Todd Brunson Has 1.58 Million Chips and a Family Legacy on the Line

Todd Brunson has 1,580,000 chips and 15 opponents standing between him and a second WSOP bracelet in the $10,000 Limit 2-7 Lowball Triple Draw Championship. The kind of niche, old-school event his father Doyle dominated before most of the field was born.

And he isn't just surviving. He's surging.

When the field hit 26 players, Brunson sat on 382,000; by the time it shrank to 15, he'd quadrupled to 1,580,000.

From 382K to Chip Leader in a Session

When Day 2 of Event #67 started grinding toward the money, Brunson held 382,000 chips with 26 players remaining. Comfortable, but not commanding. Somewhere in the next eleven eliminations he found gears. By the time the field collapsed to two tables and 15 survivors, his stack read 1,580,000. That's more than a quadruple-up in a single session of a game where pots build slowly and edges are thin.

For context, Brunson already owns one WSOP bracelet and $2.77 million in lifetime tournament cashes across 18 career final tables. None of those numbers need embellishment. But a second bracelet, in a $10K championship event, in Limit 2-7 Triple Draw? That would land differently than any six-figure score on his résumé.

The Brunson surname and deuce-to-seven go back decades. Doyle Brunson was synonymous with draw poker in an era when these games were the real action at the World Series, before Hold'em swallowed everything. Todd grew up watching those games. Now he's leading one.

The Field That Was

The carnage on Day 2 tells its own story. Five-time bracelet winner John Juanda ($9.33 million in lifetime earnings, 48 career final tables) busted in 16th place. Joe McKeehen, the 2015 WSOP Main Event champion with $2.40 million in career cashes, fell in 17th. Andrew Yeh, a one-time bracelet winner with $1.74 million lifetime, went out 18th. Hanh Tran (Austria, $201K lifetime) exited 19th.

That's serious talent hitting the rail. The fact that Brunson was accumulating chips while players of that caliber were going broke suggests he's playing well, not just running hot. In a fixed-limit draw game, sustained chip accumulation over a session is less about coolers and more about hand reading, position, and knowing when your opponents are drawing dead.

Who's Still Standing

Two names in the remaining field deserve attention.

Naoya Kihara of Japan held 496,000 chips at the 26-player mark. A three-time bracelet winner with $2.81 million in lifetime cashes and 11 final tables, Kihara is the most credentialed threat still seated. If he maintained or grew that stack through the latest stretch, Brunson will have to go through him.

Mark Roland (United States) sat at 389,000 when 26 players remained. Roland carries three WSOP Circuit rings and 11 career final tables, though his $299K in lifetime earnings suggests he's built his game primarily on the Circuit grind. A $10K championship bracelet would rewrite his poker biography overnight.

What a Second Bracelet Would Mean

The $10,000 Limit 2-7 Lowball Triple Draw Championship is not a vanity event. It attracts the best mixed-game specialists on the planet, the kind of players who treat deuce-to-seven as an art form rather than a novelty. Winning it once is a career achievement. Winning it would give Brunson two bracelets in a family that already has ten from his father alone.

Play resumes on June 26 at the Horseshoe and Paris in Las Vegas. Brunson will return as chip leader with a stack that gives him room to maneuver in a game where patience is the whole strategy.

Fifteen players. Two tables. One name at the top of the counts.

The Brunson family might not be done collecting hardware.