The 2026 World Series of Poker is just around the corner, with the first hands due to be dealt on May 26.
For seven weeks many of the world’s best players will be calling Las Vegas’ Horseshoe and Paris casinos home, not to mention thousands more looking to take them on.
There are 100 bracelet events on the schedule and many millions of dollars in prizes to be won. Click below for all the details.
In addition to fortunes, there's also fame up for grabs – the chance to etch your name forever into poker folklore. It's a history that stretches all the way back to 1970, and a story that involves the best players ever to take up the game.
New chapters will be written this summer, and while no one knows just what they’ll be, we can’t help but wonder…
Who will win the Main Event?
The $10K WSOP Main Event is the one everyone wants to win. Victory comes not only with the biggest prize in poker — last year’s winner collected an astonishing $10 million — but the certainty of joining a role call of legends.
From Stu Ungar to Doyle Brunson, Johnny Chan, Phil Hellmuth and Michael Mizrachi, to win the Main Event win is to see your name added to an elite list.
But, barring 2020’s COVID-era online series, every Main Event for the past 20 years has drawn a crowd of over 6,000. To be the last one standing from a field like that is one of the toughest tasks in poker.
That means there’s a strong possibility the eventual champion will be a new name for many of us; a capable yet largely unknown player who hits the right run of form, and cards, to survive 11 days of tough competition.
In the 21st century there have been only two winners for whom the epic first-place prize money did not immediately make up the majority of their lifetime tournament earnings.
Reigning champ Michael Mizrachi won $10M last year for his win, but had already amassed winnings of around $19M. Similarly, Koray Aldemir had already won around $10M before picking up his $8M prize in 2021.
Michael Mizrachi is the regining WSOP Main Event champion.Recent years have also seen final table runs from more established names, including Leo Margets, Adam Hendrix and Kenny Hallaert in 2025, Niklas Astedt in 2024 and Toby Lewis in 2023.
So while the odds may favor a dark horse, might we see a more familiar face emerge victorious?
And where will they come from? The past three winners — Michael Mizrachi, Jonathan Tamayo and Daniel Weinman — have all been from the US, but the four prior winners were not.
So, who's going to win in 2026? Our prediction is an American with experience playing for big money over long periods, with healthy but not outrageous lifetime earnings (for example, around the $1M mark). A player who some may have heard of, but not everyone. Basically, Jonathan Tamayo before he won in 2024.
You know who fits that bill? Maria Konnikova (total earnings $1.04M). You know who else? Nate Silver ($1.01M), who until earlier this year co-hosted the Risky Business podcast alongside Konnikova.
We're not saying one of them will definitely win (unless you're reading this after August 2026 and one of them did, then we're definitely saying it), but if the biggest bracelet did go someone with a wider platform, it could only be good for the game.
And this author, for one, would love to see a fellow writer take down the Big One.
A win for Konnikova or Silver would be great for the game.
Who will win the Poker Players Championship?
It may have a field size a mere fraction of the Main Event, but the $50K Poker Players Championship (PPC) is no walk in the park.
The average field over the last decade has been 90 players, but among them are traditionally many of the sharpest minds in poker. And let’s face it, they have to be, because not only does the PPC have one of the highest buy-ins of the series, it also tests your mettle across nine different poker variants.
With a higher buy-in, skill ceiling, and barrier to entry, it’s no surprise that we’re far more used to seeing repeat winners of this prestigious tournament.
Can Brian Rast equal Michael Mizrachi's record of four PPC wins?Of the past 15 annual PPCs, nine have been won by just three men:
- Michael Mizrachi (2010, 2012, 2018, 2025)
- Brian Rast (2011, 2016, 2023)
- Daniel Cates (2021, 2022)
Does that mean there’s a 60% chance one of these top pros will take it down again?
It’s hard to bet against any of these legends, but when the field is also sure to contain pretty much every highly skilled high roller in town, it’s a tough call for sure.
For our prediction, we're looking at the only player other than the three above to have won the PPC in the past five years: Daniel Negreanu.
He has the drive, the resources and has the ability. And he's done it once before (only once?).
