Blake Ellinghaus paid $580 to enter the 2026 WPT bestbet Scramble Championship. He left bestbet Jacksonville on Tuesday night with $294,900, membership of the WPT Champions Club, and his name bound for the Mike Sexton WPT Champions Cup. That satellite is now comfortably the best investment of his career. Per The Hendon Mob, Ellinghaus now has $437,795 in total live earnings, with this $294,900 result his best cash by a distance and the win that put him on the global map. Before Jacksonville, his biggest recorded score was $34,147.
“It’s the coolest accomplishment in poker that you can think of,” Ellinghaus told WPT reporters after his win. “To be on a trophy with all of the legends of the game. I’m so happy.”
The $5,000 Championship drew 294 entries across three starting flights, building a prize pool of $1,337,700 and clearing its $1,000,000 guarantee by more than a third. The top 37 finishers were paid, with a minimum cash of $9,100.
Ellinghaus Dismantles a Loaded Final Table
Six players returned for the televised final day, and Ellinghaus did most of the damage himself.
Hugh Membrino doubled through him early, then departed in sixth. The chips went in on a queen-high flop, with Ellinghaus holding ace-queen for top pair top kicker against Membrino’s top pair, according to Card Player. Michael Macchia followed in fifth, his pocket nines colliding with Jared Reinstein’s aces. Ellinghaus then sent Skyler Dennis out in fourth, his pocket queens holding against Dennis’s ace-six on a jack-jack-two-two-eight board, before ending the run of the final table’s most decorated player.
Bryan Paris was the name in the room. Playing online as “bparis,” he became only the second player in history to pass $10 million in online tournament cashes, behind Chris Moorman, a milestone tracked and reported at the time by the now-defunct PocketFives. He arrived in Jacksonville with just a hair above $1 million in live poker earnings, per The Hendon Mob, and an EPT Monte Carlo title from 2014. Paris got his chips in with pocket nines and found jacks waiting. Ellinghaus flopped a set and rivered a full house to end Paris’s run in third place for $135,000 to conclude his first WPT final table.
Heads-up began with Ellinghaus holding 12,225,000 against Reinstein’s 2,325,000, a roughly five-to-one chip advantage, per WPT’s live counts. Reinstein found back-to-back doubles across 26 heads-up hands to narrow the gap, but the finish belonged to Ellinghaus.
WPT’s live updates recorded the last hand in full. Ellinghaus limped, Reinstein checked his option, and both players checked the flop of jack-eight-five. On the three turn, Reinstein led for 200,000, Ellinghaus raised to 850,000, and Reinstein called. The river brought the seven; Reinstein checked, and Ellinghaus moved all-in. Reinstein burned a time bank chip and tanked before calling with seven-six for a rivered pair of sevens, only to be shown six-four for an eight-high straight.
Reinstein’s $184,000 is the largest payday of a career now worth $642,278 across 58 cashes, according to Card Player, and it came at a venue he knows well. He won the Card Player Poker Tour bestbet Jacksonville Main Event at the same property in 2017 for $75,714, and last year finished 189th in the WSOP Main Event for $60,000.
WPT bestbet Scramble Championship Final Table Results
$5,000 buy-in | 294 entries | $1,337,700 prize pool | 37 paid
| Place | Player | Country | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1st |  Blake Ellinghaus | United States | $294,900* |
| 2nd | Jared Reinstein | United States | $184,000 |
| 3rd | Bryan Paris | United States | $135,000 |
| 4th | Skyler Dennis | United States | $100,000 |
| 5th | Michael Macchia | United States | $75,000 |
| 6th | Hugh Membrino | United States | $57,000 |
*First-place prize includes a $10,400 entry to the season-ending WPT World Championship at Wynn Las Vegas in December.
A Cup With Some History Behind It
The trophy Ellinghaus joins is not named for Mike Sexton posthumously, as many assume. The WPT announced the renaming on July 21, 2020, while Sexton was alive to enjoy it.
“To me, there is no greater honor in poker than having the WPT rename the Champions Cup the ‘Mike Sexton WPT Champions Cup,'” Sexton said in the WPT announcement at the time. He died six weeks later, on September 6, 2020, six years and three days before Ellinghaus won this title.
Sexton earned the honor twice over. He was the tour’s lead commentator from Season I in 2002 until 2017, and a champion in his own right, winning WPT Montreal in Season XV for $317,896.
“Congratulations to Blake Ellinghaus on an impressive run to the title and earning his place on the WPT Mike Sexton WPT Champions Cup,” said WPT CEO Adam Pliska in the same press release. “We are grateful to bestbet Jacksonville for their continued partnership and to all the players who helped make this another memorable WPT stop.”
The Numbers, in Context
The 294-entry field is down on last year, when Connor Rash won the Scramble from 327 entries for $315,530 off a $1,487,850 prize pool. That is a drop of roughly 10 percent. Worth noting before anyone reads much into it: the Scramble has traditionally run in November and moved to early September for 2026, dropping it into a very different and considerably busier stretch of the calendar.
The stop itself remains one of the WPT’s most established. This was the tour’s thirteenth championship event at bestbet, a relationship going back to Tony Ruberto’s win at the Orange Park property in Season X.
Season 24 now heads to Australia. The WPT Australia festival at The Star Sydney features the AUD $1,500 WPT Prime Australia Championship from September 17 to 22, followed by the AUD $5,000 WPT Australia Championship from September 24 to 30.
Westbrook Brings Poker Night to Fontainebleau
More WPT Foundation business is on the calendar this month, and it has an unusual hook.
Russell Westbrook’s Why Not? Foundation stages its 6th Annual Poker Night on Friday, September 18, moving to Fontainebleau Las Vegas and its members-only Poodle Room for the first time. Hosted by Russell and Nina Westbrook in partnership with the WPT Foundation, the fundraiser has raised more than $2 million to date for educational access, workforce development, and mental health programs in underserved communities.
The timing gives it an extra edge, because Westbrook recently announced his retirement after 18 years in the NBA.
“Basketball gave me the platform, but purpose has helped me reimagine what’s possible,” Westbrook said in a Why Not? Foundation press release. “This next chapter gives me the opportunity to invest further in the next generation.”
Poker faces are a fixture at the event. Antonio Esfandiari, Jason Koon, and Maria Ho have all played in past years, alongside NBA names including Chris Paul, DeMar DeRozan, and DeAndre Jordan. Drea Renee hosts this year, with WPT’s Vince Van Patten co-hosting. A poker refresher starts at 5:30 p.m., with play from 6 p.m. Ticketing and sponsorship details are at whynotfoundation.org.
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- Sources: World Poker Tour (WPT) and The Hendon Mob
- Photos: World Poker Tour (WPT)
- Article originally produced at poker.pro.
