Patrick 'Pads' Leonard believes that Daniel Negreanu is going to be the "all-time bracelet winner very quickly" after the 2026 WSOP Paradise schedule was released.
In a post on X, the UK pro said that the shift towards "big buy in, small high roller turbos" would heavily favor the GGPoker pro and a small group of other high-stakes players.
He went on to say that he assumes that GGPoker – the new owner of the WSOP – wants Negreanu to overtake Phil Hellmuth on the all-time bracelet list.
There are 20 bracelets up for grabs at WSOP Paradise, which takes place at Baha Mar instead of Atlantis, and the majority are high-stakes.
Only five of the events have buy-ins below $10K, and three of these are no-limit hold'em. The other two are the $5K Bahamas Big Bet Mix - Dealer's Choice and the $2.5K Double Board Bomb Pot PLO.
The biggest buy-in is the $250K WSOP Invitational, and the Super Main Event has a $25K price tag.
Pads: How good is this for poker?
Pads pointed to specific events that he said would favor the same 25 players and price everyone else out – the $25K Turbo PLO, the $50K Single Day PLO and the $25K PLO/NLH Mixed High Roller.
He wrote, "The majority are priced out now, the buy ins are just so high that without backing or sponsorship you just can’t really play. The same 25 or so guys will play these events reentering and basically guaranteeing bracelets between each other. I’m not sure how great that is for poker and for the brand though?"
Asked how long he thought it would take Negreanu to overtake Hellmuth's 17 bracelets, he estimated that Negreanu could win these events around 8% of the time, and said he could see him winning two bracelets a year.
Phil Galfond joined the discussion, saying that "the majority of the downside risk is tied to a potential day when the poker world decides a WSOP bracelet doesn't mean more than the next poker trophy."
Negreanu currently has eight WSOP bracelets after he won the $100K PLO event at this summer's WSOP.
The 2026 WSOP Paradise festival has a total of $120 million in guarantees, although more than half of that is attached to the Super Main Event ($50M) and the $10K GGMillion$ ($20M)
Check out the full schedule below.
