The $200 Bracelet Event Is Down to Nine — and the Chip Leader Has Two Rings

At 3:50 a.m. at the Horseshoe, the cheapest bracelet event on the 2026 WSOP schedule is down to its final nine — and the chip leader is a Circuit grinder with two rings, 15 final tables, and $304K in lifetime earnings who has never won WSOP gold.

Wadih Kaawar leads Event #390, the $200 Daily Deepstack No-Limit Hold'em. Two hundred dollars. That's the buy-in for a bracelet. And the guy out front has been circling this moment on the Circuit for years.

Wadih Kaawar has two WSOPC rings, 15 career final tables, $304K in lifetime earnings — and zero bracelets.

The Table

Kaawar's résumé is the thickest at this final table by a wide margin. Behind him, the field is a mix of grinders and unknowns. Noe Acosta and Melissa Doucette are both U.S.-based players without recorded WSOP earnings. Bahman Ataeianfar, from Canada, has $41K in lifetime cashes and one prior final table. Vasilios Hrisafinis, from Greece, has $1,625 lifetime. Nobody else at this table has a ring.

That's the story: the only player with real hardware is also in front.

Why It's Worth Watching

A $200 bracelet event doesn't get the Triton treatment. No diamond-encrusted commentary booth. But the narrative here is clean — Kaawar has done everything on the Circuit. Two rings. Fifteen final tables across his career. He knows what it feels like to close. The question is whether he can do it in a bracelet field, against a final table full of players with nothing to lose.

The stream is live now from the Horseshoe. Expect this to wrap by mid-morning PT.