If you have a day job and a love of poker, and can find some way to combine the two, you’re onto a good thing. Take it from this poker writer.
Or better yet, take it from Jerome Neppl, winner of the very first WSOP bracelet of 2026 in the $500 Industry Employees No-Limit Hold'em event.
906 entrants from the many corners of the casino and gaming industry sat down for Tuesday’s Day 1, building a total prizepool of over $375K. Neppl, a dealer out of the Sandia Resort and Casino in Albuquerque, New Mexico, outlasted them all.
His reward for an outstanding few days on the other side of the tables is $64,083, and of course one of the most coveted prizes in poker: the gold WSOP winner’s bracelet.
“I don’t know if I can wear the bracelet in the box when I’m dealing for the rest of the series,” Neppl told PokerOrg’s Mike Patrick.
“I don’t know if I need to get permission or whatever, it’s just jewelry. I wear a watch and other things, so I don’t know if it’s going to be a thing. But first I have to collect it tomorrow, and then I have to get on the [dealers] schedule.”
Dealing prodigy turns poker champion
Neppl first took up poker 15 years ago, cutting his teeth in cash games, before starting work as a dealer around 2021.
“I played in home games in the 2010s and that was a lot of fun. I was inspired by those home games to learn how to deal.
“That experience really helped me out; when I did go to dealer school for poker I was kind of a ‘prodigy’ or whatever, I’d help to teach the other students, which was cool.”
Neppl and friends celebrate the very first bracelet awarded in the 2026 WSOP. Now, with a bracelet to his name — and another $64K added to a resume that previously totaled just $613 in recorded career earnings — Neppl may be more likely to be approached for advice on other, more strategic, aspects of the game.
After all, not every poker dealer — or player, for that matter — knows what it’s like to reach the heights of WSOP champion.
And yet, incredibly, he’s not the only dealer from Albuquerque’s Sandia Resort to have done so.
Is there something in the water in Albuquerque?
Not only was this event's runner-up Sean Hamrick a former Sandia dealer, Jose Garcia — who won this very event two years ago — is working there still. Together with a gang of Neppl’s friends and colleagues, Garcia was there to rail his friend at Thursday’s final table.
“It ain’t Sandia, man,” Garcia explained after Neppl had sealed the deal. “He’s out of there, I’m out of there, but it’s the people in that community, it’s Albuquerque. That’s how we do it in the 505!”
Jose Garcia, left, receiving his bracelet from Jack Effel in 2024.When a hard-nosed pro wins a major tournament, reactions can sometimes be a little muted. Whether it’s the years spent maintaining strict emotional equilibium, the sense of deja vu or the fact they may have sold a lot of their action, established winners don’t always celebrate the way we’d expect them to.
When a passionate amateur wins, however, that passion is usually closer to the surface, and it was there for all to see among Neppl and his friends on Thursday after the final pot was pushed.
Such is Neppl’s passion for the game that the reason he relocated to New Mexico in the first place was because none of the dealing jobs he could find back east were solely focused on poker. And that passion remains whether he’s playing or dealing.
I’m sure there are many first-time champions who have mentally written their letters of resignation before they cash their winner’s check. Neppl isn’t one of them.
In fact, when we ask him what he prefers, dealing or playing, he takes an unexpectedly long time to answer.
“I think I like playing better,” he eventually responds, “but financially I like dealing better. I’m a better dealer than I am a player!”
You’ve got to love it when a man takes pride in his work. If you’re playing at the WSOP this summer, you’ll get a chance to see for yourself.
Neppl should be easy enough to spot in the box — just look for a glint of gold on his wrist.
Additional images courtesy of the WSOP.
