Homan Mohammadi Wins World Series of Poker Seniors Event

For the fifth straight year, the World Series of Poker $1,000 seniors no-limit hold’em championship attracted over 7,000 entrants. The 2026 running finished with 7,538 entries, to be exact, creating a prize pool of $6,633,440. From that sea of thousands of players aged 50 or older, only one would walk away with the bracelet and the top prize of $660,000: Homan Mohammadi.

The Canadian has been around the poker tournament circuit for well over a decade, with his first recorded score coming at the 2011 WSOP. This latest score was by far his largest, more than tripling the $211,717 he earned for a runner-up finish in a $1,600 event at the 2017 Wynn Summer Classic. Mohammadi now has nearly $1.8 million in recorded scores to his name.

The Vancouver resident has entered this event several times in recent years and is thrilled to have been able to close out a win in the event, which is often one of the largest of the summer when it comes to field size.

“It’s like a dream come true, absolutely. I’ve been very close a couple of times, but going through a field of [thousands of] players and trying to keep the flag up, it just feels amazing,” Mohammadi told PokerNews live reporters on the scene.

“I’m actually a six-max specialist, and, you know, it’s not really what people my age do,” shared Mohammadi. “I’ve been playing the seniors for like four years now. The first year that I started playing the seniors, I was shocked because my approach was completely different. I had to really adjust, because they have a different kind of approach to the game. So I think I have a better understanding of how to approach the seniors tournament. It’s a little different than like a $5,000 six-max, trust me.”

Thinning The Sizable Field

This event ran from June 15-19 inside the Horseshoe and Paris Las Vegas. Only 239 contenders made it through the two starting flights and the pair of day 2s to combined-field play starting on day 3. Plenty of notables ran deep, including John Wasnock (92nd), Chris Bell (33rd), Farzad Bonyadi (21st), and Fred Goldberg (13th).

Mohammadi seized the lead heading into the final day, with 25 still in contention when cards got in the air. He remained atop the chip counts when the field had been cut down to the final table. Larry Quang won a crucial race with A♥K♦ against the Q♠Q♦ of Keith Romer (9th – $70,030) to kickstart his climb up the leaderboard. He also out-flipped Ronald Moore (8th – $88,000), hitting a set of sixes to narrow the field to seven.

The next two knockouts belonged to Mohammadi, with both Todd German (7th – $114,000) and Manfred Wolf (6th – $148,000) falling at his hands. After the dinner break, Ablahad Salim’s (5th – $193,000) pocket jacks were bested by the two overcards of Buck Bucceri. Despite winning that coin flip, Bucceri was the next to hit the rail. His final hand pitted K♥Q♠ against Mohammadi’s A♦J♦. Neither player connected and Bucceri settled for $254,000 as the fourth-place finisher.

Mohammadi started with the lead going into three-handed play, but slid to the bottom of the counts for a bit. He bounced back in a big way when his Q♣9♥ held against the 7♠6♥ of Bruce Diamond after the chips went in on a 9♣8♥4♠ flop. The J♦ turn and 7♦ river kept Mohammadi’s hand best, ending Diamond’s run in third place ($337,000).

Heads-Up For The Gold

Larry Quang

The final showdown for the title began with roughly a 2:1 chip lead for Mohammadi. Quang closed the gap a bit in the early going, but was bluffed out of a sizable pot by Mohammadi’s 4-3 to fall well behind.

Quang found a double-up when K♥2♣ outdrew A♣K♦ in a preflop showdown. He was one card away from elimination, but the 2♠ on the end gave him the winning hand to extend the event.

In the final hand of the tournament, Mohammadi raised from the button with A♦6♦ and Quang three-bet shoved from the big blind with K♦7♣ for 39,400,000 (just shy of 33 big blinds). Mohammadi called and the flop came down Q♦9♦7♠. Quang flopped a pair, but Mohammadi had the nut flush draw and an overcard working. The Q♣ kept Quang ahead, but the A♠ on the river gave Mohammadi aces up and the pot.

Quang earned $450,000 as the runner-up. This was the largest score yet for the Southern California poker regular, topping the $302,535 he earned with a Quantum Mega Millions XXII win at the Parkwest Bicycle Casino in 2022. He now has nearly $1.9 million in lifetime cashes under his belt.

Final Table Results

Photo credit: WSOP / Miguel Cortes.