For more than 30 years, California casino owner Wil Wilkinson has been grinding the World Series of Poker, amassing a record of eight final tables, 20 cashes, and more than $1 million in career winnings.
One thing Wilkinson had never done, though, was win a bracelet. He left that to his son, Alex Wilkinson, who finally brought the coveted piece of WSOP gold jewelry back home to his family today by taking down Event #71: $10,000 2-7 Triple Draw Championship.
The 33-year-old younger Wilkinson, who is currently the managing partner of a algorithmic capital firm based in Las Vegas, finished 9th in this event in 2023. Two years on, he has gone eight better.
“It was a long three-handed battle and I’m a little tired, but I feel good. I’m happy,” Wilkinson said after dispatching Matthew Schreiber heads-up to prevail over the 141-player field and capture the $333,054 top prize.
“I don’t know if I deserve to be the first one," he added, "but I am. I’ll take it.”
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Event #71: $10,000 2-7 Triple Draw Championship Final Table Results
Place
Player
Country
Payout (USD)
1
Alexander Wilkinson
United States
$333,054
2
Matthew Schreiber
United States
$215,848
3
Nick Schulman
United States
$144,431
4
Hye Park
United States
$99,885
5
Brian Tate
United States
$71,475
6
Yuri Dzivielevski
Brazil
$52,985
With his father watching on the rail, Wilkinson battled with Schreiber and seven-time bracelet winner, Nick Schulman for more than four hours of three-handed play. It was a swingy, back-and-forth contest, with each player taking turns holding up the chip lead and falling down to the short stack. Throughout the wild swings in fortune, Wilkinson tried not to let any of them distract him from his ultimate goal.
“I never really felt too bothered. Triple draw is a very swingy game. I was down to not that many bets a few times. In poker, it doesn’t help you any to get annoyed or get frustrated, so I just tried to be relaxed and see what happened. It all worked out,” he said.
This wasn’t the first time that a Wilkinson had displayed his prowess at 2-7. Among his father’s poker accomplishments is making the final table of this same event twice, with third-place finishes in 2016 and 2021. The California Grand Casino owner also has a PPC final table on his resume and multiple deep runs in the Main Event, and his son was just following in his footsteps.
Alexander Wilkinson and rail.
The 33-year-old younger Wilkinson finished ninth in this event in 2023. His lone WSOP final table before today was a third-place finish in the $1,500 2-7 Triple Draw last year. Success in the game, it seems, runs in the family.
Wilkinson grew up following his father in WSOP events and credits that with motivating him to take up the game himself. “Growing up, I remember sweating my dad deep in the Main Event and deep in these different tournaments on WSOP.com. I have to imagine that it had a big influence on me getting into the game. It was a lot of fun. It’s cool that now the shoe is on the other foot. He’s here watching me. It’s a lot of fun,” he said.
Day 3 Action
Day 3 began with the final nine players returning at 1 p.m. local time inside the Horseshoe Event Center. Jonathan Krela and Pedro Bromfman busted within the first few minutes of the day to set the seven-handed final table.
Schreiber, the start-of-day chip leader, still held the lead to begin the final table with 1,900,000, while Wilkinson was in the middle of the pack with 900,000. Wilkinson climbed up to more than 1,500,000 when he made an 8-6 in a three-bet, three-way pot. He then took down another three-way pot and crossed 2,000,000 to take the chip lead at the first break of the final table.
Oscar Johansson was left short after an encounter with Wilkinson, and while he managed to double up once, he eventually ran into Brian Tate’s 8-5 to fall in seventh place.
Brazilian superstar Yuri Dzivielevski, followed by his usual contingent of media beaming his exploits back home, had a rollercoaster experience at the final table. He began with 1,200,000 but fell to less than 400,000. He climbed back up again before finally falling in sixth when he was drawing to an 8-5 but couldn’t connect against Tate’s K-6-5-3-2.
Yuri Dzivielevski.
Tate, whose oatmeal company logo adorned the felt as one of the event sponsors, was the next to fall, standing pat with an 8-7 while Schulman took one with 8-4-3-2. Schulman caught a six on his last card to win the pot and send Tate to the rail in fifth place. Schreiber then made a 9-7 against Hye Park’s 9-8 to bust the past WSOP Main Event finalist in fourth.
The first four eliminations at the final table occurred relatively quickly, but it wouldn’t be for several more hours until there was another bustout. Wilkinson jumped up to an early lead, but Schreiber moved up past 4,000,000 after taking two pots off Schulman. Schreiber ran into a wheel two hands in a row and quickly plummeted back to 2,000,000 while Schulman moved into the chip lead. Wilkinson then picked off Schreiber with a Q-7 to win a pot and cross 4,000,000 going to the 75-minute dinner break.
Nick Schulman.
Taking It Down
Schreiber, mimicking his first final table appearance this summer when he finally succumbed to Benny Glaser in the $1,500 Dealers Choice after multiple miraculous comebacks, fell all the way down to 500,000 before mounting another charge back up the leaderboard. Just 30 minutes later, he tied Wilkinson for the chip lead.
Wilkinson made a 7-6 in a four-bet pot against Schreiber, while Schulman fell under 1,000,000 before climbing back up to 2,500,000. Wilkinson won another four-bet pot off Schulman to knock the future Hall of Famer back down. Schulman managed to double up after catching a 9-7, but it was Schreiber who began to pull away, approaching nearly 6,000,000 as Wilkinson fell to the short stack.
Wilkinson won a big pot off Schreiber by catching an 8-7 and finally took out Schulman with an 8-7-4-3-2 against Schulman’s 8-7-5-4-3, depriving Schulman of his second bracelet this series. Schreiber led 4,625,000 to 3,825,000 at the start of heads-up, but Wilkinson quickly grabbed the chip lead as Schreiber wailed about his run of bad luck.
Matthew Schreiber.
“You can’t make this shit up,” Schreiber cried out as he fell down to just 500,000, good for only two big bets. Wilkinson then completed a 10-7 while Schreiber was all in and drawing to a 7-6. He caught a nine on his first card to keep his hopes alive, but his second was an ace as Wilkinson secured the title.
It was a long, grueling three-way battle, but the Wilkinson family had already been waiting for decades for this moment. “It’s been a long journey,” Wil said during the last break of the night. Alex finally brought the bracelet home, and in the game that has been passed down from generation to generation.
That concludes PokerNews' coverage of the $10,000 2-7 Triple Draw Championship. Stay tuned for more updates throughout the 2025 WSOP.
