louis Garza, who won this same event in 2025 for his second career bracelet, nearly defended his title. He survived to the final six, but ultimately was unable to progress any further. He committed his last chips after a 10♠4♠2♦ flop with Q♥Q♦7♦6♥. Helppi called with Q♣9♣8♦4♦ and picked up plenty of equity when the J♦ appeared on the turn. The 8♥ river gave Helppi the nut straight to win the pot, sending Garza packing with $203,041.

Parssinen then picked off the last handful of blinds from Sergio Martinez Gonzalez (5th – $275,509). The Spanish PLO crusher had almost all of his stack in preflop with Q♣J♥ trailing A♦8♥ in NLH. His last 200,000 went in after the J♠7♦4♣ gave him top pair. Parssinen called the shove of less than a full 240,000 big blind and promptly spiked the A♠ to retake the lead. The 9♥ completed the board and the field was down to four.

The next knockout hand saw Leonard commit his stack preflop with Q♦J♠ dominated by the A♥Q♥ of Parssinen. The flop came down A♦K♦4♦ to give Leonard the nut flush and four-fifths of a royal flush. Parssinen would need to hit running cards to quads of a full house in order to win the pot.

Leonard was nearly a 98 percent favorite to double up, but the Q♣ turn saw Parssinen’s chances grow to nearly 7 percent according to the Card Player poker odds calculator.

The A♠ on the end saw the longshot come in, and Parssinen’s runner-runner boat gave him the pot and the knockout. Leonard earned $381,950 as the fourth-place finisher.

Fighting Across The Finnish Line

Not too long after that dramatic elimination, Parssinen shoved from the small blind with 10♦5♦ into the short stack of Sean Winter. The American high roller called off his last handful of blinds with J♣2♣ and the pair saw a board of 9♥5♣3♥4♥2♠. Parssinen’s pair of fives was enough to earn him the pot, ending Winter’s run in third place ($540,754).

This was the eighth final-table finish of the year for Winter, and third of the series. He also finished third in the $25,000 no-limit hold’em six max and fourth in the $250,000 super high roller.

Heads-up began with a 5:3 chip advantage for Parssinen over Helppi. The early action favored the chip leader, but Helppi soon scored a crucial double-up to find some breathing room. He then went on a run that saw him edge into the lead. He expanded the advantage until Parssinen found a double of his own, with A♦J♦ outrunning 7♠7♦ with a flush on the turn.

Helppi was left on fumes, but found a double up in each of the games to all but even the stacks. Parssinen was able to regain the advantage, though, and build back up to more than 2:1 in chips by the time the final hand arrived.

The chips got in preflop with J♥J♦9♥8♦ for Helppi against A♠K♣J♣5♠ for Parssinen. The flop came down A♣K♠8♣ to give Parssinen top two pair and the nut flush draw. The 10♣ turn completed the clubs, leaving Helppi with no outs heading into the river. The 8♠ on the end saw Helppi eliminated in second place, earning $781,500 for a new career-best score.

Final Table Results

Photo credit: WSOP / Lennart Hennig, Taylor Abrams.