WSOP doubles down on banning rival poker patches
Thinking of wearing a poker patch at the World Series this year? You'll have to get that in writing.
A huge row is brewing ahead of the World Series of Poker about who is allowed to wear poker ambassador patches.
A new rule was announced earlier this month stating that some poker patches were prohibited, and in the final draft of the rules, it appears the WSOP have doubled down on this:
The final version of the WSOP Tournament Rules just dropped - https://t.co/OcA4iYHuT8
The only change was made to Rule 52.
The previous version is in pink, the updated version is in blue. pic.twitter.com/TUNhEPZA4G
— Kevin Mathers (@Kevmath) May 19, 2026
In the first draft of the rules, players wearing logos that endorsed rival poker rooms would have to request consent ahead of playing at a feature table, now it appears that a patch worn at any time during tournament play requires permission ahead of time.
This news comes after Patrick Leonard revealed that he is not allowed to wear a CoinPoker patch at the series this year:
Re: @25kfantasy not sure what/if I’ll play. Currently been denied to wear a patch, which I believe can lead to disqualification at the tournament directors discretion.
I imagine, as with a lot of other players, this will complicate things. I understand and respect WSOP is more… pic.twitter.com/GrkEXEF83I
— Patrick Leonard 🫡 (@padspoker) May 15, 2026
Selective enforcement
So what is actually happening here? It would appear that the policy is going to be selectively applied, with the expectation that the WSOP will be mostly heavy-handed against players wearing Club WPT Gold or CoinPoker patches.
We have already seen that the World Poker Tour and the World Series of Poker have been very aggressively competing against each other in recent years. Most recently, a new rule was introduced prohibiting third-party wagers on WSOP events, which was a direct reaction to last year's Millionaire Maker scandal, where the World Poker Tour offered qualifying players wearing a WPT patch an extra million dollars if they won a bracelet.
In the case of CoinPoker, it would appear they are being targeted because they are the new kid on the block who have been endorsing a vast number of poker players. At the end of last year, they made Bernard Binder remove his CoinPoker patch at the final table of WSOP Paradise, which he won.
Many players are concerned that this new rule would prohibit them from wearing more standard branded clothing like Nike hats, but it is highly likely that this rule will only be enforced against live poker rivals to the World Series of Poker and online rivals to GGPoker.
