Photo Credits: WSOP
Jason Zipfel and Sebastian Pauli both turned mixed game runs into first World Series of Poker bracelets, with Zipfel winning Pot-Limit Omaha and Pauli surviving a long Razz heads-up battle.
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Jason Zipfel arrived at Event #35 with only six major recorded tournament cashes. The Pennsylvanian had built most of his poker background in private cash games, but his seventh tournament cash changed his career record fast.
Zipfel beat 2,581 entries in the $1,500 Pot-Limit Omaha event and collected $441,560. The win more than doubled his previous best tournament payout and gave him a WSOP bracelet in one of the busiest low buy-in PLO fields of the summer.
“I play a lot of private cash games, and then I’ll play a couple of tournaments throughout the year,” Zipfel told PokerNews. “Last year, I played probably five or six tournaments. I’ve run really well, so I should probably play more, and less cash.”
The event used two starting flights. A total of 191 players returned for day 2 and reached the money. Zipfel ended that day with a large chip lead among the final 15 and stayed in control for almost the entire final table.
Three previous bracelet winners stood between him and the title, but Zipfel kept pressure on from the start. He knocked out Ido Aboudi in ninth with a six-high straight and later eliminated Michael Estes, Jochen Pfeifer and William Givens before heads-up play.
Will Givens scored a double knockout with a full house to send Phillip Mighall and Thanhlong Nguyen out, while Hokyiu Lee eliminated Maxx Coleman in fifth. Zipfel then flopped the nut flush against Jochen Pfeifer and held to reach three-handed play. Lee briefly took control heads-up, but the final pot gave Zipfel the bracelet. After a four-bet pot, Zipfel got the chips in on a jack-six-three flop with aces and top pair against Lee diamond draw and wrap outs. The turn added more outs for Lee, but the river kept Zipfel ahead.
| Place | Player | Payout |
| 1 | Jason Zipfel | $441,560 |
| 2 | Hokyiu Lee | $294,420 |
| 3 | William Givens | $214,960 |
| 4 | Jochen Pfeifer | $158,460 |
| 5 | Maxx Coleman | $117,950 |
| 6 | Michael Estes | $88,660 |
| 7 | Thanhlong Nguyen | $67,310 |
| 8 | Phillip Mighall | $51,620 |
| 9 | Ido Aboudi | $40,009 |
Sebastian Pauli had waited a long time for a WSOP breakthrough. His best previous result in the $1,500 Razz came back in 2013, when he finished fourth in the same event.
In 2026, he went three places better. Pauli topped a 519-entry field in Event #40 and beat fellow German Dennis Weiss heads-up for $135,564 and his first bracelet.
The result became the second largest live cash of Pauli career, behind his 2014 European Poker Tour London main event win for $802,971.
Weiss nearly added another bracelet only days after winning one earlier in the series, while Jon Turner entered the final day with the chip lead and tried again for a first WSOP title. Adam Owen, Stephen Hubbard and Oscar Johansson also reached the last stretch.
Owen exited sixth, Turner fell from chip leader to fifth, and Hubbard finished fourth after Pauli made a nine-six low. Weiss then knocked out Johansson in third to start heads-up with a small lead.
The heads-up match ran into a long back-and-forth between Pauli and Weiss. Pauli fell to a 6 to 1 deficit, then to 9 to 1, and later faced another 12 to 1 gap. Each time, he doubled and pulled himself back. Weiss also fought back after Pauli took the lead, but the final hand ended the long duel on fifth street. Pauli started with a draw to a six-three low against Weiss made ten-seven, then drew a four to make a six-four low and secure the bracelet.
| Place | Player | Payout |
| 1 | Sebastian Pauli | $135,564 |
| 2 | Dennis Weiss | $90,354 |
| 3 | Oscar Johansson | $61,393 |
| 4 | Stephen Hubbard | $42,589 |
| 5 | Jon Turner | $30,177 |
| 6 | Adam Owen | $21,850 |
| 7 | Paul Richardson | $16,174 |
| 8 | Tobias Leknes | $12,247 |