Darrell Blodgett Is Nine-Handed for His First Bracelet — at $250

Darrell Blodgett's entire poker résumé fits on an index card: one WSOP Circuit ring, $178,337 in lifetime earnings, three final tables — and right now he's nine-handed for a gold bracelet.

The event is #478, the $250 Seniors Deepstack No-Limit Hold'em at the 2026 World Series of Poker. It's the lowest buy-in seniors event on this summer's schedule, and the final table is set.

A one-ring Circuit grinder with $178,337 in career earnings is now one final table away from owning a gold bracelet — for $250.

The Index Card

Blodgett, a U.S.-based player with zero prior bracelets, has spent his tracked career in the lower end of the tournament ecosystem. His single WSOPC ring and three lifetime final tables represent steady, modest output — the kind of record that doesn't earn you a nickname on poker Twitter but does prove you can navigate a tournament.

His $178,337 in career earnings puts him in the bracket where most players are still self-funding buy-ins, not cashing sponsorship checks. That number is about to move.

The Table

Blodgett isn't the only player at this final table chasing a first bracelet. Nobody among the remaining nine has one.

Rory Liffey, an Irish player with $85,598 in lifetime earnings and two career final tables, sits near the top of the counts at 1,195,000 chips. James Martin, a U.S. player with just $630 in tracked earnings, leads the table with 1,110,000. Martin's résumé makes Blodgett's index card look like a manuscript — this could be the thinnest lifetime-earnings profile to lead a WSOP final table all summer.

Blodgett's chip count wasn't reported in the latest update, which means he's somewhere in the middle or short of the remaining nine. What we know: he's alive, and alive is all that matters at a nine-handed final table in a deepstack format.

Ring to Bracelet

The gap between a Circuit ring and a WSOP bracelet is the gap between regional credibility and permanent poker history. Rings are earned at Caesars properties year-round, against fields that skew local. Bracelets are earned in Las Vegas in the summer, against fields that draw internationally — even in a $250 seniors event.

Blodgett's ring proves he can close. Three final tables prove he can get deep more than once. The question now is whether he can do it on the biggest stage poker offers, at the table where it counts.

The $250 buy-in makes the math deceptively small. The bracelet does not care what it cost to enter.

Who Else Is Watching

David Shein and Guy Caudill, both U.S. players, were among the last to exit before the final table — bubbling out in 11th and 12th respectively. Neither has tracked lifetime earnings or prior final tables in Charlotte's database. Their exits cleared the path for the final nine.

For Blodgett, and for Martin and Liffey, this is the deepest any of them have run in a bracelet event. One of them will leave the Horseshoe with gold on their wrist.

Blodgett's index card is about to need a second side.