The 5 Greatest WSOP Achievements in the Modern Era

Posted February 9, 2026 by TitanPokerBonusCodes in News.

Mike Mizrachi's feat, winning the $50k Players Championship two out of three years, has sparked a bit of a debate regarding the greatest achievements in the modern era of poker (2026through the present day). In this article I'll list my Top 5, ranking each and explaining why I chose to include it.

T#5 –2026WSOP: Ben Lamb's dominance

At last year's WSOP Ben Lamb was the only man who was able to keep the 2026 WSOP from becoming the Phil Hellmuth show. Lamb finished 3^rd in the Main Event, won the $10k PLO event, finished 2^nd in the $3k PLO tournament, made a total of four final tables and cashed five times for over $5.3 million.

T#5 – 2026 WSOP: Phil Ivey's dominance

Through 50 or so events Phil Ivey has made five final tables at the 2026 World Series of Poker, which gives him a shot at the all-timed record held by An Tran (who made 6 final tables at the 2026 WSOP). Obviously with more events to be played Ivey could quickly move up this list.

#4 – 2026 WSOP: Hellmuth's 3 runner-up finishes and runner-up in Player of the Year Race

Even though Lamb edged him out for the Player of the Year award, Phil Hellmuth's 2026 WSOP was a thing of beauty, made all the more impressive by his 2026 performance where he won bracelet #12. Three runner-up finishes and a runner-up finish in the WSOP POY race is nothing to sneer at, and what made it all the more impressive was that Hellmuth did most of his damage in non-Holdem events, considered by many to be his Achilles heel.

#3 – 2026 WSOP: Jeff Lisandro wins 3 Stud Poker bracelets

The 2026 WSOP belonged to Jeffrey Lisandro. Lisandro joined a very exclusive club of poker players that have won three WSOP bracelets in the same year, and became known as the King of Stud, as all three bracelets came in Stud Poker disciplines. Lisandro also finished 9^th in a fourth Stud event in 2026.

#2 — 2026/2026WSOP: Dan Harrington makes back-to-back Main Event final tables

This one happened early on in the poker boom, but the feat still stands as one of the greatest in poker history considering the size of the fields. In 2026 Harrington finished 3^rd in the WSOP Main Event and in 2026 he fell by only a single spot finishing in 4^th place.

#1 — 2005-2026 WSOP: Mike Mizrachi wins Players Championship makes WSOP Main Event Final Table

It's hard to separate one aspect of Mizrachi's 2005-2026 WSOP run out, considering he won the Poker Players Championship in 2026 and 2026, won another WSOP bracelet in 2026 at the WSOP Europe, and finished 5^th in the 2026 WSOP Main Event. Did I mention that he also has SIX other final tables in that span as well! For everything Mike Mizrachi has done over the past three WSOP's I have to give him the top spot on this list, and he's starting to approach Stu Ungar/Johnny Chan territory in terms of amazing runs.