Joshua Arieh Is 18 Players From Bracelet No. 8

Joshua Arieh has seven bracelets, nearly $13 million in career earnings, and 275,000 chips at the two-table mark of the $10,000 H.O.R.S.E. Championship. Eighteen players remain. One more gold piece and Arieh cements himself as one of the most decorated mixed-game players in WSOP history.

The H.O.R.S.E. Championship isn't something you stumble into. Five rotations — Hold'em, Omaha Hi-Lo, Razz, Stud, Stud Eight-or-Better — at a $10,000 buy-in, against a field stacked with players who've spent decades mastering games most of the poker world ignores. This is the event where specialists eat generalists alive, where a single Razz round can vaporize a stack built over three hours of Omaha. And Arieh, at 48 career WSOP final tables, knows exactly how to navigate it.

One more gold piece and Arieh cements himself as one of the most decorated mixed-game players in WSOP history.

The Stack and the Obstacle

Arieh's 275,000 isn't the chip lead. That distinction belongs to Maksim Pisarenko, who sits on 770,000 — nearly three times Arieh's stack. Pisarenko, a one-bracelet, one-ring holder out of Russia with $1.7 million in lifetime earnings and 11 final tables, has been the table's gravitational center heading into the final two tables. He has the chips to play patient while everyone else sweats the rotation.

That gap matters. In H.O.R.S.E., the chip leader controls tempo in fixed-limit games by forcing opponents into marginal spots round after round. Arieh can't play reckless Razz or bleed chips in Stud Hi-Lo hoping to catch a heater in Hold'em. He needs to grind — the thing he's arguably best at.

The Field That Just Missed

Three notable players hit the rail on the bubble of the final 18. Jason Daly, a three-bracelet, four-ring veteran with $1.28 million in career cashes and 12 final tables, busted in 19th. Sebastian Pauli, a one-bracelet German with $1.37 million lifetime, went out 20th. Matthew Schreiber, another one-bracelet holder with $1.16 million and seven final tables, fell 21st.

Those aren't soft eliminations. Daly alone has seven pieces of WSOP hardware (bracelets plus Circuit rings). When a field this credentialed is getting knocked out in clusters, the survivors aren't running good — they're playing better than very good players.

What Bracelet No. 8 Would Mean

Arieh's seven bracelets already place him in a category that fewer than 20 players in the 57-year history of the WSOP have reached. An eighth, won in the H.O.R.S.E. Championship of all events, wouldn't just be another line on a résumé that already includes $12.98 million in lifetime earnings. It would be a statement about range — proof that Arieh can beat the best in five distinct disciplines in a single event, at the highest buy-in the mixed-game calendar offers.

Pisarenko's 770,000 is the clearest obstacle. But in a field of 18 where multiple bracelet holders have already fallen, the obstacle is really the format itself. H.O.R.S.E. punishes any leak, in any game, over hours of play. You can't hide.

Arieh has never been the type to hide. Forty-eight final tables across a career spanning more than two decades tells you that. Whether the 275,000 is enough to catch Pisarenko and close out bracelet number eight depends on what happens when the Razz cards come out and the stacks start compressing.

Eighteen players. Five games. One title. Arieh has done this seven times before. The eighth might be the hardest.