Darren Elias, Alex Foxen, Mario Ho, Dan Smith, Jason Koon, and Isaac Haxton
Darren Elias, Alex Foxen, Mario Ho, Dan Smith, Jason Koon, and Isaac Haxton are some of the top poker players without a WSOP gold bracelet (WPT photos)

Winning a World Series of Poker gold bracelet is widely considered by many to be poker’s ultimate achievement. For some players, it defines his or her career. For others, it’s the one prize eluding some of the game’s best.

For years, Stephen Chidwick was considered the best poker player without a WSOP gold bracelet. At the 2019 WSOP, Chidwick bucked that monkey off his back like the most turbulent bull does to a rider at a rodeo when he won the $25,000 Pot Limit Omaha High Roller for $1.618 million. Shawn Buchanan was another player in the “best without a bracelet conversation,” but, like Chidwick, he broke through at the 2019 WSOP, winning the $800 buy-in WSOP.com Online NL Six-Handed. Now that Chidwick and Buchanan have each won an elusive gold bracelet, let’s take a look at who are the best players remaining without a bracelet entering the 2020 WSOP.

Patrick Antonius

CASHES FINAL TABLES RUNNER-UPS WINNINGS
15 2 0 $929,518

Widely considered one of the best all-around players in poker for quite some time, Patrik Antonius is still missing a WSOP gold bracelet from his résumé. He’s come close a couple of times, finishing in the top 10 on four occasions and placing at the final table twice, but he’s never scored better than third place. Antonius has been known to pass on tournaments for cash games these days, but he’s still a threat to win a bracelet in the bigger buy-in WSOP events when he does compete.

Niklas Astedt

CASHES FINAL TABLES RUNNER-UPS WINNINGS
6 0 0 $110,645

Sweden’s Niklas Astedt is one of the top-ranked online poker players in the world, but his live success hasn’t been too plentiful, especially at the WSOP. Astedt’s skills should not be overlooked, though. His first WSOP cash came in 2014 and his highest WSOP finish was a 26th-place result in the 2019 WSOP $25,000 Pot Limit Omaha High Roller. He’s also cashed in the WSOP Main Event on two occasions, with a 182nd-place finish in 2016 and a 899th-place finish in 2019.

Mikita Badziakouski

CASHES FINAL TABLES RUNNER-UPS WINNINGS
4 4 1 $3,161,362

Mikita Badziakouski plays some of the biggest buy-in events around the world, and his career to date includes more than $26.1 million in live tournament earnings. At the WSOP, Badziakouski has four cashes. Each cash has been a final table appearance and each has come at WSOP Europe. If there’s a high roller event on the WSOP schedule, Badziakouski will likely be in the field and a threat to win the gold bracelet.

Darren Elias

CASHES FINAL TABLES RUNNER-UPS WINNINGS
28 3 0 $645,659

With four World Poker Tour titles and more than $7.5 million in live tournament earnings, it’s a matter of when, not if, Darren Elias will finally win WSOP gold. His first WSOP cash came in 2009. He has three WSOP final table appearances and two finishes in third place, although he’s never made it to heads-up play. The two times Elias finished in third came from the same event, the $10,000 No Limit Deuce to Seven Championship in 2017 and 2019.

Alex Foxen

CASHES FINAL TABLES RUNNER-UPS WINNINGS
39 4 0 $808,918

Alex Foxen has been around the WSOP for a much shorter time than some of the players on this list, with his first WSOP cash coming in 2015. He has, however, built up quite the reputation as one of the best tournament poker players in the game today and it seems very much just a matter of time before he finds himself in the WSOP winner’s circle with his first gold bracelet. Already, Foxen has racked up 39 WSOP cashes and four final tables ahead of 2020. His highest finish to date was a third-place finish at the 2017 WSOP in a $1,000 No Limit Hold’em event.

Matt Glantz

CASHES FINAL TABLES RUNNER-UPS WINNINGS
61 13 1 $3,232.669

Pennsylvania’s Matt Glantz has been around the WSOP block a few times, but he’s still looking for that first gold bracelet. Glantz first cashed in a WSOP in 2000 and he’s been producing everything but wins since, including 13 final table appearances. Glantz has reached heads-up play once and finished third on three occasions. At the 2019 WSOP, Glantz picked up his third WSOP Main Event cash.

