A $700 buy-in bounty tournament with more than 3,600 entrants produced a six-figure payday to open the 2026 WSOP Online at GGPoker. PokerNews reported that Raphael Caixeta won the $700 7th Annual WSOP Kick-Off event, claiming the first bracelet of the series along with $207,167 in combined prize money and bounty payments, plus a $30,000 package to the live Super Main Event at WSOP Paradise in The Bahamas.
The field drew 3,607 entries and generated a $2,398,655 prize pool, according to PokerNews. Of those entrants, 356 players advanced to the bounty stage after securing at least a min-cash. Caixeta’s winning total broke down into $126,912 in standard prize money and $80,255 in bounty earnings — a structure that rewarded aggression throughout the event. PokerNews reported that the final three players each locked in more than $100,000 including bounty payments, with Khaw “Apacgg” Chin Wah finishing second for $160,310 and Lichu89 of Argentina finishing third for $104,258.
Others to cash in the event included Aliaksei Boika, Vlad Darie, Bernhard Binder, Thomas Muehloecker, Leonard Maue, Kevin Martin, Niklas Astedt, Pavel Plesuv, Joseph Cheong, Jessica Teusl, and David Williams, according to PokerNews. Oleksii “ITakeIt” Trofymenko finished fourth for $87,761, followed by baidan823 in fifth ($74,732), Eui “Rollpounder” Kim in sixth ($57,751), Miguel “Zerschlagen” Angelo Faria Lopes in seventh ($44,907), Milaim “PinkDevil9” Tafaj in eighth ($34,391), and fantexi0058 in ninth ($34,092).
The 2026 WSOP Online at GGPoker is scheduled to award 33 bracelets in total, per PokerNews. A second bracelet was set to be determined on August 17 when the $300 Gladiators of Poker concluded its final table — an event that drew 13,214 entrants and built a $3,686,706 prize pool, with Silvio Costa leading 1,307 Day 2 survivors with 1,292,168 chips when play was set to resume at 7:00 p.m. BST. The champion of that event stands to receive $470,672, a gold bracelet, and a $30,000 package to the 2026 WSOP Paradise Super Main Event.
