Penalized Poker Player Wins WSOP Bracelet Despite Color Up Controversy

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Jun 10, 2025 7 min read

The two most popular forms of tournament poker were combined in Event #28: $600 NLH/PLO, and a grand total of 2,775 entrants came out to play this event. This generated a prize pool worth $1,398,600, and this morning, just 115 players came out with a chance to still take down the prize. At the day’s end and after 15 levels of play, there stood just one man ending it all.

Tyler Brown burst onto the scene with his win of the Mystery Millions bracelet event in 2023. Since then, the young gun has been consistently cashing and playing the tournament circuit around the country. Last year, he finished runner-up in what would have been his second bracelet win in the $10k PLO8 Championship.

Nearly a year out to the day from his runner-up finish, Brown now joins the club of two-time WSOP bracelet winners after taking home the bracelet and the $178,126 first-place prize, and takes home a title in his favorite game.

Final Table Results

“I very much prefer PLO,” the new two-time WSOP bracelet winner said. “People that have gotten to know me originally thought of me as a No-Limit Hold’em player because of my first bracelet. I just really enjoy the strategy more. Four cards opens up the game tree significantly more and has a lot more maneuverability as it’s constantly changing. It’s not as monotonous as ‘you jam this every time.’”

Two years ago, when he won his first WSOP, he was an unknown player, so this bracelet comes at a very different point in his poker career, something the new champion reflected upon after his win.

“I feel like my first bracelet was my first week in Vegas. It was a brand new experience for me, and over time, I have slowly started to make more friends in the poker community, gaining some recognition. This second bracelet really solidifies a lot for me.”

With the 2025 WSOP well underway, the 25k Fantasy race also has been afoot. Brown was one of the players drafted by Team Negreanu.

“It was a lot of recognition, especially coming from Daniel Negreanu. It definitely isn’t going to make me play more events, because I myself don’t have a vested interest in it. But I really do enjoy the fantasy aspect of poker, and the fact that I am able to add value to the people who drafted me, really means a lot to me.”

Today’s tournament saw Brown quickly establish himself as one of the big competitors. From two tables down, he never lost the chip lead. At the final table, he started with a quarter of the chips in play, which turned into half of the chips in play with six players left. Only dipping slightly to nearly even during the heads-up portion of the tournament. Despite having the lead, he never felt any added pressure.

“It added almost no pressure to me. Mostly because I had already made up my mind that I was going to win this tournament two days ago. I gave it my all, the cards fell my way, and I don’t think I lost too many all-ins today.”

When Brown was asked about his upcoming schedule, he had a very brief answer.

“It’s going to be almost everything with Omaha in the title.”

With that, the newly minted two-time WSOP bracelet winner took home his new piece of jewelry and the hefty first-place sum of money, ready to play the $10k PLO8 tournament tomorrow.

Day 2 Action

Nearly two-thirds of the field dropped within the first two hours of play. Among those who departed were players like Jesse Lonis (114th-$1,693), Ari Engel (86th-$1,914), Gary Bolden (75th-$2,191), Darryll Fish (58th-$2,971), Cristian Gutierrez (45th-$4,220), and Valentin Vornicu (34th-$5,115).

When the tournament reached the final three tables, it would be Tyler Brown, Easton Oreman, and Caio Sobral leading the field. Many of the shortest stacks fell first like Brantley Grace (24th-$6,269), Vincent Dale (23rd-$7,700), and Robert West (22nd-$7,700).

The next 15 minutes of play saw another four players drop as Stephen Ma (21st-$7,700), Willie Smith (20th-$7,700), Calvin Anderson (19th-$7,700), and Frank Lin (18th-$7,700) all dropped from the field very quickly. Daniel Termini’s (17th-$7,700) elimination saw the field drop down to two tables.