Mark Gregorich

CASHES FINAL TABLES RUNNER-UPS WINNINGS
69 11 1 $1,168,497

Mark Gregorich is another player on this list who has been around for quite some time, earning his first WSOP cash back in 1999. He has 69 cashes and 11 final table appearances at the WSOP, with one runner-up finish that came in the 2003 WSOP $5,000 Limit Hold’em event. Gregorich also has a trio of third-place finishes at the WSOP to date.

Nick Guagenti

CASHES FINAL TABLES RUNNER-UPS WINNINGS
37 3 0 $583,181

Ohio’s Nick Guagenti has 37 WSOP cashes with the first coming in 2006. He has three final table appearances. Guagenti’s highest WSOP result came in 2019 when he took third in the $3,000 H.O.R.S.E. event for $85,265. His best finish in terms of money won came from his 46th-place finish in the 2017 WSOP Main Event, for which Guagenti won $145,733. Guagenti is a regular in mid- and high-stakes cash games in his region, and he also has 15 cashes on the WSOP Circuit.

Christian Harder

CASHES FINAL TABLES RUNNER-UPS WINNINGS
53 2 0 $1,050,784

Christian Harder’s first WSOP cash came in 2009. He’s won titles elsewhere in the poker world, just not at the WSOP just yet. He’s been close before with a pair of fourth-place finishes and is known to put in a high amount of volume in the big bet games of No Limit Hold’em and Pot Limit Omaha.

Maurice Hawkins

CASHES FINAL TABLES RUNNER-UPS WINNINGS
29 3 0 $623,240

Maurice Hawkins has been a longtime grinder of the WSOP and WSOP Circuit, racking up 29 WSOP cashes and 110 WSOP Circuit cashes. He has a whopping 14 WSOP Circuit gold rings, but Hawkins has yet to win a WSOP gold bracelet. Hawkins has three WSOP final tables and they’ve come in big-field NL tournaments. With as many big-field NL events that are on the WSOP schedule these days, one has to figure that Hawkins is going to break through and win one at some point.

Isaac Haxton

CASHES FINAL TABLES RUNNER-UPS WINNINGS
27 7 1 $2,923,424

Isaac Haxton is widely considered as one of the best minds in poker, and he’s certainly lived up to that with more than $27.6 million in live tournament earnings, millions more won in cash games, and who knows how much won online. The one thing he doesn’t have is a WSOP gold bracelet. Haxton has seven WSOP final table appearances and one runner-up result. The second-place finish came to Vitaly Lunkin in the 2009 WSOP $40,000 No Limit Hold’em.

Maria Ho

CASHES FINAL TABLES RUNNER-UPS WINNINGS
55 5 1 $1,644,554

Maria Ho is another long-time regular at the WSOP, with cashes dating back to 2005. She has five final table appearances and one runner-up finish in WSOP events, and she’s known to mix it up in most of the games. Ho’s runner-up finish came to Allen Bari in the 2011 WSOP $5,000 No Limit Hold’em. Ho has been the last woman standing in the WSOP Main Event on two occasions, 2007 and 2014, and she finished sixth in the 2017 WSOP Europe Main Event.

Ali Imsirovic

CASHES FINAL TABLES RUNNER-UPS WINNINGS
10 3 1 $583,986

Ali Imsirovic is one of the newest kids on the block in all of poker, not just the WSOP, and he’s quickly acquired a reputation of one of the game’s best when it comes to No Limit Hold’em tournaments. Imsirovic’s first WSOP cash came in 2017, so there isn’t a ton of sample to draw from, but he’s already made three WSOP final tables in top-level events and has one runner-up finish. Given his success in his young poker career, Imsirovic is considered one of the favorites any time he enters a high buy-in, No Limit Hold’em event.

Rainer Kempe

CASHES FINAL TABLES RUNNER-UPS WINNINGS
31 3 0 $1,142,997

Rainer Kempe has won more than $21.3 million in his poker career and he’s been in the winner’s circle many times, but he’s yet to win a WSOP gold bracelet. His WSOP career is still pretty young, though. His first WSOP cash came in 2015, but over a short period of time he’s already earned 31 in-the-money finishes and more than $1.1 million in earnings. Kempe has been to a WSOP final table three times to date.

Jason Koon

CASHES FINAL TABLES RUNNER-UPS WINNINGS
42 7 1 $1,789,462

For all of the poker success that Jason Koon has enjoyed over the course of his career, he’s still searching for his first WSOP gold bracelet. Koon has more than $31.1 million in live tournament earnings to date and his first WSOP cash came back in 2009. He has seven WSOP final table appearances and one runner-up result. Koon is similar to Haxton and Imsirovic in the sense that he’ll almost always be one of the favorites any time he enters a high buy-in, No Limit hold’em tournament.

