Salute to Warriors Crowns Bracelet Winner as Veterans Remembered in Vegas

An exciting final table was a guarantee in the $500 buy-in Salute to Warriors NLHE Event #59 at the 2026 World Series of Poker (WSOP). With a massive field of 4,478 entries, it was Prashanth Nataraj who won the event and a top prize of $208,800 as he paid tribute to the service men and women who keep the United States safe.

Short Stack Comeback

The road to the final table may have been long but once the final nine players assembled in the Paris Ballroom on the GGPoker WSOP stage, there were several headline makers. Chief amongst them were the two female players at the table in Holly Foley and Lexy Gavin-Mather, a well-known celebrity of the poker world whose YouTube channel has over 325,000 subscribers.

With Laurance Essak leading the finalists on 58.6 million chips, the shortest stack at the felt belonged to the eventual winner, as Prashanth Nataraj had just 10.8 million, the equivalent of just eight big blinds. Everything was about to change but the final started how it might have been expected to, with Essak in charge. He called off Julien Duveau’s ace-six shove with just nine-eight but flopped a nine to send the Frenchman home with $19,930.

Next to go was Daniel Wirgau, who departed after Essak once again overcame the better pre-flop hand. Wirgau’s ace-queen was overtaken by Essak’s jack-seven, with a seven on the flop sending Essak’s fellow American home in eight with $25,570. Topping 100 million chips, Essak’s lead was looking to ominous to all of his opponents as ICM played its part in the final too.

Ladies Night Ends Early

Just four and a half big blinds sat in front of Lexy Gavin-Mather when she moved all-in with king-queen. Unfortunately for her, Sebastian Crema called with pocket kings and that reduced the field to six with Gavin-Mather (below) claiming a worthy prize of $33,120 in seventh place.

Shortly afterwards, Robert Brobyn followed her to the rail, winning $43,260 in sixth place, moving all-in for five big blinds with jack-nine, but called to his defeat by the Indian player Jeevan Lobo with ace-nine. No help came for Brobyn on the eight-high board and his hopes were dashed.

The longest-lasting female player busted a few hands later, as Holly Foley fell in fifth place for $57,020. All-in for a fraction more than Brobyn with ace-six, she was called by Lobo’s re-shove with king-jack, which might have missed the flop but hit the turn of a jack square in the face and faded a river to leave just four players chasing gold.

Lobo Loses Out… Eventually

Lobo was on a roll and claimed another victim when the Canadian player Crema busted in fourth for $75,800. Shoving for six big blinds with ace-eight of spades, it looked good for Crema to double with Lobo’s call with queen-six in the same suit loose in the extreme. Once again, however, Lobo found it on the board, as a queen landed on the all-diamond flop and he faded Crema’s outs to send the Canadian home.

If Prashanth Nataraj had been quiet until this point, he then found the perfect time to start applying pressure. Winning a handful of pots that didn’t go to showdown frustrated his opponents and boosted his stack to the chip lead. When Jeevan Lobo shoved for almost ten big blinds with jack-nine, Nataraj covered him and snapped him off with pocket queens, which held to send Lobo home with $101,600 and give the eventual winner an almost 2:1 chip lead going into the final battle.

Nataraj was utterly dominant heads-up, maintaining his lead until he limped with ace-jack, teasing Essak into an ill-time shove with ace-six. Nataraj called after a moment and was delighted to be dominating his opponent. The flop of Q-8-7 was a good one for the eventual winner but a five on the turn gave the at-risk Essak an open-ended straight draw. A queen on the river instead handed a delighted Nataraj his first-ever bracelet and a meeting with Jeff Platt and an over-sized check (below).

The Champion in His Own Words

“Winning a bracelet feels crazy because you don’t really plan for it.”

While Laurance Essak earned his $137,370 score as runner-up, Prashanth Nataraj was immensely proud to win not only the bracelet and $208,800 top prize but this particular event which does so much for those who sacrifice their lives to protect us.

“My highest score was $40,000, so I was personally trying to beat that,” said Nataraj. “Once I beat that, I was like, ‘Oh, we need to take this down now!’.  I’d just like [to give] a big shout-out to all of my friends. I feel like I had the best rail. It was just fantastic – I feel so supported.”

Despite starting the day with ten big blinds and a dream, Nataraj celebrated his debut bracelet after playing fearless poker. He added that this event motivated him more than others might have done.

“I felt like great today, even though I didn’t have the chip-stack,” he said. “One thing we struggle with as poker players is finding meaning in the game we play and what it represents in the grand scheme of things. Winning a bracelet feels crazy because you don’t really plan for it. Everyone wants to win it and it’s an aspirational thing that you look forward to, but you don’t really imagine yourself winning it until you actually do.”

With other more obviously venerable careers offering the fulfilment of contributing to part of a cause, poker can get some criticism as a selfish pursuit. But the donation of almost $180,000 to the USO meant a lot to the tournament’s champion.

“Having that built into the tournament makes you feel like you’re already contributing to it and you’re part of a cause – it makes it even more special that you won, but also through you, someone else won, and you’re doing some good in society.”

As the interview ended and camera bulbs stopped flashing, Nataraj was welcomed into the exclusive club of those poker players who have won a WSOP bracelet by the man with more than anyone else, 17-time WSOP champion Phil Hellmuth.

“Congratulations!” said The Poker Brat with a fist-bump, to complete the kind of dream day at the poker felt that Prashanth Nataraj will never forget.