Koji Fujimoto Wins World Series of Poker $10,000 2-7 Triple Draw

Across nearly six decades of World Series of Poker action, only seven players have managed to win at least nine bracelets across an entire career. Improbably, it looked for much of the $10,000 deuce-to-seven triple draw final table at the 2026 WSOP that two players would hit that milestone in back-to-back nights.

Nick Schulman, already the winner of the $1,500 H.O.R.S.E. event and his eighth WSOP bracelet earlier this summer, held the chip lead for most of day 3 in the $10,000 deuce-to-seven championship. He opened up a big lead heads up, and yet, it was simply not Schulman’s night for number nine.

Koji Fujimoto came from behind to defeat Schulman to win his first career bracelet, and the $392,478 first-place prize. The win represents the culmination of years of hard work for Fujimoto, a Japanese pro who has been on an accelerated trajectory in mixed game tournaments in recent years. In 2025, Fujimoto finished third in a $3,000 T.O.R.S.E. event at the WSOP, and in February of this year, he took fourth in a $10,600 T.O.R.S.E. event at the 2026 PokerGO Tour Mixed Game Series.

On this night, Fujimoto defeated a Poker Hall of Famer heads-up to secure his place in the WSOP history books. It’s the third bracelet win for Japan in 2026, joining the pair won by Naoya Kihara earlier this summer. Kihara, a close friend of Fujimoto’s, made a run in this tournament, too, going out in seventh place.

In addition to Schulman, Fujimoto also had to tangle with a couple more Poker Hall of Famers down the stretch, including Todd Brunson and Billy Baxter. The latter, an 85-year-old seven-time WSOP champion with five career deuce-to-seven bracelets, finished in eighth place.

Navigating A Murderer’s Row

What was once a field of 176 entrants was reduced to just 11 bracelet hopefuls by day 3. In addition to the aforementioned poker legends, bracelet winners Brandon Shack-Harris, Robert Wells, Andrew Kelsall, and Tommy Hang were contenders for the title. Online poker standout Justin ‘Boosted J’ Smith and World Poker Tour champion Nam Le also remained in the hunt.

Needless to say, Fujimoto’s path to victory was an incredibly challenging one. Shack-Harris, Le, Wells, Baxter, and Kihara fell before the official six-handed final table was reached. At that point, Schulman held 3.8 million, with Hang (2.2 million), Smith (1.8 million), and Fujimoto (1.55 million) in the chasing pack.

Schulman dispatched Brunson in sixth place ($62,404). Brunson, on an extremely short stack, made a 10-9 low by the third draw. Schulman, who drew four on the first draw, and one card each on the second and third draws, made a wheel (7-5-4-3-2) to win the pot. Brunson, predominantly a cash game player for most of his career, won his lone WSOP bracelet in 2005.

Smith was the next player to the rail. He battled with Hang, and the last of his chips went in following the final draw. Smith showed an 8-7-6 low, but Hang pipped him with an 8-7-5 low. Smith, who has had a few close calls in major live tournaments throughout his career, settled for fifth place ($84,845).

Fujimoto’s Surge

Kelsall spent long stretches of this deuce-to-seven triple draw final table as the short stack. After picking up key doubles with his tournament on the line, he finally missed a draw against Fujimoto that spelled his doom. Kelsall drew one card in all three drawing rounds, and found himself needing to improve his 8-7-4-2 to overcome Fujimoto’s 10-7 low. Kelsall peeled an eight, pairing up, and he was out in fourth place ($119,011).

Hang drew the short straw three-handed, as Schulman and Fujimoto took turns picking apart his stack. On Hang’s final stand, he ran head-first into another wheel for Schulman, going out in third place ($172,064).

Schulman held a 3:2 chip lead to start heads-up play. Three of Schulman’s eight bracelets came in the no-limit $10,000 deuce-to-seven single draw championship. In the limit $10,000 deuce-to-seven triple draw championship, Schulman had previously finished in third place twice, most recently in 2025, along with a fourth-place finish.

Needless to say, the experience and the chip advantage seemingly made Schulman the clear favorite. In early heads-up action, Schulman quickly extended his lead to 3:1 and had all the momentum when the final two players took a 10-minute break.

But from the moment he and Schulman returned from that break, Fujimoto went on a rampage.

Sweet Victory

A string of medium-sized pots that went to showdown all went Fujimoto’s way, and in less than 20 minutes, Fujimoto overtook Schulman for the lead. Schulman would briefly regain the advantage one more time, but Fujimoto took control, reclaimed the chip lead, and never looked back.

Thirty more minutes of one-sided action saw Fujimoto claim a lead of more than 4:1. Then, down to just 1 million chips, against Fujimoto’s 9.5 million, Schulman and Fujimoto played a remarkable hand in which Schulman pulled out an incredible double. On the final draw, Fujimoto took two cards, and Schulman drew one.

Improbably, on a two-card draw, Fujimoto made a 7-6-4-3-2, the second-best possible hand in deuce-to-seven, and lost. Schulman completed his one-card draw to make one final wheel, and even verbally apologized to Fujimoto for the incredibly unlikely outcome.

Schulman doubled a few times on a precariously short stack, but he’d get no closer in the chip counts. On the final hand, both players drew one card. Fujimoto, trying to improve upon a 7-6-5-3, paired his three. Schulman, drawing to a 9-7-6-4, simply needed to avoid pairing to survive and double. But a four made Fujimoto’s pair the superior low, and Schulman’s shot at bracelet number nine fell one spot short.

It’s been an incredible summer for Schulman. In addition to his $1,500 H.O.R.S.E. win, Schulman has two runner-up finishes and two fifth-place showings in five total cashes.

An Impressive Win

Fujimoto, who teaches poker in Japan, is the 11th Japanese poker player to win a WSOP bracelet. Kihara won the first-ever Japanese bracelet at the 2012 WSOP.

His career-best cash of $392,478 more than doubled Fujimoto’s total recorded earnings. Fujimoto also picked up 780 Card Player Player of the Year points, putting him just outside the top 400 in the yearlong race presented by CoinPoker.

At the $10,000 buy-in level, Fujimoto also earned 392 PokerGO Tour points. With his previous PGT results, Fujimoto sits at 500 PGT points for the year, in 55th place on the season-long leaderboard. That puts Fujimoto within striking distance of an automatic berth in the season-ending PGT $1 million championship event.

Schulman moved to fourth place in the POY rankings with this, his 11th overall final-table finish of 2026. He also climbed to 18th place on the PGT leaderboard.

Final Table Results

Photo credit: WSOP / Miguel Cortes, Tyler Abrams