During a break in the action on Monday, as players took their seats in the $600 Mixed NLH/PLO event in the Horseshoe ballroom, the WSOP’s Jack Effel hosted a bracelet presentation ceremony.
Jeff Madsen received his fifth bracelet, for his victory in the $1,500 Dealers Choice, and Naoya Kihara received his second.
And his third.
Because while many top players have recorded multiple WSOP bracelet wins, few have ever gone literally back-to-back. Kihara won the $10K NL 2-7 Lowball Championship on June 4, then entered the $10K 7-Card Stud Championship, and won that on June 7.
It’s an accomplishment that puts the man from Tokyo in esteemed company alongside greats of the game such as Doyle Brunson, Stu Ungar and Jason Mercier.
But unlike those peers, Kihara isn’t a poker pro and claims to have barely played at all over the past two years. In fact, his commitment to his day job means he was considering the possibility of cutting short his future trips to the WSOP.
“I'm now working as a stock market trader in Tokyo,” Kihara tells me after picking up his two new pieces of jewelry. “June is a very important time for meetings with the company and the investors, and because of that I’ve been thinking about giving that more focus. I thought this might be my last full World Series.
“But now I’ve won two bracelets this week, I think I have to come back for at least the next five years. To win a fourth!”
Preaching the gospel of mixed games
While he may not technically be a pro these days, Kihara’s move into the finance industry came after a lengthy and successful spell as a poker professional.
He represented PokerStars until 2016, and was at one time essentially the ‘face of poker’ in his home country. It’s not a position he misses.
“I used to feel a lot of pressure to represent Japan in poker,” says Kihara. “But now Masato Yokosawa is representing poker in Japan more. He’s now the ‘face of poker’ in Japan, not me.
“And then you have Shiina Okamoto, the back-to-back Ladies event champion, who’s going for another one this year, and she’s also representing poker in Japan. So I don't really have to do that anymore!”
Free from corporate sponsorship obligations, and the pressures of representing Japan on the poker stage — and poker itself on Japan’s national stage — Kihara is still keen to spread the word on mixed games.
“Poker’s already super big in Japan, but not mixed games. So I think what I can represent for Japan is not just poker, but mixed games. I feel like I can promote mixed games to more no-limit hold’em players, not just those outside poker.”
Are mixed games actually easier?
Like most poker players, Kihara started off playing no-limit hold’em before finding his calling as a mixed game aficionado. And his path to the top was forged the old-fashioned way.
“I got better at mixed games just by playing, actually. I played a lot of hands, live and online, and I also watched a lot — lots of the replays of WCOOP and SCOOP at PokerStars.
“Watching the final tables of those high stakes events, there are so many good players, and watching them I learned how they play their hands, and the things they would think about.
“I especially learned a lot from watching Shaun Deeb. He was winning a lot online at the time and I learned a lot from watching those replays.”
Kihara is keen to espouse the added entertainment factor of poker formats where the rules continually change, and where solver-based study and GTO charts are far less of a factor.
In fact, he claims that not only does he not study these days, he barely plays.
“I don’t really play poker outside of the WSOP. I might go to The Bahamas [for WSOP Paradise], I’m not sure, but I haven’t really played much poker in the last two years. I’ve been thinking about semi-retiring from poker.”
So how does a part-timer spend hardly any time playing or studying, then travel halfway across the world to sit down and win two high-stakes poker tournaments in a row?
For Kihara, the answer illustrates the crucial difference between mixed games and hold’em in 2026.
“I’m a mixed game player. I play almost all the games at about the same level.
"If you want to be an excellent hold’em player, your skills need to be up at that 95%-99% level. But in mixed games, if you can get your skills across all the games up to a 90% level, let’s say, you’ll be a great player. That’s a big difference.
“For me, it’s pretty hard to get to that very high level, like you need to in hold’em. That’s not my work. It’s better for me to get to 90% for all the games.”
Kihara believes mixed games have big potential appeal when it comes to amateur players, too.
“Mixed games are more fun. Hold’em can be kind of boring, but in mixed the games are always changing. It’s more fun, and that’s not necessarily better for the pros but it’s better for the amateur players.
“You can be a 90% player and be a pro, but to be a winning amateur maybe 70% might be good enough.”
Not retiring just yet
Before he got to Las Vegas, Kihara was considering a semi-retirement from poker — although I have to wonder what that looks like for someone who only plays once a year at the WSOP.
Now, though, he’s dead set on chasing bracelet number four. He’ll be back next year for sure, but his summer here is not over yet.
Just don’t expect to find him playing much hold’em.
“The early success hasn’t changed my plans for the WSOP,” he tells me. “I had to do a lot of planning and preparation before I came, but I will be here for a lot of the series.
“I’ll mostly be playing the $10K mixed game events, I’ll play the $50K Poker Players Championship, I’ll play the $25K HORSE, and maybe some of the $1,500 mixed game events too.”
On current form and with his experience, his passion, and a little rungood, Kihara’s chase for bracelet number four might not take him as long as he thinks.
If it does come this summer, however, I’m pretty sure we’ll still see him back next year in pursuit of number five.
For someone smiling and clutching two WSOP gold bracelets, and who’s won $730K in the last few days, his motives seem refreshingly pure.
“It's not really about the gambling. I think of poker as a game, a really enjoyable game. I just want to let people know how much fun poker is.”
Additional images courtesy of the WSOP.
