There is no shortage of incredible stories coming out of the halls of the Horseshoe this summer at the World Series of Poker. From icons like Daniel Negreanu to Phil Ivey making bracelet-winning history to Nick Schulman and Scott Siever padding their future Poker Hall of Fame resumes, the star power posing for winner’s photos has been the brightest in recent memory.
But make no mistake, when you are crafting the who’s who of 2024 WSOP winners, you’d best not overlook Brazil’s Yuri Dzivielevski who, not-so-quietly, secured his fifth career WSOP gold bracelet this year by winning the $3,000 Nine Game Mix for more than $215,000.
At just 32 years old, the youngest member of the five-bracelet club, Dzivielevski became just the 40th player to have reached the five-bracelet benchmark. An impressive achievement on a career replete with success including climbing to the top of Hendon Mob’s All-Time Money List for Brazil and embedding himself, multiple times, as the #1-ranked online player in the world according to legacy rankings site PocketFives.
What this implies is through talent, work ethic, and his well-documented thirst for competition, Dzivielevski is just getting started when it comes to earning WSOP hardware. More than seven years until he’s even eligible for something like the Poker Hall of Fame, where bracelets are at least some measure of the nomination equation, Dzivielevski says that being on the bracelet chase and hunting down Hellmuth, is not the number one thing he’s concerned with but it’s also not far from his mind.
“I always say that I’ll overcome Phil Hellmuth [by the time I reach] his age,” Dzivielevski said. “It’s in jest, but there’s a grain of truth. Bracelets are awesome because of the memories you create. I play poker as a job, for the money, but winning bracelets turns it into more of a special activity, giving me awesome memories that I’ll have forever.”
Dzivielevski has earned more than $6.5 million in live tournament earnings according to The Hendon Mob, with a large part of his more than $4.4 million in WSOP live and online earnings being a significant part of it. His five bracelets have come in the past five years, making him the most successful Brazilian in WSOP history and an ambassador for the game in his home country. It’s a role he’s happy to have a part in.
“My main motivation is always to be a better version of myself every day,” he said. “But now I can see that I carry a way bigger role than just playing. I want to represent poker the way it is for me: an amazing activity that makes me a better person, a good source of income, and to be an inspiration for the Brazilian community, showing that we are capable of competing at the top.”
And Brazil, as a country, has proven that. Over the past decade, both live and online poker in Brazil has, and continues to, explode with Dzivielevski, along with the likes of Andre Akkari, Bruno Volkman, Pedro Garagnani, and Joao Simao among others, becoming the faces of the Brazilian poker movement. During that time, Brazil has surged in nearly every WSOP category ranking from becoming the sixth country worldwide with more than 100 million in WSOP earnings, entering the top 10 countries by bracelets, and third all-time country by cashes, only behind the U.S. and Canada.
It was in that past decade that Dzivielevski decided to expand his own game. According to Dzivielevski, it was back in 2014, after having “an amazing year in No Limit Hold’em tournaments” that he tackled learning Mixed Games. He did it to keep himself motivated in poker and soon he found that he gained an edge in variants other than No Limit, including PLO and Limit Hold’em. It is something he’s proven having earned all five bracelets in variants other than NLHE and even finishing as the runner-up in the prestigious $50,000 WSOP Poker Players Championship in 2022.
Like fellow five-timers Brian Yoon and Benny Glaser, both in their early-mid thirties, Dzivielevski has developed the skill set and drive to potentially set a new bar for what it means to really chase WSOP bracelets and Dzivielevski has made it clear, he loves the WSOP, he loves the competition and if you’re not paying attention to him now, you’re going to be forced to in the future.
“Since I developed my mixed games game, the World Series of Poker is a priority. It’s the only place we can play a high volume of Mixed Games tournaments and I intend to play the WSOP as much as possible, forever.”