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15 Jun 2026Read More
Hellmuth vs Negreanu: How Many WSOP Bracelets Is Too Many?
- WSOP bracelets surged from 89 in 2018 to 245 by 2024.
- Phil Hellmuth proposes capping at 100, cutting events, especially online.
- Daniel Negreanu suggests a 150 cap, focusing mainly on online reductions.
Image Credit: Poker.org
The World Series of Poker is handing out more bracelets than ever – and two of the game’s biggest stars have very different ideas on how to fix it.
In 2018, just 89 bracelets were awarded worldwide. By 2024, that number had exploded to 245 – 130 from live series in Las Vegas, Europe, and Paradise, plus 115 online across WSOP.com and GGPoker.
Now Phil Hellmuth and Daniel Negreanu agree the bracelet is in danger of being “cheapened” – but they’re clashing over how aggressive the cuts should be.
Hellmuth: Cap it at 100 and protect the legacy
On the No Gamble, No Future livestream, Hellmuth revealed what he claims is a plan to cap the total at 100 bracelets per year, reading the proposed breakdown from his phone:
- 50 – WSOP Las Vegas
- 10 – WSOP Paradise
- 10 – WSOP Europe
- 10 – WSOP Asia
- 20 – Online
“We don’t want WSOP bracelets to become cheap,” Hellmuth said, arguing that giving out 200–300 per year “cheapens the bracelets horrendously”.
With a record 17 WSOP bracelets, Hellmuth has more than anyone in history and six more than Phil Ivey. For him, bracelets are his legacy – and every additional event is another chance for the field to catch up.
He also claims support from Michael Kim, CEO of NSUS (GGPoker’s parent company, which acquired the WSOP brand in 2024), and says Negreanu is on board with limiting the total, too.
Not everyone agrees with the scale of the cut. Shaun Deeb said he “hated the idea,” while Jennifer Tilly doubted the WSOP would slash its schedule when “everyone wants a bracelet” and the series is such a huge money-maker.
Negreanu: Trim to 150 – and stop “embarrassing” online growth
Speaking to PokerOrg, Daniel Negreanu confirmed he does support reducing the number of bracelets but pushed back hard on Hellmuth’s plan to halve the summer series.
For Negreanu, the “sweet spot” is closer to 150 bracelets a year, with most of the cuts coming from online schedules while keeping the live Las Vegas festival largely intact.
“Yes, I would like to see the number cut back to 150 a year, mostly leaving the summer as is,” Negreanu said. “The WSOP.com (online) events specifically I find embarrassing, and I didn’t personally play them.”
Negreanu warns that chopping Vegas to 50 bracelets would actually hurt the parts of the WSOP that Hellmuth values most. Faced with big cuts, the WSOP is far more likely to remove niche and mixed formats than massive No-Limit Hold’em fields.
“If you cut the summer to 50, Phil doesn’t realize the cuts would be to all the mixed games he loves, including Razz, etc. So yes, I want to see cutbacks, but 150 is a more reasonable number that is achievable without too much disruption.”
The stakes are clear: the 2025 Vegas schedule alone was planned at around 100 bracelet events. Halving that would transform the festival.
Business reality: Caesars, GGPoker and the online boom
Behind the debate sits a complex web of business interests. NSUS / GGPoker owns the WSOP brand and runs major international online series. Caesars retains the rights to host the WSOP in Las Vegas for the next 20 years and continues to operate WSOP Online in Nevada, New Jersey, Michigan, and Pennsylvania.
The live side has grown steadily, but the real explosion is online: from 9 online bracelets in 2019 to 115 in 2024, including region-locked events on both WSOP.com and GGPoker.
Hellmuth’s 100-bracelet vision would hit both sides, but Negreanu’s “150 and freeze” approach targets exactly this online sprawl, while preserving the Vegas festival and its mixed-game traditions.
From Caesars’ perspective, though, reducing Vegas from ~90-100 bracelet events to 50 means risking live revenue, unless a large chunk of tournaments are downgraded to ring events or a new, secondary trophy tier.
Where this leaves the WSOP
Right now, nothing is official and Hellmuth is unlikely to be the one chosen to announce any final decision if it comes.
But the contours of the debate are clear
Hellmuth wants a hard cap at 100, with Vegas trimmed to 50 to restore maximum prestige and make every bracelet feel special.
Negreanu wants a more moderate cap around 150, primarily slashing online growth while keeping the Vegas summer series, and its mixed games, mostly intact.
With 245 bracelets awarded in 2024 and the 2025 Vegas schedule already at three figures, the WSOP is at a crossroads.
Whether the final number ends up closer to Hellmuth’s 100, Negreanu’s 150, or simply “more of the same”, one thing is certain: the poker world is no longer treating bracelet inflation as just background noise, it’s now a central part of the conversation about what the WSOP should be.
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