Cash Legend Alexander Kostritsyn Wins His First Bracelet in the $25K H.O.R.S.E.
One of the most feared high-stakes cash players of his generation finally has WSOP gold. Alexander Kostritsyn won Event #97, the $25,000 High Roller H.O.R.S.E., for his first career bracelet and $872,052 — beating Ali Eslami heads-up through a final table that included reigning Player of the Year Shaun Deeb. For a player who’s spent years almost exclusively in cash games, it’s a rare and overdue trip back to the winner’s circle.
Some wins are about the money. This one’s about the name. Alexander Kostritsyn — a player online-poker veterans will remember as an absolute nightmare in high-stakes cash games — finally broke through for his first WSOP bracelet, taking down Event #97, the $25,000 High Roller H.O.R.S.E. He banked $872,052, which per PokerNews is the second-largest score of his career and, remarkably, one of his first recorded tournament results in years. This is a guy who built his reputation grinding the nosebleeds, not chasing bracelets.
And he didn’t get there through a soft field. CardPlayer noted the final table included reigning WSOP Player of the Year Shaun Deeb, and Kostritsyn had to beat Ali Eslami heads-up to close it out (CardPlayer). A $25K mixed-game high roller is about as tough a room as poker assembles.
What Exactly Did Kostritsyn Win?
Event #97 was a $25,000 buy-in High Roller in the H.O.R.S.E. format — a rotation of five different games that demands you be well-rounded, not just a Hold’em specialist. It drew 148 entries and built a prize pool of $3,478,000. Kostritsyn topped that field for $872,052 and the bracelet, with Ali Eslami taking runner-up.
| Detail | Result |
|---|---|
| Event | #97 — $25,000 High Roller H.O.R.S.E. |
| Champion | Alexander Kostritsyn — 1st career bracelet |
| First prize | $872,052 |
| Runner-up | Ali Eslami |
| Notable at FT | Reigning POY Shaun Deeb |
| Entries | 148 |
| Prize pool | $3,478,000 |
148 entries at $25K a pop is a small but absolutely brutal field — no satellites full of amateurs here, just pros and wealthy recreational players who can actually play all five games. Winning this is a different achievement than topping a 1,500-runner No-Limit event.
Why H.O.R.S.E. Separates the Real All-Rounders
If you only know Hold’em, H.O.R.S.E. will expose you. The acronym rotates through five games: Hold’em, Omaha Hi-Lo, Razz, Stud, and Eight-or-better (Stud Hi-Lo). Every level or two you switch games, and each one rewards a completely different instinct — Razz punishes you for chasing, Stud is a memory game of exposed cards, Omaha Hi-Lo is all about scooping versus getting quartered. You can’t hide a weakness. If your Razz is bad, sharp opponents will find it and hammer it for an entire orbit.
That’s exactly why this win says something specific about Kostritsyn. Being a cash-game killer usually means you’ve played every variant for real money, deep, for years — and it shows up in a format like this. The players who dominate mixed games tend to be the ones who learned poker as a whole discipline rather than memorizing Hold’em solver outputs. It’s the opposite skill set from the No-Limit specialists, and honestly it’s the part of poker I find most underrated. If you’ve only ever grinded one game, the mixed-game world is a reminder of how deep the rabbit hole goes.
For contrast, this same summer saw non-Hold’em gold go to Omaha specialists too — Michael Mizrachi took the $10K PLO Championship for his ninth bracelet. The mixed and Omaha events are where the game’s most complete players quietly separate themselves.
My Take: The Cash Legend Finally Gets His Trophy
Here’s what I keep coming back to. There’s a whole category of elite players — Kostritsyn is the archetype — who are genuinely world-class but have almost no tournament resume, because they made their money in cash and never chased the spotlight. The poker public barely knows their names, but ask any high-stakes regular and they’ll tell you these are the last people you want to your left.
So when one of them finally dips into a $25K mixed event and wins it against a stacked field, I love it. It’s validation the record books never gave him. Do I think tournaments were ever his priority? Not for a second — this looks like a guy who showed up to play the games he loves and happened to run it up. But that’s kind of the point. The skill was always there; the trophy just never had a reason to exist until now.
Will he suddenly become a tournament regular chasing Player of the Year? I doubt it, and I’d bet he doesn’t care to. But a bracelet is forever, and beating a table with Shaun Deeb on it to get one is a hell of a way to make your first tournament win count. If you want to understand how much reads and position tighten up when a table gets this short and this skilled, our final table strategy guide covers the dynamics that decide these late-stage battles.
The Summer Is Over — One Prize Remains
Kostritsyn’s win came in the closing stretch of a 100-bracelet 2026 WSOP that’s now officially wrapped. The only thing still hanging is the biggest one: the Main Event final table, which reconvenes in August with a 22-year-old chip leader in command. Between a first-time bracelet for a cash legend and a potential first-time Main Event champion, this summer’s storylines have been about players getting their moment.
Frequently Asked Questions
What did Alexander Kostritsyn win at the 2026 WSOP?
He won Event #97, the $25,000 High Roller H.O.R.S.E., for $872,052 and his first career WSOP bracelet.
Why is this win notable?
Kostritsyn is known primarily as a high-stakes cash-game player with very few tournament results. Per PokerNews, this was one of his first recorded tournament cashes in years and the second-largest score of his career.
What is H.O.R.S.E.?
A mixed-game format rotating through five games: Hold’em, Omaha Hi-Lo, Razz, Stud, and Stud Eight-or-better. It rewards well-rounded players rather than single-game specialists.
Who did he beat?
He defeated Ali Eslami heads-up, at a final table that also featured reigning WSOP Player of the Year Shaun Deeb.
How big was the field?
The event drew 148 entries and created a $3,478,000 prize pool.
A first bracelet for a player most of the poker world only knows by reputation, in the format that rewards the most complete skill set in the game. I don’t think Kostritsyn needed the validation — but it’s a great look for mixed games, and a reminder that the deepest edges in poker still belong to the all-rounders. Congrats on a long-overdue piece of gold.