WPT Sets 85-Plus Events and $20 Million Guarantees for Wynn World Championship
Season 24 concludes in Las Vegas with a new $400 Super Gold Million, added Championship bounties and a Dec. 20 televised final table.
World Poker Tour has released the full schedule for its 2026 WPT World Championship festival at Wynn Las Vegas. The 25-day series runs from Nov. 27 through Dec. 21, offers more than 85 events and carries more than $20 million in guarantees as the finale to WPT Season 24.
The expanded festival is four days longer than last year, according to Poker.org, and buy-ins range from $400 to $25,800. The schedule is weighted toward mid-stakes action, with numerous events priced from $600 to $1,600, while also including seniors, high rollers and a broad mixed-game slate.
The $10,400 WPT World Championship remains the central event. Its three opening flights run Dec. 13-15, with one entry permitted for each flight and a final re-entry window closing before Day 2 begins Dec. 16. The six-handed final table will be livestreamed and televised Dec. 20, with the winner earning a place on the Mike Sexton WPT Champions Cup.
WPT is adding $1 million in mystery-bounty cash to the Championship, separate from the prize pool built through entries. Once the bounty phase begins, the top 160 finishers will receive draws for that money.
Schuyler Thornton returns as defending champion after winning the 2025 event from a field of 1,865 entries. WPT’s event recap lists his first-place payout at about $2.26 million, including a $10,400 entry to this year’s Championship.
A new low-buy-in headliner, the $400 Super Gold Million, runs Dec. 10-14 with a $3 million guarantee. The live-only event has four starting flights, unlimited re-entry and a mystery-bounty format in which qualifying eliminations give players draws for extra cash and prizes. WPT Executive Tour Director Matt Savage confirmed that it will be exclusively live, rather than an online edition of ClubWPT Gold’s Gold Million.
The $1,100 WPT Prime Championship runs Dec. 5-12 with a $5 million guarantee, unchanged from last year. It uses four starting flights that combine into one Day 2 field. Aaron Johnson is the defending Prime champion after navigating 9,876 entries for just over $1 million.
The schedule also includes a $1,100 Ladies No-Limit Hold’em Championship beginning Dec. 13 with a $250,000 guarantee. Satellites run throughout the festival, including a $200 Milestone Satellite on Dec. 6 that awards 50 Prime seats, and a $1,600 Milestone Satellite on Dec. 7 that distributes 25 prizes across Prime and World Championship routes.
Mixed-game options include T.O.R.S.E., HORSE, Limit Omaha 8, Limit Omaha 8/Stud 8, Mixed Triple Draw, Big O and PLO. The festival opens with a $600 No-Limit Hold’em event carrying a $400,000 guarantee, while a $600 NLH Turbo closes the series. Wynn Poker Room will also host a WPT Meet-Up Game on Dec. 1, offering $1/$3 and $2/$5 cash games, special guests and giveaways.
As previously reported, WPT plans to begin Season 25 at NagaWorld in Phnom Penh next January with the WPT Cambodia Championship.
