WSOP ANNOUNCES GLOBAL $1M PLAYER OF THE YEAR RACE FOR 2026
WSOP Europe 2026 sets the stage for record-breaking year with €10M GTD Main Event in Prague; Summer dates for WSOP 2026 confirmed.
Dec 16 2025 09:00 AM EST
Las Vegas, Nevada (December 16, 2025) – The World Series of Poker (WSOP®) today unveiled a historic expansion of its competitive landscape for the 2026 season. For the first time, the WSOP Player of the Year (POTY) competition will encompass all three major WSOP live tournament events in the calendar year, connecting WSOP Europe, the traditional summer WSOP in Las Vegas, and next December’s WSOP Paradise into a singular global chase for poker’s most prestigious consistency award.
To mark this evolution, the WSOP has announced a $1,000,000 total prize pool for the 2026 Player of the Year, which will utilize a new, enhanced methodology designed to reward excellence across the brand's premier international stops. The eventual POTY winner will claim an enhanced $100K WSOP Paradise Package, with a variety of other WSOP packages and/or tickets awarded to the top 100 players on the leaderboard at the conclusion of the season.
“We are thrilled to kick off 2026 with a bold new vision for the World Series of Poker,” said Ty Stewart, Chief Executive Officer of WSOP. “By uniting our three flagship live series under a unified, $1M Player of the Year competition, we’re giving players a true global season to chase history. Starting with a monster guarantee in Prague, continuing through our summer homecoming in Las Vegas, and culminating in Paradise, we are dedicated to offering the best value and the biggest stages in the world.”
Check out the brand new 2026 WSOP Player of the Year Leaderboard page, as well as our recently released WSOP Payout Calculator.
WSOP Europe Moves to Prague: A Historic Guarantee
The 2026 POTY season will begin with a blockbuster debut in the heart of Europe. WSOP Europe will take place in Prague from March 31 to April 12, 2026, with 15 WSOP bracelets up for grabs.
Headlining the festival is a €5,300 Main Event with a staggering €10,000,000 guaranteed prize pool. This figure surpasses any guarantee for a poker tournament held in Europe in 2025, signaling the WSOP’s commitment to reestablishing the continent as a premier destination for high-stakes action.
A further highlight of WSOP Europe will be the newly introduced European Circuit Championship, a €1,500 buy-in No Limit Hold’em event boasting a €1,500,000 guaranteed prize pool.
The full event schedule for WSOP Europe 2026:
Event
Date
Buy-In
#1 The Opener - NLH Mystery Bounty
March 31
€1,000
#2 PLO Mixed (Big O, PLO 8, PLO)
March 31
€3,000
#3 COLOSSUS NLH
April 2
€500
#4 PLOSSUS Bounty PLO
April 3
€500
#5 Main Event NLH European Championship - €10M GTD
April 3
€5,300
#6 NLH Super Turbo Bounty
April 5
€2,000
#7 MONSTER STACK NLH
April 6
€1,500
#8 PLO European Championship
April 6
€5,300
#9 Rounder Cup NLH (EU vs Rest of World)
April 7
€2,500
#10 NLH Freezeout
April 8
€800
#11 High Roller 8-Max NLH
April 8
€10,400
#12 European Circuit Championship NLH - €1.5M GTD
April 9
€1,500
#13 GGMillion$ High Roller NLH
April 10
€25,000
#14 PLO Double Board Bomb Pot
April 11
€1,000
#15 The Closer - NLH Turbo Bounty
April 12
€2,000
Save the Dates: WSOP Las Vegas and WSOP Paradise
Following the European leg, the poker world will descend upon the Las Vegas Strip for the 57th annual World Series of Poker. The WSOP confirms the series will run from May 26 to July 15, 2026.
Players are encouraged to book early to secure the best rates at the two host venues, Horseshoe Las Vegas and Paris Las Vegas; please visit www.caesars.com and use code WSOP26.
The dates for WSOP Paradise 2026 have also been announced; the premier live tournament series of the winter will take place from December 1 through December 18, 2026.
Qualify Online
Players will be able to qualify online for all three ranking WSOP events, with GGPoker hosting satellite tournaments for international players and WSOP Online hosting those for domestic U.S. players.
Please follow @WSOP on X (formerly Twitter) and Instagram or check WSOP.com for more event news and updates.
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About World Series of PokerThe World Series of Poker® is the largest, richest and most prestigious gaming event and poker brand in the world, having awarded more than $4 billion in prize money over the past six decades. Featuring a comprehensive slate of tournaments in every major poker variation, the WSOP is poker’s longest-running tournament dating back to 1970. In 2025, the flagship event in Las Vegas attracted 246,960 entrants and awarded more than $481 million in prize money – both all-time records for the series. The WSOP portfolio of events includes approximately 50 WSOP Circuit Events annually across five continents, WSOP Europe (since 2007), WSOP Paradise (since 2023) and the record-breaking WSOP Online festival. International satellites to WSOP live events are hosted exclusively at GGPoker, the World’s Biggest Poker Room. For more information, please visit www.wsop.com.
Media Contacts:Paul Burke (press@wsop.com)Erik Eidissen (erik.eidissen@wsop.com)
