Close but No Gold: Poker Pros with the Most WSOP Runner-Up Finishes

By Mrinal Gujare

3 hours ago

Mrinal Gujare 3 hours ago

Share this article

Ren Lin, Chino Rheem, and Allen Kessler have multiple WSOP runner-up finishes, but no bracelets.
All three consistently reach final tables but fall short in heads-up matches.
Their careers highlight how difficult it is to clinch victory, even for poker’s best.

Image Credit: WOSP

Following Shaun Deeb's recent defeat at the 2026 WSOP, this article profiles the unluckiest final table players in tournament history. Ren Lin, Chino Rheem, and Allen Kessler routinely finished second but have never won an official WSOP gold bracelet title.

Shaun Deeb recently experienced another close call in his quest for a 2026 World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelet.

In Event #52: $3,000 Nine Game Mix, Deeb fell just short of the title, losing to Joey Couden after a grueling three-and-a-half-hour heads-up battle. This defeat marked Deeb's ninth loss in a bracelet match, bringing his career heads-up record to 8-9.

While a silver medal is frustrating for the eight-time bracelet winner, the result provides crucial points for his pursuit of back-to-back Player of the Year (POY) titles.

Deeb previously finished second twice at WSOP Europe earlier this year to claim an early POY lead, but he arrived in Las Vegas with only one cash during the opening weeks of the summer series.

Although Deeb's 8-9 heads-up record highlights the volatility of final matches, his resume still boasts multiple victories. Other prominent poker professionals have navigated their way to the final two players repeatedly, only to walk away without a single bracelet.

Below are the three unluckiest players in WSOP history based on their heads-up records without a victory.

Ren Lin

Ren Lin has established himself as a dominant force globally, accumulating nearly $20 million in live tournament earnings. The Chinese high roller has secured prestigious titles on the World Poker Tour (WPT), PokerGO Tour (PGT), and Asian Poker Tour (APT). However, a WSOP gold bracelet remains elusive.

Lin has reached the heads-up stage at the WSOP seven times, losing every single match. These runner-up finishes have occurred across a wide spectrum of tournaments, ranging from small-field high rollers to events featuring thousands of entries.

His most recent near miss took place at WSOP Europe earlier this year, where Christopher Nguyen defeated him in the €20,800 Super High Roller. Over the years, Lin's final matches have also ended in defeat against elite players such as Nick Schulman, Santhosh Suvarna, and Mikita Badziakouski.

Chino Rheem

Chino Rheem has experienced a highly concentrated run of heads-up heartbreaks in recent years, despite waiting 16 years between his first and second opportunities.

Rheem first played for a bracelet in 2006, finishing second to Allen Cunningham in the $1,000 No-Limit Hold'em event. He did not return to a WSOP heads-up match until 2022, when Eli Elezra defeated him in the $10,000 PLO Hi-Lo Championship. That runner-up finish initiated a recurring trend.

In total, Rheem has reached heads-up four times over the last five years, losing each encounter. His recent defeats include:

2024: Denied by Dylan Weisman
2025: Defeated by Nick Guagenti
This Summer: Blocked by Marco Johnson in the $2,500 Freezeout

Despite the 0-5 record, the stakes remain high for the popular professional. Should Rheem manage to win a WSOP bracelet, he will secure his place in poker history as the 11th player to achieve Poker's Triple Crown.

Allen Kessler

Allen Kessler, known widely in the poker community as "Chainsaw," has accumulated four runner-up finishes over a span of more than a decade.

The most pivotal of these misses occurred in 2010 during the $10,000 Seven Card Stud Hi-Lo Championship. Kessler reached the final match but ultimately lost to Frank Kassela.

This single outcome had massive implications for the season, as Kassela utilized the victory to propel himself to the WSOP Player of the Year title. A victory for Kessler would have completely altered the outcome of that POY race.

Kessler subsequently added two more runner-up finishes to his record. He fell to Brian Rast in 2011 and was later denied a bracelet by Lukas Zaskodny at WSOP Europe in 2017.

Reaching the heads-up stage of a World Series of Poker event requires immense skill and endurance, yet closing out the final match remains one of the toughest tasks in the game.

As the records of Ren Lin, Chino Rheem, and Allen Kessler demonstrate, even the most successful players in live poker can find themselves trapped in a cycle of runner-up finishes.

Select All

Poker Events

Poker Events Starts in

Latest News

See all