WSOP Spotlights Circuit Winners Bound for Paradise as Package Deadline Nears
Live and online ring winners have until Nov. 1 to reserve the Bahamas package, which includes the $2,750 Mystery Bounty.
- WSOP has profiled several 2026 Circuit ring winners who are preparing for December’s Paradise series in the Bahamas.
- Each live or online Circuit ring winner receives a $5,000 package with Mystery Bounty entry and Baha Mar accommodations.
- Recipients who have not reserved their package must do so by Nov. 1.
- WSOP Paradise runs Dec. 2-17 with 20 bracelet events and $120 million guaranteed.
WSOP has highlighted a group of 2026 Circuit ring winners preparing to use their $5,000 WSOP Paradise packages in the Bahamas, while reminding winners who have not yet reserved their package to do so by Nov. 1.
Every 2026 live or online Circuit ring winner receives the package, which includes a seat in the $2,750 WSOP Circuit Championship Mystery Bounty and complimentary accommodations at Baha Mar. Ring winners are also being asked to watch the WSOP Live app for accommodation-coordination messages.
The new WSOP.com feature follows players whose wins came at stops across the Circuit. Shawn Hall won a $600 O8 or Better event at Horseshoe Las Vegas and said the Mystery Bounty will be the biggest buy-in tournament of his career. It will be his second trip to the Bahamas, but his first stay at a resort like Baha Mar.
Alcira Lagerwerf earned her first ring, at age 43, by winning the €300 NLH Ladies Event at Casino Malta after years as an amateur player. She plans to bring her daughter, mother and sister, calling the trip “truly a dream come true” and looking forward to competing for a bracelet against leading players.
The feature also included Michael Iacullo, a disabled Marine Corps veteran who won the $400 Double Stack NLH at Horseshoe Hammond. Iacullo learned poker in his mid-30s and had previously come close to a ring with a runner-up finish in Southern Indiana’s 2016 Monster Stack.
Other package recipients profiled were Alison Wedding, winner of the $400 Big O at Choctaw, whose Paradise trip will be her first visit to the Bahamas; Kimberlee Lepa, who won the $300 NLH Ladies Event at Caesars New Orleans for her first ring; and Rene Fernández, winner of the MX$8,000 NLH Turbo Bounty KO at Big Bola. Fernández said he had played poker for four years before winning, on the same day his girlfriend won a Ladies Event.
The explicit inclusion of online winners is notable after an earlier eligibility dispute. Pokerfuse reported in July that promotional language had initially not distinguished between live and online champions, prompting criticism from online ring winners. The outlet later updated its report to say WSOP confirmed eligible US and international online Circuit winners would continue to receive the invitation package.
WSOP Paradise runs Dec. 2-17 at Baha Mar Hotel & Resort, with 20 bracelet events and $120 million in guaranteed prize pools. The Circuit Championship Mystery Bounty opens the series with a $5 million guarantee, while the $26,000 Super Main Event carries a $50 million guarantee. The festival also decides the 2026 WSOP Player of the Year race.
