button in SafariRising Star Eyes 'Top Dwan' Status After Incredible Summer Poker Heater
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Seven weeks can change quite a lot in poker. At the start of the summer, Jamie Dwan had never played a $50,000 poker tournament. Now, the British pro is a WSOP bracelet winner, has more than $4 million in live tournament earnings and is now mixing it up in $50K and $100K High Rollers.
More than $3.5 million of those career earnings have come in 2026 alone, while nine of Dwan's ten biggest recorded cashes have arrived this year.
"I'm still riding the crest of the wave," Dwan told PokerNews at PokerStars EPT Barcelona. "None of this feels real, and it hasn't actually really had much time to even settle."
The biggest piece of that incredible run came at the World Series of Poker, where Dwan took his first shot at a $50,000 buy-in and won the $50,000 High Roller for $2,276,691 and his first WSOP bracelet.
Poker Hall of Famer Daniel Negreanu joined Dwan at the final table, which also featured all-time money list leader Bryn Kenney and Kristen Foxen, while fellow Hall of Famer Erik Seidel bowed out in 11th.
And Dwan has barely slowed down since. He finished 14th from 936 runners in the WSOP Circuit Main Event in Las Vegas before returning to the UK and winning the £2,000 Super High Roller at Goliath for £47,200.
His run has continued at EPT Barcelona, where he has cashed six events and reached five final tables. Those results include victory in a €25,000 High Roller for €134,096 and fourth place in another €25,000 event for €107,700.
Dwan even stepped up to the €100,000 EPT Super High Roller and finished third for €472,000 ($551,273), another result that would have comfortably been the biggest score of his career before this summer.
"I've essentially lived the poker dream and I'm somehow continuing to do so," he said. "I don't really want the music to stop, so I'm continuing to go and play and I'm loving it."
Dwan said his bracelet victory already feels like it happened years ago rather than weeks, partly because he has barely had a chance to process everything that has followed.
"I haven't really been home yet, like actually been to my house yet since," he said. "I've just been on the road, went to Cyprus, then came here.
"I'm quite enjoying it just being a bit in dreamland still and still like it not feeling real at all."
Dwan Finds His Feet in the Nosebleeds
Winning your first $50,000 tournament certainly helps when it comes to feeling comfortable in your next one.
Dwan admitted having that victory already in the bank has made a difference, but he has been surprised by how quickly he has settled into playing regularly against some of the best tournament players in the world.
"(I feel) way more at home than I thought I would," he said. "It obviously helps that the first time I actually played the super high stakes, in terms of the 50K, I won it, so you have that already in the bank."
One of the biggest surprises has been the atmosphere. Dwan said the $50,000 and $100,000 tournaments can actually feel more relaxed than the $2K, $3K and $5K events he had been more accustomed to playing.
Many of the players at that level know each other well and spend much of the year competing against one another. The mood changes once a hand gets serious, but between hands Dwan says it can feel closer to a home game.
"I played the €50K here a couple of nights ago and genuinely the vibe of the table felt like you were playing like a 1/2 cash game," he said.
"Then you have to kind of remember sometimes like, 'Oh wait, we are actually playing for incredibly high stakes here and we're not just playing like a 1/3 game with your mates.'"
Dwan has also enjoyed getting the chance to watch some of the High Roller regulars go to work when he isn't involved in a hand.
He recalled playing in Cyprus and Barcelona and watching players such as Fedor Holz battle other elite players at the table, describing some of what he has seen as "kind of art."
"You just kind of sit back sometimes and go, I'm so lucky to be playing these stakes, feel comfortable in them, but also to be on the front row watching the best of the best do their craft against each other.
"Then to be involved in that is an incredible privilege in itself."
Jamie Dwan's Biggest Live Poker Cashes
Dwan's recent results have completely transformed his live tournament record. Nine of his ten largest recorded cashes have come in 2026, with his fourth-place finish at EPT Malta in October 2025 the only result from another year to make the list.
