Every so often the World Series of Poker delivers a story that no scriptwriter would dare pitch, and the 2026 edition saved one of its best for the very end. Alexander Kostritsyn won the WSOP 2026 $25,000 H.O.R.S.E. High Roller for $872,052 and his first career gold bracelet — a result made astonishing by a single detail: it was his first recorded live tournament cash in eight years. The Russian cash-game legend, known online as "joiso," walked away from the felt in 2018 and, on the final day of the 2026 series, walked back into the winner's circle as if he had never left.
For fans of the mixed-game format and the rich strategy that surrounds it, this was one of the summer's most satisfying results. Anyone drawn to the games beyond no-limit hold'em can explore our guides to Omaha and broader poker strategy, because H.O.R.S.E. rewards exactly the kind of well-rounded skill set that separates true students of the game from one-trick specialists.
A Prestigious Test of All-Around Skill
H.O.R.S.E. is poker's decathlon. The acronym rotates through five disciplines — Limit Hold'em, Omaha Hi-Lo, Razz, Seven Card Stud, and Stud Hi-Lo (Eight or Better) — forcing players to be genuinely competent across the entire spectrum of the game rather than masters of a single format. The $25,000 High Roller version attracts the most complete players in the world, and the 2026 edition was no exception, drawing 148 entries and building a prize pool of $3,478,000.
The final table alone read like a mixed-games hall of fame, featuring Alex Foxen, Shaun Deeb and Naoya Kihara among the contenders — several of whom were also chasing precious points in the WSOP Player of the Year race. Kostritsyn eliminated Deeb along the way and ultimately defeated Ali Eslami heads-up to seal the bracelet, navigating a field where a single misstep in an unfamiliar discipline can end a run instantly.
Eight Years in the Shadows
What makes the victory so remarkable is the gap that preceded it. According to The Hendon Mob, Kostritsyn's last recorded live cash came in 2018. In the years since, he became one of the most feared high-stakes online cash-game players in the world under the "joiso" moniker, grinding the nosebleed tables far from the tournament spotlight and the television cameras.
That path is more common than casual fans might assume. The biggest money in poker has never been confined to bracelet events; some of the game's sharpest minds make their living in high-stakes cash games, where there are no antes ticking down and no pay jumps, just raw edge repeated hand after hand. Players curious about that side of the game can compare the two worlds in our breakdown of cash games vs tournaments and our guide to the high stakes arena where players like Kostritsyn built their reputations.
Why Cash Specialists Excel in Mixed Games
There is a logic to a cash-game specialist conquering a mixed-game tournament that goes deeper than the fairy-tale headline. High-stakes cash players tend to have enormous volume in a wide variety of games, because the most profitable cash tables are frequently mixed-game lineups where recreational money flows most freely. That constant exposure to Razz, Stud, and Omaha Hi-Lo — games most tournament grinders touch only a few weeks a year — builds an intuitive depth that is difficult to replicate.
It also helps that the H.O.R.S.E. format is played at fixed limits rather than no-limit, which reduces the impact of the wild all-in variance that defines the Main Event and rewards patient, incremental edge accumulation. That is precisely the environment in which a disciplined cash-game professional thrives. Understanding the fundamentals of pot odds and equity across multiple game types is the connective tissue that lets a player move between disciplines without missing a beat.
What This Means for the Mixed-Game Scene
Kostritsyn's win is a shot in the arm for the mixed-game community, which has spent years arguing that the discipline of playing five games well represents the purest test of poker skill. When a player of his caliber emerges from an eight-year tournament hiatus and immediately wins one of the toughest fields on the schedule, it validates the idea that fundamental, all-around ability travels — and that the online cash streets remain a breeding ground for elite talent.
It also underscores a healthy trend at the top of the game: the walls between online cash pros, live tournament grinders and mixed-game specialists are more porous than ever. The best players increasingly move fluidly between formats, and results like this one blur the old distinctions between "cash player" and "tournament player." For the WSOP, which continues to expand its high-roller and mixed-game offerings, a marquee comeback story is exactly the kind of narrative that keeps the prestige events feeling essential.
What This Means for Players
For everyday players, the lesson is not to abandon hold'em and dive straight into a $25,000 buy-in — it is to recognize the value of range and versatility. Learning a second or third poker discipline sharpens skills that carry back to your main game: pot-limit Omaha teaches you to think in terms of equity and drawing hands, stud teaches memory and board reading, and razz teaches discipline in reading strength backwards. Every format you study makes you harder to exploit in the ones you play most.
Kostritsyn's $872,052 payday and his long-awaited first bracelet are proof that deep, transferable skill does not evaporate during time away from the tournament floor. It simply waits for the right opportunity. For players inspired to broaden their own game, our resources on Omaha and the wider poker strategy library are a sensible place to begin, and our roundup of the best real money poker rooms points toward where you can put that expanding skill set to work.
A Fitting Finale to the 2026 Series
The 2026 World Series wrapped up a record-breaking summer of live poker, and Kostritsyn's improbable comeback provided one of its most memorable closing images. Nishant Sharma and She Wong also captured their first career bracelets on the action-packed final night, but it was the return of "joiso" — cashless in live poker since 2018, then a champion — that best captured the unpredictable magic that keeps drawing players back to the felt year after year.
Sources: PokerNews – Kostritsyn Wins $25K H.O.R.S.E., PGT – Kostritsyn First Bracelet, CardPlayer