Timofey Kuznetsov

CASHES FINAL TABLES RUNNER-UPS WINNINGS
0 0 0 $0

Timofey Kuznetsov, also known as ‘Trueteller,’ is highly regarded in the poker community as one of the best, especially within the high-stakes community. He has zero WSOP cashes to date, but he simply doesn’t play a lot of tournaments. That said, Kuznetsov is still one of the best players in poker without a WSOP gold bracelet.

Maria Lampropulos

CASHES FINAL TABLES RUNNER-UPS WINNINGS
27 0 0 $136,731

Maria Lampropulos first cashed a WSOP event in 2016 and that first year she walked away with five WSOP cashes in total. She followed that up with six cashes in 2017 and seven cashes in 2018. At the 2019 WSOP and WSOP Europe festivals, she cashed nine time. With partypoker MILLIONS and PCA Main Event wins on her résumé, both for seven-figure paydays, Lampropulos has shown she has the chops to compete in some of the biggest events in the world.

Toby Lewis

CASHES FINAL TABLES RUNNER-UPS WINNINGS
24 0 0 $409,171

Toby Lewis’ first WSOP cash came in 2011 when he took 11th in the $10,000 Pot Limit Hold’em Championship. He’s racked up 24 WSOP cashes to date, but he’s never reached a WSOP final table.

Tom Marchese

CASHES FINAL TABLES RUNNER-UPS WINNINGS
26 4 1 $1,295,638

A player with more than $19.1 million in live tournament earnings, Tom Marchese is often considered one of the better tournament players poker has to offer. He’s yet to score a WSOP gold bracelet, though, but he has come close a few times, with four WSOP final tables and one runner-up finish. The time Marchese finished second was at the 2015 WSOP in the $1,500 Pot Limit Hold’em tournament.

Steve O‘Dwyer

CASHES FINAL TABLES RUNNER-UPS WINNINGS
18 2 0 $675,717

Like Haxton and like Koon, Steve O’Dwyer has a ton of live tournament winnings. O’Dwyer has scored more than $30.4 million from the live felt, plus plenty more online, and his first WSOP cash came in 2007. O’Dwyer is a player who put in more WSOP volume at the beginning of his career compared to what he does now, which could be holding him back in terms of winning his first gold bracelet. At this point in his career, it seems that if O’Dwyer does win a gold bracelet, it will come at WSOP Europe or a similar international WSOP stop.

Adam Owen

CASHES FINAL TABLES RUNNER-UPS WINNINGS
34 5 0 $570,961

Adam Owen is another one of the younger guns on this list, but he’s widely regarded as one of the best all-around players in the game these days. Having earned his first WSOP cash in 2014, Owen has racked up 34 WSOP cashes to date, including five final tables and three third-place finishes. Owen has shown a propensity to perform well in the $10,000 buy-in championship events at the WSOP and many think that’s where he’ll earn his first gold bracelet from.

Felipe Ramos

CASHES FINAL TABLES RUNNER-UPS WINNINGS
31 4 0 $526,047

One of best poker players to come out of Brazil is Felipe Ramos, with 31 WSOP cashes dating back to his first in 2009. Ramos is known as a solid player who can compete across all variants, and the more tools you have in your shed, the better when it comes to chasing gold bracelets. Ramos has four WSOP final tables and they’ve all come in Omaha. Three of those four final tables were in Pot Limit Omaha.

Dario Sammartino

CASHES FINAL TABLES RUNNER-UPS WINNINGS
41 10 0 $9,927,947

Italy’s Dario Sammartino first cashed in a WSOP event in 2011 and he’s been performing very well ever since, except winning a WSOP gold bracelet is something he’s yet to achieve. Sammartino has found the money in WSOP events 41 times to date. Of those, he’s reached the final table on 10 occasions. Sammartino’s biggest claim to World Series of Poker fame was a runner-up finish in the 2019 WSOP Main Event for $6 million. He’s also one of the few players to have made the final table of both the WSOP Main Event and WSOP Europe Main Event in his career. Sammartino has learned how to play all the games and play them well, so don’t be surprised to see him finally win WSOP gold much sooner than later.