WSOP regular Donny Rubinstein (16th-$7,700) fell at two table redraw, with Matthew Inglese (15th-$9,734) following him out the door shortly after. At this point, it was Brown and Oreman who would be jostling for the chip lead, as Jacob Mendelsohn started his ascent on the other table. He would eliminate Dylan Mendes (14th-$9,734) and Iman Dan (13th-$9,734) and the other table would lose David Churque (12th-$9,734) to Brown and Mason Vieth (11th-$12,327) to Sobral. Rostyslav Sabishchenko would be the last one to be eliminated prior to the final table as his queens in PLO got in against Oreman’s aces preflop and he could not find any improvement, leaving him to collect $12,327 for his tenth place finish.

Final Table Action

It did not take long for chips to fly into the middle at the final table as two double-ups shifted the dynamics of the table. First Noah Bronstein doubled through Sobral with aces in PLO versus Sobral’s ace-king, then Jiaze Li doubled through Oliver Tot when his jacks held up against ace-queen.

Li’s fortune would be short-lived, however, as he found himself at risk against Bronstein in No-Limit Hold’em, holding pocket tens against Bronstein’s ace-jack. Nobody paired on the king-high flop, but the turn brought a set to Li while improving Bronstein to a straight. The board remained unpaired on the river, and Bronstein hopped up the counts while Li was eliminated in ninth place for $15,779.

Tot did not recover from his clash with Li, and he became the next casualty in eighth place. His remaining chips got in during the PLO round when he moved all in with double-suited kings against Bjorn Gravlien’s single-suited aces. The board ran out as no help to Tot and he collected $20,411 for his efforts.

Despite raking in one of the biggest pots earlier in the final table, Sobral ended up doubling up Gravlien in a flip with queens to ace-king, the king materializing on the turn. He was down to one of the shortest stacks, and Brown jammed on him from the small blind in No-Limit Hold’em with queen-nine, and Sobral called with ace-six. A queen-high board gave the pot to Brown, and Sobral exited in sixth place for $26,679.

After that, it was Mendelsohn’s run that would come to an end in fifth place. He jammed his small stack in the middle during No-Limit Hold’em with pocket fours and was looked up by Brown’s jack-five. A five on the flop secured Brown’s victory to add to his lead while Mendelsohn collected $35,235 for his efforts.

At this point, Brown continued to rake in pots to pad his lead while Bronstein and Gravlien sat neck and neck in second, with Oreman in fourth place with the shortest stack. The next clash would be between the two players vying for second on the leaderboard as Bronstein got in his chips during PLO with a king-high rundown against Gravlien’s kings. No help would be brought to Bronstein as he ended his run in fourth place for $63,367.

Next to go was Oreman, whose short stack could last no longer. His elimination came just one hand after Bronstein’s when he got in his last chips in PLO with double-suited fives up against Gravlien’s jack-high rundown. A jack-high flop and no further improvement for Oreman would see the full-time poker social media manager collect a career-best score of $86,268 for his third-place finish.

Two years ago wasn’t just when Brown had his first bracelet win, but also when Gravlien collected his career-best score in this very event. Finishing fourth place in 2023 in the $600 PLO/NLH event, Gravlien would better his finish by two spots this time around. He would collect a new career-best score worth $118,618 for his second-place finish after all the chips went in during PLO. Brown had flopped top set with kings, while Gravlien held an ace-high flush draw and a gutshot. Two bricks on the turn and river were good for Brown to collect the title, and two competitors shook hands after their battle.

Thank you for reading along for the live updates of Event #28: $600 PLO/NLH. Be sure to stay tuned to PokerNews for all of the exciting updates on the floor at Horseshoe and Paris Casino for the 2025 WSOP.

• Tags WSOP25 Ari Engel Calvin Anderson Cristian Gutierrez Daniel Negreanu Darryll Fish Jesse Lonis Jiaze Li Noah Bronstein Robert West Stephen Ma Valentin Vornicu Tyler Brown
• Related Players Daniel NegreanuDarryll FishValentin VornicuNoah BronsteinCalvin AndersonAri Engel