Will we see a new attendance record?
If Chris Moneymaker’s 2003 WSOP victory kick-started the poker boom (Main Event entries went from 839 to 8,773 in three years), events at the lower buy-in level have seen a spike all their own in the past decade.
In 2015 the $565 Colossus saw 22,374 entries, and dropping the price of entry to $300 for the Gladiators of Poker event has seen enormous fields descend on the WSOP in the past few years.
The 2023 Gladiator got 23,088, the 2025 edition drew 24,629.
The all-time record for a WSOP tournament field — the 28,371 entries in 2019’s ‘Big 50’ event — is surely there for the taking.
Will the record fall this summer? We think it will come close, and the Gladiator may even outstrip the 2025 tournament with around 25,000 players, but that it won't quite top the all-time record.
If any event has the potential to set a new WSOP record, it's the 2026 Gladiators of Poker.But what about numbers for the Main Event?
After the all-time high of 2024, when 10,112 players entered the largest WSOP Main Event in history, 2025 saw a small drop to a few hundred below the 10,000 mark.
Will it rise again? We're not so sure. As the cost of living continues to rise, and with tourism to the USA also decreasing of late, we'll take the under when it comes to that figure of 10,000.
Are we in for another WSOP scandal?
While the WSOP runs a tight ship, the past few summer series have not been free from controversy.
In 2024 there was the famous ‘Laptopgate’, when Main Event winner Jonathan Tamayo regularly broke off from heads-up play to discuss strategy on the rail with friends Dominik Nitsche and Joe McKeehen — and take a peek at the laptop they had with them.
Tamayo was accused of everything from receiving coaching mid-play to benefitting from the use of solvers analyzing play in close-to-real time. The WSOP reacted by changing its rules on both coaching and technology at final table rails.
Then, last year, we had the infamous story of Britain’s Will Kassouf, who on his run to a 33rd place finish in the Main Event (worth $300K) managed to antagonize not only plenty of fellow players but also the WSOP staff.
Will we see Kassouf back at the WSOP this year?Accusations of bullying behavior and unnecessary stalling, coupled with his almost non-stop verbals at the table, piled up and resulted in Kassouf receiving multiple penalties. At times he was forced to sit out for an orbit, or given a strict 10-second shot-clock. Eventually, he was banned from the WSOP for the rest of the series and walked off the premises.
The issue of ‘player behavior’ was then discussed at length during the summer’s meeting of the Tournament Directors Association.
But of course the biggest thorn in the side of the WSOP in 2025 was the alleged chip-dumping that occurred during the $1,500 Millionaire Maker event. It was so impactful that the event did not name a winner or award a bracelet, and the two players accused — Jesse Yaginuma and James Carroll — have been banned from the WSOP for life.
The problem stemmed from a promotion organized by one of the WSOP’s rivals, ClubWPT Gold, which promised to award a $1M bonus to the winner of the event.
Yaginuma was eligible, Carrol was not, and Yaginuma started heads-up play at a 9-to-1 chip disadvantage. He overcame the deficit in a series of hands which some have flagged as collusion, suggesting the pair worked together to ensure the extra $1M was paid out.
The Milly Maker final table was the most controversial in years.This year the WSOP has already made an effort to get out in front of any potential similar issues with a specific rule change.
This includes a measure to prevent a player ‘accepting any payment or prize from a third-party person or entity (e.g, pursuant to a promotion, product or service) based on the outcome or results of any WSOP Event.’
Should this happen, that player would not receive any winnings from the WSOP event in question — and if the issue only comes to light after prize money has been paid, they will be required to return it, with interest.
Does this settle the matter, once and for all?
As with all the above, we'll find out soon enough.
What are your predictions for the 2026 WSOP? Let us know in the comments.
The 57th annual World Series of Poker runs from May 26 to July 15 at Paris and Horseshoe casinos in Las Vegas, followed by a three-day Main Event final table from August 3-5.
PokerOrg will be live on the tournament floor throughout the entire series to bring you the biggest stories, features, interviews and news every day.
Check the full schedule, plus answers to frequently asked questions, at our WSOP 2026 hub page.
