Dwan Bests Poker Royalty En Route to $50k High Roller Victory for $2.2 Million

Chad Holloway PR & Media Manager

Jul 12, 2026 4 min read

On Saturday, July 11, the final 13 players from a 202-entry field returned to battle to a winner in Event #90: $50,000 High Roller No-Limit Hold'em of the 2026 World Series of Poker (WSOP) at Horseshoe and Paris Las Vegas.

The returning players had at least $122,526 in prize money locked up, but each had their eyes fixed on getting an even larger piece of the $9,595,000 prize pool. After nine hours of play, it was the UK’s Jamie Dwan who claimed the $2,276,691 first-place prize and his first gold bracelet.

It marked a new career-high score for the 26-year-old Dwan, who previously had a total of $806,208 in lifetime earnings, by quite a margin. According to The Hendon Mob, his prior best was $76,254 for finishing fourth in the 2025 EPT Malta €3,250 Mystery Bounty Event.

Event #90: $50,000 High Roller No-Limit Hold'em Final Table Results

Place	Player	Country	Prize
1	Jamie Dwan	United Kingdom	$2,276,691
2	Daniel Rezaei	Austria	$1,517,782
3	Bryn Kenney	United States	$1,041,908
4	Paulius Vaitiekunas	Lithuania	$731,733
5	Josef Schusteritsch	Austria	$526,030
6	Timur Margolin	Israel	$387,298
7	Daniel Smiljkovic	Germany	$292,221
8	Daniel Negreanu	Canada	$226,086

Poker's Coming Home

"This is my first-ever $50K. It is the most I've ever had invested in a tournament. It was a huge shot take, and I've just won it," an ecstatic Dwan told PokerNews after the win. "None of this feels real; it feels insane. This was just like a big punt at the end of the series. I was having a winning summer. I was like, I'll punt it. I'll have a go at it, you know. It feels like a dream; it doesn't feel real."

While it was by far his largest live score, Dwan is an accomplished online player, having amassed millions on the online felt, though his largest virtual score was just $120,000. And something he hasn't won online is a gold bracelet.

"It means so much to me," Dwan said of the jewelry. "My mum's not very well, and all I wanted to do this summer was come back to her with a bracelet. I've done it, and I've done it in one of the biggest tournaments of the year. It means so much, so much."

"My mum's not very well, and all I wanted to do this summer was come back to her with a bracelet."

Just before this year’s WSOP in Las Vegas, Dwan actually captured gold at the WSOP International Circuit Aix-en-Provence, taking down Event #11: €3,500 Super High Roller for $58,921.

Dwan’s win was hard-earned as he had to overcome a 5-to-1 chip deficit in heads-up play against bracelet winner Daniel Rezaei, not to mention a final day that included two Poker Hall of Famers in Erik Seidel and Daniel Negreanu, Women in Poker Hall of Famer Kristen Foxen, and poker’s all-time money leader in Bryn Kenney.

"It's what poker dreams are made of," Dwan said of the field he had to navigate on his way to victory. "I remember when I first started playing poker and watching these people. I don't even play with them that often, but then beating them when I never really had the biggest stack... You know, bobbing around for a while, to win a big flip against Negreanu, who was one of the people who got me into poker. It doesn't feel real, it feels like a dream; it's insane.”

Dwan Way or Another, He's Gonna Get Ya, Get Ya

Within the first three hours, Chris Brewer (13th - $122,526), Sebastian Gaehl (12th - $122,526), Seidel (11th - $146,295), and Eric Yanovsky (10th - $146,295) all hit the rail. At that point, Foxen ran two black jacks smack dab into the two red kings of Josef Schusteritsch to exit in ninth place and bring about the official final table.

Negreanu was seeking his second bracelet of the summer, but his quest came to an end when his ace-king failed to win a flip against the pocket nines of Dwan. He was followed out the door by Daniel Smiljkovic, who couldn't get lucky with ace-four against the ace-king of Paulius Vaitiekunas.

Three-time bracelet winner Timur Margolin was the next to go after growing short and having his pocket queens outdrawn by Kenney’s ace-ten, and then a short-stacked Schusteritsch bowed out in fifth.

It was during four-handed play that Rezaei built a big stack and put it to good use, especially after the dinner break. After Dwan got lucky to double with queens against the kings of Vaitiekunas, the latter was left short. Rezaei got most of the remaining chips, while Dwan technically finished Vaitiekunas off one hand later.

In the very next hand after that, Rezaei dispatched Kenny, who collected $1,041,908 for his third-place finish. That brought Kenny's total atop poker's all-time money list up to $89,094,210, according to The Hendon Mob.

Rezaei began heads-up play with a 5-to-1 chip lead over Dwan, but the two engaged in a back-and-forth affair that saw the chip lead exchange hands several times. In the final hand, Dwan had pulled out to a nice lead, and his ace-jack held against the ace-ten of Rezaei.

Rezaei claimed his first bracelet back in December at the 2025 WSOP Paradise Event #4: $50,000 High Roller Turbo, good for $1,900,000, but was denied a second piece of hardware in the $50k High Roller. Even so, he took home $1,517,782 in prize money for his runner-up finish, as the biggest prize of the lot went to Dwan.