Few players have had as much success in non-No Limit Hold’em poker tournaments over the last few years as Yuval Bronshtein.
Over the last three World Series’ of Poker, Bronshtein has seven final table appearances and two WSOP gold bracelets. Since the start of 2021, Bronshtein has won a staggering eight non-Hold’em titles at Seminole Hard Rock. He’s also shown significant chops in big field No Limit events, including two WSOP Circuit rings and a 23rd-place finish in the 2012 WSOP main event, among many other results.
But all of that success may not have been possible, were it not for a push he got from his friends and supporters ahead of the 2019 WSOP.
“In 2019, I was actually having a really bad year personally,” said Bronshtein. “A lot of bad things happened in my life, and I lost a lot of money on business deals and different things like that. I was actually going to skip the World Series in 2019, and then a group of guys approached me and asked me what my plans were. I was like, ‘I’m not going this year – my life’s just too bad right now, and I can’t do it.”
“They said, ‘You’re one of the best players in the world, you have to go and we’ll back you.’ I went to that World Series and I won my first bracelet, and pretty much ever since I won my first bracelet, it’s just been a huge monkey off my shoulder, and a big confidence boost.”
Since 2019, Bronshtein has accumulated half of his career $3.1 million tournament earnings as he expanded his playing schedule and started taking more shots.
“If you look at my results after the bracelet, I just went on a tear and started winning a lot of tournaments. Then the next World Series I played, I also won a bracelet. When the World Series came back in 2021 after COVID , pretty much since then, I’ve just been prioritizing tournaments. I visited the PokerGO studio recently and played a few tournament series there, which is something I would have never done before this year. I went to the Wynn and played the main event there. Pretty much every month I travel to Vegas or go somewhere for tournaments.”
Bronshtein’s current system gives him the best of both worlds. When there are big tournaments elsewhere, he can hop on a plane. But there’s also plenty of options right in his backyard, as he currently lives in South Florida. Outside of the summer in Las Vegas, there isn’t a much better place in the world to play poker for a mixed game specialist.
“Yeah, it’s really a blessing,” said Bronshtein. “When I moved to Florida, it wasn’t specifically for that, but I’m very lucky for it. Jason [Heidenthal], and it used to be Tony [Burns], but the guys who run the tournaments at the Hard Rock, they really prioritize mixed games, and they make sure there’s at least one on the schedule pretty much every day in all of their series. There’s a large mixed game community here, and [with that base], a lot of people are willing to travel for mixed game tournaments.”
With eight wins under his belt, it’s little surprise why Bronshtein stays busy on a daily basis during a series like the Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown. While he doesn’t have a trophy in this series yet, Bronshtein did bag chips for Day 2 of the WPT main event.
Whether or not he adds a ninth trophy by the time May 2 rolls around, Bronshtein will continue to be active. With just a month to go before the 2023 WSOP, he has eyes on more final tables and another bracelet. And with the system he has in place, Bronshtein is poised for another big summer.
“For my World Series schedule, it’ll pretty much be the same as last year and the year before,” said Bronshtein. “I’ll play all the $10Ks, most of the mixed game tournaments, and the $50K Poker Players Championship. I could potentially play like the $25k PLO or 50k PLO as well.”
“Unlike many people who sell packages, have investors and create a formal schedule, I don’t do that,” Bronshtein continued. “I have investors and I just tell them I’m going to play something different every day, and they have a piece of whatever I play. They just trust me to play whatever I think is optimal.”