First 50 WSOP 2026 Events: $191M in Prizes – USA Dominates

The 2026 World Series of Poker is well underway, surging past the halfway point (Event #50).

These 50 events have already paid a whopping $191,085,681. The top 10 players for each event have split $108,905,534 among themselves.

Unsurprisingly, most of the field is from the United States. Poker culture is more developed in America, and the World Series is in Las Vegas, so that checks out.

We’re going to show which country’s players are making the top 10, who’s winning the bracelets, and what happened in the biggest events.

2026 WSOP Top 10 Finishers by Country (First 50 Events)

The top 10 players in the World Series of Poker tournaments fought hard to get there. They score the most from the prize pool, and one of them brings home the bracelet.

But it’s interesting to see where these WSOP champions come from. We’ve broken down which countries make it to the top 10 the most often and how much the players from countries are winning.

Players from the United States are absolutely dominating the top 10 rankings, making up 65% of the players (327 out of 499). That brought them over $63.7 million.

Countries with fewer than 5 players in the top 10 are not shown, or this list would stretch a mile long.

There are some interesting numbers here.

Look at Spain, for example. With only 6 players reaching the top 10, they still managed to generate over $6 million in cashes. That’s a little less than 10% of the United States’ winnings, with just 1.8% of the players. Impressive. They’ve also won more than any other nationality besides the United States, represented in the top 10 for each event.

2026 WSOP Bracelet Winners by Country (First 50 Events)

Now let’s take a look at the bracelet winners.

Out of the first 50 events, 32 bracelets went to players from the United States. Second place goes to their northern neighbor, Canada, with 4 bracelets so far (but none from Negreanu, yet).

The United Kingdom has been particularly impressive here, with only three top 10 finishes, but 2 bracelets.

A few other countries with three top 10 finishes also secured bracelets, like Bulgaria, Finland, and India.

Event with the Biggest Prize Pool (First 50 Events)

The largest prize pool in the first 50 WSOP events was Event #50. The Millionaire Maker reached a purse of $15,623,347 in total, paying 424 players. Min-cash brought $6,000, first place brought $1,250,000.

The winner was Joseph Liberta, from the United States. He instantly became a millionaire, but so did the runner-up, Michael Monroig.

In the final hand, Michael was short-stacked and shoved his T8 offsuit. Joseph called with 85 offsuit, and flopped the runner-up nearly dead by hitting trip fives. Running tens didn’t come, but both players still walked away with massive prizes. The IRS will also be happy about that.

In this event, every one of the top 10 players was from the United States.

Here's a look at the top 10 highest prize pools in the first 50 WSOP events this year.

Event with the Most Entries (First 50 Events)

The first event of the series, the $550 No-Limit Hold'em Mini Mystery Millions, had a massive field.

20,488 players entered, generating a prize pool of $9,352,772 and becoming the seventh-largest event in World Series of Poker history.

The winner of this special event was Philip Chun, who collected $400,000 for triumphing over more than 20,000 other players. Andrew Shelton took the top mystery bounty prize of $1,000,000.

Apparently, Kirsten Foxen spoke to the champion for an hour before the final day and helped Philip “tackle” the event the way he wanted.

Last year, the 2025 WSOP began with the $1,000 Mystery Millions, won by Michael Wilklow for $1,000,000. This year, the Mystery Millions is Event #63.

Event with the Highest Buy-In & Highest 1st-Place Prize

The $250,000 No-Limit Hold'em Super High Roller has the highest buy-in of the 2026 WSOP.

For most people, it’s hard to imagine spending that on a tournament entry, but the event still had 56 entries.

The NLHE Super High Roller also brought the largest first-place prize. Adrian Mateos of Spain won this one, scoring $4,334,411 (17 times the entry fee).

We covered his victory on the page below:

Player with the Most Top 10 Finishes (First 50 Events)

Alex Foxen is crushing it. In the first 50 WSOP events this year, he made the top 10 five different times, and also won a bracelet in Event #44.

Alex's wife (Kirsten Foxen) also won a bracelet in Event #19 for $1,773,083. What a life this family leads!

Alex Foxen has reached the top 10 in these events:

In total, Alex has cashed for $1,829,000 at the time of writing, from 8 different 2026 WSOP events.

Player with the Most Bracelets (First 50 Events)

The only player to win more than one bracelet in the first 50 events of the 2026 WSOP is Naoya Kihara, but there’s still time for others.

Naoya Kihara has won:

• Event #17: $10,000 No Limit 2-7 Draw Lowball Championship
• Event #23: $10,000 Limit Seven Card Stud Championship

Both are mixed game formats, and he won them just three days apart. After the second win (his third bracelet on record), Naoya gave a nod to the luck required in these events.

"I'm pretty sure I have enough skill, but I need luck also to win the tournament. For a few days, I'm really lucky."

He also made 7th place in the $50,000 Pot-Limit Omaha High Roller, so we're not 100% sure that it's all luck.

If you're tired of relying on luck and want to get an edge, why not improve? It's easier than ever in 2026.

Try out some beginner-friendly poker tools, and start controlling your games instead of waiting for the right cards.