His run actually started before the WSOP, with Dwan winning the €3,500 WSOP Circuit Super High Roller in Aix-en-Provence in April for €50,000 and a WSOP Circuit ring.
| Date | Event | Place | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|
| July, 2026 | $50,000 WSOP High Roller | 1st | $2,276,691 |
| August, 2026 | €100,000 EPT Barcelona Super High Roller | 3rd | €472,000 ($551,273) |
| August, 2026 | €25,000 EPT Barcelona High Roller | 1st | €134,096 ($156,548) |
| August, 2026 | €25,000 EPT Barcelona High Roller | 4th | €107,700 ($125,733) |
| October, 2025 | €3,250 EPT Malta Mystery Bounty | 4th | €65,310 ($76,254) |
| August, 2026 | €20,000 EPT Barcelona High Roller | 5th | €58,400 ($67,612) |
| July, 2026 | £2,000 Goliath Super High Roller | 1st | £47,200 ($62,789) |
| April, 2026 | €3,500 WSOP Circuit Super High Roller | 1st | €50,000 ($58,921) |
| June, 2026 | $10,000 WSOP Super Turbo Bounty | 8th | $55,985 |
| February, 2026 | €2,100 EPT Paris Hyper Turbo Freezeout | 2nd | €37,240 ($43,854) |
Vegas Still Tops Coventry and Barcelona
Dwan has now won High Rollers in France, Las Vegas, Coventry and Barcelona in the space of a few months.
"The Coventry one was very fun, I have to say," he said. "I went for my little bit of a victory lap and I did enjoy that one quite a lot. Confidence was never higher during that."
Barcelona isn't far behind. Dwan called it his favorite place to play poker outside Las Vegas and his favorite city in Europe, while he has long been a fan of the EPT.
"I love Barcelona, I love EPTs and Barcelona's my favorite city in Europe just in general," he said. "Poker-wise, it's amazing here. I love it here."
But there was only one answer when PokerNews asked for his favorite
"It's gotta be Vegas," Dwan said. "It is literally the poker dream, right, to go to Vegas, play your first $50K and then go on to win it and win the bracelet in Vegas. It can't get better than that."
From Politics to Poker
Poker wasn't always the plan for Dwan, and he had aspirations of a career in a totally different field.
He became involved in politics at 16 and later worked for an MP before standing for Parliament himself. Dwan said he became one of the youngest parliamentary candidates in UK history, running for election in 2019, and also spent time working for the European Parliament.
Brexit eventually brought that job to an end and, with COVID following soon afterwards, Dwan found himself with considerably more time on his hands.
"I worked in politics, Brexit happened. I was working for the European Parliament, we all lost our jobs because of Brexit. COVID happened pretty quickly afterwards and then I started to get into poker.
"I played a little bit before, but then I didn't really have much to do, so I was like, 'I'll give poker a go.'"
Dwan estimated it was only around four-and-a-half years ago that he began properly grinding the game, with the move from politics to poker initially requiring "some explaining with the parents."
And there was also a peculiar reason why he knew anything about poker in the first place.
"The only reason I found out about poker or knew about poker was because of my last name."
The Race to Become the "Top Dwan"
Jamie Dwan finally met the man — Tom Dwan — who made that surname famous in poker two years ago in Las Vegas.
"I just came up to Tom and I was like, 'I'm also a Dwan.'"
The pair got talking and Jamie believes there is likely some distant family connection. Dwan is an uncommon surname, with Jamie's family coming from Manchester and Tom hailing from New Jersey.
"I've never met a Dwan that I'm not related to and I don't think he has either," Jamie said. "There's definitely some relation, 100%."
Whether they ever work out exactly where that connection lies remains to be seen, but Jamie has already managed to get one over on "durrrr."
"I also now have more bracelets than Tom, which is hilarious."
His incredible 2026 has also put another target within reach. Jamie said he is now around $1.5 million behind Tom on the all-time money list.
"That is the next goal," he said. "To be the top Dwan."
