WSOP Circuit Returns to Austin With $2 Million Main Event
Texas Card House’s September stop follows a spring debut that drew 1,709 Main Event entries and a $2.59 million prize pool.
Texas Card House’s WSOP page lists the next WSOP Circuit stop in Austin for Sept. 10-21.
Poker.org reported that the two-week festival will feature 50 tournaments, more than $4.1 million in guarantees, and 18 ring events. The showcase Main Event runs Sept. 17-21 and carries a $2 million guarantee.
The September series follows the Circuit’s first Texas stop at the same venue this spring, when WSOP.com said the first-ever WSOP Circuit series in Texas ran from April 23 to May 4. That debut also offered 18 opportunities to win WSOP Circuit gold and punch tickets to WSOP Paradise 2026 at Baha Mar Resort.
The spring Main Event had a $1,700 buy-in and a $1 million guarantee, but it drew 1,709 entries and produced a $2,589,135 prize pool. It paid 191 players and sent $231,165 to first place, more than doubling the guarantee.
PokerNews reported that the guarantee was beaten before registration closed during Flight C, and that the event had three Day 1 starting flights. The same coverage said the first Main Event kicked off on April 30.
The debut stop also produced other big numbers. Poker.org reported that a $600 Mini Main drew 2,562 entries for more than $1.3 million, while the First Lone Star Ring drew 901 entries at $400 apiece. The back half of that schedule also included a $600 Texas Stack, a $400 PLO Double Board Bomb Pot, and a $400 Last Lone Star Ring.
Texas Card House COO Victor Leone said the prize pool broke the biggest tournament record in Texas and that the room looked forward to breaking more records. Spectrum Local News also quoted Ryan Crow saying the cardroom expected closer to 80 tables for the Circuit series, compared with about 45 normally. Poker.org noted that the previous record for a $1,700 Main Event in Texas was the $2 million Texas Poker Championship at Prime Social Houston in 2022, won by James Carroll for $455,860.
