Brad Ruben Wins His Fourth Bracelet in Event #12

Brad Ruben now has four WSOP bracelets — and he won this one in a game most players couldn't explain at gunpoint.

Ruben topped the field in Event #12, the $1,500 No-Limit 2-7 Lowball Draw (7-Handed), collecting $138,080 and his fourth piece of WSOP gold. For a player who has built his tournament résumé almost entirely outside the No-Limit Hold'em mainstream, this is the bracket that keeps widening.

Ruben topped the field in Event #12, the $1,500 No-Limit 2-7 Lowball Draw (7-Handed), collecting $138,080 and his fourth piece of WSOP gold.

The Format Collector

What makes Ruben unusual isn't the bracelet count — four is elite, but there are players with more. It's the range.

Ruben's bracelets span draw and lowball variants that most recreational players have never sat down in. The $1,500 No-Limit 2-7 Lowball Draw is a format that rewards patience, hand-reading in spots with almost no public information, and a willingness to play enormous pots on single-draw decisions. It's the kind of event where the field shrinks not because of buy-in, but because of sheer discomfort.

Ruben doesn't look uncomfortable. He looks like he's been waiting for this event to post on the schedule all year.

That versatility — genuine, demonstrated, across formats that share almost nothing in common with mainstream Hold'em tournament poker — is what separates Ruben from players with similar bracelet counts. Plenty of four-time winners got there grinding the $1,500 NLHE conveyor belt. Ruben got there by being the best player at tables most bracelet hunters skip entirely.

First Gold of 2026

Event #12 also carries a broader significance: it's the first bracelet awarded at the 2026 WSOP.

The early stretch of any summer series is a parade of Day 1s and Day 2s stacking on top of each other, flights filling and bagging, but no one actually winning anything yet. The first bracelet changes the atmosphere. It proves the series is real, the gold is being handed out, and the hunt is on.

Ruben breaking the seal in a lowball draw event is fitting. The WSOP has always been more than Hold'em — it just doesn't always feel that way until someone like Ruben reminds the room.

The Fantasy Angle

For anyone tracking the 25kFantasy contest, Ruben's win landed on the roster of "Verderamo (Nick + Jake)," delivering a full $138,080 in scoring value. In a contest where a single bracelet finish can vault a team up the leaderboard, rostering a mixed-game specialist in the right week is the kind of edge that separates contenders from the field.

The lesson is one that repeats every summer: the mixed-game events are where the chalk crumbles. Ownership percentages on draw and lowball specialists tend to be low — the names aren't as recognizable, the formats aren't as streamable, and the casual fantasy player gravitates toward the Phil Hellmuths and the Daniel Negreanus. Ruben winning at depressed ownership is a best-case scenario for anyone who had him.

What Comes Next

Ruben is 57 events away from the end of the 2026 series, and the schedule is loaded with the kinds of formats he thrives in — Razz, Triple Draw, mixed events with rotating games. A player with four bracelets across this many variants isn't done. He's just getting warmed up in his favorite part of the calendar.

The first bracelet of the summer belongs to the guy who plays the games nobody else wants to play. That tells you something about what it takes to collect gold at the WSOP — and it isn't always about the main event.