A Deep Run Through a Crowded Field at Choctaw
Daniel Lowery added another WSOP Circuit ring to his collection, winning the US$400 buy in No Limit Hold’em “40/40/40” event at the WSOP Circuit stop inside Choctaw Casino and Resort in Durant, Oklahoma. The event drew 449 entries, a strong turnout for a four figure buy in event, and Lowery had to navigate that entire field before finally getting the better of Andrew Chubick in a heads up finish.
Lowery’s run through the field ended with a payout of US$28,710, while Chubick’s second place finish was worth US$18,940. The specific prize pool and complete payout structure beyond the top two were not detailed in tournament reporting, but the result itself was significant well beyond the five figure cash. This was the 22nd WSOP Circuit ring of Lowery’s career, a number that moves him into rarefied territory on one of poker’s longest running grinding tours.
Passing Ari Engel for Second on the All Time List
The WSOP Circuit ring race has quietly become one of the more compelling long term storylines in American poker, a kind of marathon measured not in a single tournament but across years of regional stops. With his 22nd ring, Lowery moves past Ari Engel, who sits on 21 rings, to take over the outright number two spot on the all time list. The two have effectively been racing each other for that position for some time. Engel reached 21 rings at the WSOP Circuit stop in Council Bluffs, and notably he did so the very day after Lowery had won his own 21st ring at that same stop, a back to back sequence that kept the two players neck and neck heading into the back half of 2026.
Still well ahead of both of them sits Maurice Hawkins, the all time leader in WSOP Circuit rings with 26. Hawkins picked up his most recent ring in July, fittingly also at Choctaw, and has been vocal about an ambitious long term target of reaching 200 WSOP Circuit rings over the course of his career. Lowery’s 22nd ring closes the gap on Hawkins to just four, keeping alive a rivalry that has become one of the sport’s steadiest storylines even as flashier high roller results tend to grab more headlines.
Lowery’s Banner Year
This was not an isolated result for Lowery in 2026. The Choctaw win was his third WSOP Circuit ring of the calendar year, following an earlier victory in a US$300 Seniors event at Hard Rock Tulsa and a US$400 Big O ring won at Horseshoe Council Bluffs in September, the same stop where he and Engel traded rings on consecutive days. Three rings in a single year is a serious workload for any grinder on the Circuit, especially across different formats spanning standard No Limit Hold’em, a Seniors event, and a mixed Big O tournament, and it underlines why Lowery has climbed the all time list so quickly relative to some of the other names near the top.
Why the Ring Race Still Matters
The WSOP Circuit does not carry the same prestige or prize pools as the WSOP’s flagship summer bracelet events in Las Vegas, but the rings themselves have become their own kind of currency among a dedicated group of regulars who treat the regional tour as a full time grind. Unlike a single tournament win, accumulating rings across dozens of stops over years rewards consistency, travel commitment and volume as much as pure skill in any one field, which is part of why names like Hawkins, Engel and now Lowery have become fixtures of Circuit coverage even among players who otherwise fly under the radar nationally.
For Lowery specifically, the jump to second place all time, combined with three rings already banked in 2026 alone, suggests the chase for Hawkins at the top is not just plausible but realistic if his pace continues into next year. Readers who want to understand how a Circuit ring differs from a WSOP bracelet, including what each actually represents within the broader World Series of Poker structure, can get the full breakdown in Poker Pro Academy’s WSOP guidewhich lays out how the Circuit, the bracelet events and the Main Event all fit together under the same WSOP umbrella.
What Comes Next
With the 2026 WSOP Circuit calendar continuing to roll through regional casinos, both Lowery and Engel remain live threats to add to their totals before the year closes out, and Hawkins has shown no sign of slowing his own pursuit of triple digit rings. For now, Lowery’s win at Choctaw stands as one of the more quietly important results of the Circuit season, a reminder that some of poker’s most impressive accomplishments are built one US$400 buy in at a time rather than in a single headline making score.
