Married couples who both grind the tournament circuit are not unheard of in poker, but few have had a run quite like the one Eric and Lauren Bunch are putting together at the 2026 World Series of Poker Circuit stop at Hard Rock Tulsa. Over the course of the same series, the Oklahoma-based pair combined for four WSOP Circuit rings, a feat that turned a routine regional stop into one of the more talked-about storylines of the WSOP Circuit season.
A Family Operation at Hard Rock Tulsa
The WSOP Circuit Tulsa series runs from August 26 through September 7, 2026, filling the Hard Rock Tulsa poker room with the usual mix of low and mid buy-in ring events that make up the backbone of the Circuit’s schedule. Eric Bunch, a professional player from nearby Collinsville, Oklahoma, and his wife Lauren Bunch entered the series as familiar faces on the regional grind, but few could have predicted they would combine for four rings before the series even reached its final week.
Eric is credited with more than $2 million in career tournament earnings according to Hendon Mob records, a total built largely on exactly this kind of regional Circuit grinding rather than a single marquee score. That depth of experience showed at Hard Rock Tulsa, where he put together one of the more efficient multi-ring runs of the season.
Eric Bunch’s Run: Three Rings in One Series
Eric opened his series by taking down Event #1: $400 The Opener for $16,939, his third career WSOP Circuit ring. He followed that with a win in Event #4: $400 Mini Main for $46,800, his fourth ring, before adding a fifth in Event #9: $400 40-40-40 for $27,205. Three ring wins inside the same series is a rare accomplishment even for a full-time grinder, since it requires not just running well in one field but repeating that success across different formats and fields within a matter of days.
Between those wins, Eric also final-tabled the $400 Big O event, finishing seventh, a result that did not add another ring but underlined how consistently deep he was running throughout the series. For readers newer to the format, our WSOP guide breaks down how Circuit ring events fit into the broader World Series of Poker structure and what separates a Circuit ring from a WSOP bracelet.
Lauren Bunch’s Rise
While Eric’s three rings anchored the series for the family, Lauren Bunch added a title of her own, winning Event #3: $300 Pot Limit Omaha for $8,245. That victory marked her third career WSOP Circuit ring, a total she built in just over a year, having won her first ring in a WSOP Circuit Choctaw Durant ladies event in July 2025 before adding another at a Ladies event during March’s Hard Rock Tulsa stop. Winning three rings in roughly thirteen months, across mixed-field and ladies events alike, points to a player whose results have been trending upward well before this series began.
Lauren also reached the final table of the $400 Big O event alongside her husband, finishing fourth, just three spots ahead of Eric’s seventh-place result in the same event. Having both members of a married couple deep in the same final table, in a mixed pot-limit Omaha and hold’em format that rewards versatility, is the kind of detail that made this series stand out even before the ring count reached four.
The Numbers Behind Four WSOP Circuit Rings
Add it up and the Bunch family combined for $99,189 in cashes across their four ring-winning events at Hard Rock Tulsa, not counting the additional money each picked up finishing fourth and seventh in the Big O event. None of the individual buy-ins were especially high, with each ring event carrying a $300 to $400 entry fee, which is precisely what makes the run notable. This was not a single six-figure score built on one deep run in a marquee event. It was sustained, repeatable success across an entire series, the kind of result that tournament regulars respect more than a single lucky Sunday.
WSOP Circuit rings are awarded to the winner of each individual ring event on a stop, separate from the WSOP’s international bracelet events, and a Circuit season typically runs across dozens of stops throughout the year. Winning four rings between two players at a single stop, in the same series, is a mark that will stand out in the WSOP Circuit’s Tulsa history regardless of what happens the rest of the year.
What’s Left on the Tulsa Schedule
With the series continuing through September 7, both Eric and Lauren Bunch still have several events left to add to their totals. Eric reportedly left the venue after his Big O final table to compete in a pickleball tournament, a detail that speaks to the kind of balanced, low-key approach the couple has taken to a series that has otherwise turned them into one of the WSOP Circuit’s feel-good stories of the summer.
Stories like this one are a useful reminder that success on the tournament grind is rarely about one massive score. It is built from consistent play, sound bankroll management and the discipline to keep showing up event after event, exactly the habits that separate long-term winning players from the rest of the field. Whether or not the Bunch family adds a fifth ring before Hard Rock Tulsa wraps up, their series has already become one of the more memorable Circuit storylines of 2026.
