WPT World Championship Returns to Wynn Las Vegas With $20 Million Guaranteed

Poker chips and playing cards overlooking Wynn Las Vegas ahead of the 2026 WPT World Championship.

By Sandra Gaweda · Published September 18, 2026 · 4 min read

The World Poker Tour has released the full schedule for its 2026 WPT World Championship at Wynn Las Vegas, running November 27 through December 21 with more than $20 million in guarantees across 85-plus events.
The $10,400 WPT World Championship gets a new twist: $1 million in mystery bounty cash and prizes added on top of the prize pool, not taken out of it.
A brand-new $400 Super Gold Million carries a $3 million guarantee, giving smaller bankrolls a shot at a big score.
Buy-ins span $400 to $25,800, and the festival will be livestreamed from December 6 to 21.

Introduction

The World Poker Tour has revealed the full schedule for its 2026 WPT World Championship, and it is the biggest version yet. The festival takes over Wynn Las Vegas from November 27 through December 21, packing more than 85 events and over $20 million in guaranteed prize pools into 25 days. The centerpiece $10,400 buy-in World Championship now comes with $1 million in added mystery bounty cash and prizes, while a new $400 Super Gold Million guarantees at least $3 million. With buy-ins running from $400 up to $25,800, this closing stop of the WPT’s 24th season has something for nearly every bankroll.

What the WPT Announced

The World Poker Tour confirmed the complete lineup for its season-ending festival, its fifth straight year at Wynn Las Vegas. The schedule spans 25 days, from November 27 through December 21, and lists more than 85 tournaments with over $20 million in combined guarantees. Nine of those events guarantee $1 million or more on their own, so this is one of the busiest live stretches on the US calendar heading into the holidays.

The series opens gently with a $600 No-Limit Hold’em event carrying a $400,000 guarantee, and it closes more than three weeks later with a $600 No-Limit Hold’em Turbo. In between, players will find daily action across a wide mix of games, including No-Limit Hold’em, Pot-Limit Omaha, mixed games such as T.O.R.S.E., and Big O. That range is a big part of the appeal for anyone planning a trip to one of the top live poker rooms in Las Vegas.

A New-Look World Championship

The $10,400 buy-in WPT World Championship remains the headline act, and it runs December 13 to 20. The change for 2026 is a $1 million mystery bounty pool. In a mystery bounty format, players who reach a certain stage draw for cash prizes of unknown value, adding a jolt of luck and drama to the deep stages. Crucially, the WPT is adding this $1 million on top of the main prize pool rather than carving it out, so it does not shrink the payouts everyone is already chasing. Once the mystery bounty phase begins, players can earn bounties by eliminating opponents, with $1 million in added cash and prizes available through mystery bounty draws.

Action begins with three Day 1 flights starting December 13, followed by Day 2 on December 16 and a livestreamed final table on December 20. If you want to understand how these deep-field events play out over multiple days, our guide to multi-table tournaments breaks down the structure and strategy. Last year, Schuyler Thornton won the 2025 WPT World Championship for $2,258,856, topping a field of 1,865 entries, so the target this December is clear.

Big Guarantees and a New $3 Million Event

The single largest guarantee of the festival belongs to the $1,100 WPT Prime Championship, which runs December 5 to 12 with a $5 million guarantee. Aaron Johnson is the defending Prime champion after beating 9,876 entries last year to win $1,010,400, a reminder of how large these lower buy-in fields get.

The most interesting addition is the $400 Super Gold Million, a new mystery bounty event scheduled for December 10 to 14 with a $3 million guarantee. It is a live spinoff of the regular Gold Million that runs on the ClubWPT Gold site, but with triple the guarantee. Matt Savage, the WPT’s executive tour director, confirmed on X that the Super Gold Million is exclusively a live tournament. For recreational players, a $400 buy-in with a $3 million guarantee is a rare value proposition at an event of this size. The schedule also brings back the $1,100 Ladies No-Limit Hold’em Championship, which starts December 13 with a $250,000 guarantee.

How Players Can Get In

Beyond buying in directly, players can chase seats through a steady run of Milestone satellites into both the Prime and World Championship events, plus online qualifiers at ClubWPT and ClubWPT Gold. Satellites let you win a seat for a fraction of the buy-in, and they are a common route into the tour’s marquee events; you can read more about them and other formats in our overview of online poker tournaments. The full festival will be livestreamed from December 6 through 21 for anyone following from home.

WPT CEO Adam Pliska framed the festival around the player experience. “With our partnership with Wynn Las Vegas, the WPT World Championship has become the gold standard for player experience, venue, and fun,” Pliska said. “We look forward to continuing our celebration of players at all levels in our efforts to give them an unparalleled experience.”

A Bigger WPT Finale for 2026

For US players, this is a headline live-poker destination to circle for December, with a schedule built for every budget rather than just high rollers. The added mystery bounty gives World Championship players another $1 million in cash and prizes to chase without cutting into the main prize pool, while the $400 Super Gold Million opens a seven-figure guaranteed prize pool to lower-stakes players. If a trip to Las Vegas is not realistic, the satellite and online qualifier paths, plus a full livestream, keep the festival within reach. Either way, the 2026 WPT World Championship shapes up as one of the biggest live poker festivals on the US calendar to close the season.

Sandra is a content writer and digital creative with 10+ years of experience across Web3, crypto, NFTs, iGaming, wellness, and media. She creates blog content, email campaigns, and brand copy for companies ranging from early-stage ventures to established platforms. She currently writes for Legal US Poker Sites, continuing to grow her presence in the digital content space.