Ole Schemion

CASHES FINAL TABLES RUNNER-UPS WINNINGS
6 1 0 $469,735

Although his WSOP results don’t pop off the page, Ole Schemion is one of the best players out there and an absolute force when it comes to poker tournaments. He’s amassed more than $16.3 million in live tournament earnings, numerous high roller victories, and one World Poker Tour title. He’s still in search of his first WSOP gold bracelet, though. In terms of winning WSOP gold, it’s very likely just a volume game for Schemion. If he puts in the volume, he’ll get it eventually and probably in the near future. It also works to his benefit that WSOP Europe looks as though it will remain at King’s Casino in Rozvadov where Schemion has shown success before, including a sixth-place finish in the 2019 WSOP Europe €100,000 Diamond High Roller for €341,510.

Jake Schindler

CASHES FINAL TABLES RUNNER-UPS WINNINGS
33 4 0 $1,050,644

The first of two players named Jake on this list, Jake Schindler has 33 entries and four final tables at the WSOP entering 2020. His best finish was a third-place result in the 2014 WSOP $3,000 No Limit Hold’em for $212,373. Over his entire poker career, Schindler has more than $25 million in live tournament earnings.

Jake Schwartz

CASHES FINAL TABLES RUNNER-UPS WINNINGS
60 3 1 $658,477

Jake Schwartz earned his first WSOP cash in 2012 and has built up 60 in-the-money finishes since. He was first widely known as a No Limit hold’em player but he’s since branched out and has been playing more of the games. In 2013, Schwartz earned the top WSOP finish of his career when he took second in the $1,500 NL Shootout, earning $202,035. To date, he has two other WSOP final table appearances in addition to that one.

Shannon Shorr

CASHES FINAL TABLES RUNNER-UPS WINNINGS
79 9 2 $2,217,846

When is Shannon Shorr going to finally win a WSOP gold bracelet? Shorr first cashed in a WSOP event back in 2006, which seems like ages ago when you consider he’s still very much on the younger side of poker players. Ever since that first WSOP cash, not a year has gone by that Shorr hasn’t racked up multiple WSOP cashes. Plus, he’s been very close on several occasions with nine final table appearances and two runner-up finishes. He also has a pair of third-place finishes. Shorr can play all of the games very well. Before Chidwick winning his bracelet, Shorr was right there at the top of this list with Chidwick.

Dan Smith

CASHES FINAL TABLES RUNNER-UPS WINNINGS
36 10 1 $9,884,615

Another high roller with a knack for all the games, Dan Smith has been close to winning WSOP gold before but it just hasn’t happened for him yet. His first WSOP cash came in 2010. Since then, he’s earned 36 total WSOP cashes and won more than $9.8 million at the WSOP. He has 10 final table appearances, six third-place finishes, and one second-place finish in WSOP events. Like some of the other high rollers on this list, with Smith it feels like more of a volume game than anything.

Christoph Vogelsang

CASHES FINAL TABLES RUNNER-UPS WINNINGS
13 6 0 $8,668,735

Christoph Vogelsang has come close at the WSOP on a handful of occasions, including two third-place finishes in a pair of the biggest events the WSOP has ever offered. In 2014, Vogelsang placed third in the $1 million buy-in Big One for One Drop for $4.48 million. In 2019, he took third in the WSOP Europe €250,000 Super High Roller for more than $1.3 million. If there’s a big buy-in event at the WSOP, Vogelsang is considered a threat to win it.

Mike Watson

CASHES FINAL TABLES RUNNER-UPS WINNINGS
63 11 4 $2,917,143

Mike Watson has been knocking at the WSOP gold bracelet door for several years now. His first WSOP cash came in 2007 and he’s put up more than 60 cashes to date since. Of the 11 WSOP final table appearances Watson has on record, four of the times he’s finished runner-up. Interestingly, Watson did win the €50,000 Majestic High Roller at the 2012 WSOP Europe, but it was an added non-bracelet event for the high rollers. Had that event been in a later year, it very likely would have been for a gold bracelet. Watson usually plays a high volume of events and can play all the games, much like Shorr, and it’s only a matter of time before he finally scores a WSOP gold bracelet.

Jerry Wong

CASHES FINAL TABLES RUNNER-UPS WINNINGS
38 7 0 $1,899,225

Jerry Wong may be most well known for reaching the now-defunct WSOP November Nine in 2016, when he finished eighth for more than $1.1 million, but he has plenty of other success at the WSOP. With 38 total WSOP cashes and seven final table appearances, the only thing left for Wong to do is win a gold bracelet. One would think that has to be on the horizon soon for Wong, who has the ability to compete highly in all of the games. His WSOP final table appearances have come in No Limit Deuce to Seven, Pot Limit Omaha, Big Bet Mix, Razz, Seven Card Stud Hi-Lo, H.O.R.S.E., and No Limit Hold’em.