WSOP 2026: TikTok Engineer Zixuan Liu Wins Bracelet in $1K NLH (Event #85)

The two-day Event #85: $1K NLH attracted a total of 1,732 entries, pushing the prize pool to $1,524,160. Zixuan Liu's journey to victory was a rollercoaster. At one stage, he was down to a critical four big blinds after an unsuccessful bluff and was on the brink of elimination. However, with strict discipline and adherence to his own rules, he managed to build his stack back up, eventually reaching the final table.

In the concluding heads-up, Liu faced Justin Shiao, whom he later described as his toughest opponent of the day. The duel lasted less than an hour, and it ended when Liu hit a full house with 8 d 4 d on a board of T d 8 c 7 h 4 c 8 h.

Liu, who works as a software engineer for TikTok in Cupertino, California, is a complete novice at WSOP. While his wife and daughter went to visit family in China, he opted for a solo trip to Las Vegas. He played his first WSOP tournament, the $600 Deepstack (Event #78), where he impressively finished 21st. Before returning to work, he decided to play another WSOP tournament.

He described the victory as a "turning point in his entire life," and plans to use part of his $219,391 winnings to buy a new car for his wife, who has been a tremendous supporter of his poker hobby.

Final Table Results of Event #85: $1,000 No-Limit Hold'em

Source: WSOP, WSOP Live

#result