Nick Schulman Captures Sixth World Series of Poker Bracelet

Nick Schulman came out on top in the 2024 World Series of Poker Paradise $5,000 no-limit hold’em turbo bounty event, dubbed ‘The Closer’, earning $145,000 and his sixth career gold bracelet. The 40-year-old poker pro from New York became just the 25th player in history to have won as many bracelets.

Schulman secured his fifth bracelet earlier this year in Las Vegas, taking down a $25,000 buy-in no-limit hold’em high roller event for $1,667,842. His first two wins at the series came in the $10,000 no-limit hold’em deuce-to-seven single draw lowball championships of 2009 and 2012. In 2019 he scooped the final pot in the $10,000 pot-limit Omaha eight-or-better championship for his third bracelet. His fourth came in a $1,500 stud event in 2023.

This latest victory saw Schulman, who is also a World Poker Tour champion, surpass $21.6 million in career tournament earnings. This win also moved Schulman to 31st place in the 2024 Card Player Player of the Year standings presented by Global Poker. He has won three titles and made 10 POY-qualified final tables this year.

Schulman was far from the only highly-decorated player in contention down the stretch in this fast-paced affair. The tournament drew 238 entries, with the top 37 earning a share of the $1,190,000 prize pool. Three-time bracelet winner Daniel Zack (19th), four-time bracelet winner Georgios Sotiropoulos (14th), 2019 WSOP main event champion Hossein Ensan (12th), Ebony Kenney (10th), high-stakes regular Sosia Jiang (9th), and 2023 WSOP Paradise $25,000 high roller champion Samuel Muller (7th) all made deep runs.

The action heats up in Event #15: $5,000 The Closer – NLH Turbo Bounty Familiar faces like:

Nicholas Schulman
Tony Lin
Daniel Negreanu
Shaun Deeb
Samuel Mullur
Santhosh Suvarna
Sosia Jiang #Poker #wsopPARADISE pic.twitter.com/DvOMu6Hwr7

— WSOP – World Series of Poker (@WSOP) December 20, 2024

Six-time bracelet winner Shaun Deeb finished sixth ($39,400), falling at the hands of Schulman. He was soon joined on the rail by two-time bracelet winner Santhosh Suvarna (5th – $50,800), who lost a race with K-9 against the pocket sixes of seven-time bracelet winner Daniel Negreanu.

Despite scoring that knockout, Negreanu was the next to fall. The 50-year-old Poker Hall of Famer lost a preflop all-in against Schulman and then ran A-8 into the pocket tens of Ren Lin to be left with less than a big blind. Lin’s K-J then held against Negreanu’s 5-4 for the rest. The Canadian all-time money leader earned $65,200 for his 510th recorded tournament score, bringing his career haul to nearly $53.6 million.

Bracelet winner and seven-time WSOP Circuit champion Arkadiy Tsinis then lost a classic preflop coin flip with pocket threes against the A-Q of Schulman to finish third for $84,600. The Ukrainian now has more than $3.6 million in recorded scores.

Heads-up play began with Schulman on 6,975,000, while Lin sat with 4,925,000. He was able to expand his lead even further ahead of the final hand, which saw him open-shove from the button with AK. Lin called off his last 10 or so big blinds with Q8 and the board came down 54397 to bring the event to a close.

This was Lin’s second deep run in as many days, having finished 11th in the super main event for $370,150 a day earlier. He earned $110,000 as the runner-up, growing his career haul to $14.6 million. He also moved to seventh place in the 2024 POY race, with 22 final-table finishes and one title secured this year.

Here is a look at payouts and POY points awarded at the final table:

Photo credit: WSOP.