WSOP slashes Paradise rake across 12 events following criticism

Posted on: October 22, 2026 05:44 PDT

The World Series of Poker (WSOP) has reduced the rake across a range of tournaments at its upcoming WSOP Paradise festival in The Bahamas.

The series runs from December 2-17 at a new location in the Baha Mar Resort in Nassau, with 20 different bracelet events on the schedule ranging in buy-ins from $2,750 to $250K. Since its inception in 2023 the series had previously been held at the Atlantis Resort & Casino on Paradise Island, which gave the series its name.

Prior to the adjustment, the level of rake applied to many of the buy-ins had come in for some criticism, including from current WSOP Player of the Year (PoY) frontrunner Shaun Deeb.

Crucial PoY points will be up for grabs in The Bahamas, meaning players in the prestigious annual contest who opt out of attending would likely be removing themselves from contention.

That led Deeb to post recently that WSOP Paradise was “a true rake trap which I’m sadly stuck in from the summer.”

The WSOP appears to have been listening and has taken the criticism on board, with rake adjustments being applied across many of its upcoming events in The Bahamas.

Discounts of up to 50% have been applied in some cases – see below for details.

Less rake in 60% of bracelet events

Rake is the portion of a tournament buy-in that doesn't go into the prizepool. At WSOP events, this can include an upfront admin fee and a separate staffing fee, sometimes deducted as a percentage of the prize pool.

Here's how the rake reductions break down across 12 WSOP Paradise bracelet events:

⁠In the $100K buy-in events (Event #8: PLO Super High Roller and Event #11: NLH Super High Roller) the admin fee has been reduced from $3K to $2K (-33%).
⁠⁠Both the $50K Single Day High Rollers (Event #3: NLH and Event #7: PLO) have had admin fees reduced from $2K to $1K (-50%).
The $26K buy-in tournaments (Event #2: NLH/PLO High Roller, Event #13: 9-Game Mixed Championship, Event #16: NLH Turbo High Roller and Event #18: PLO Turbo High Roller), with the exception of the Super Main Event, have reduced staff fees from 4% to 3%. Both turbos have also had admin fees dropped from $1K to $750 (-25%).
$10K buy-in events (Event #10: 8-Game Mix, Event #15: Caribbean Colossus and Event #17: Caribbean PLOssus) have reduced admin fees from $500 to $400 (-20%). Note this does not apply to the $10K GGMillion$.
The $15K Last Chance (Event #20) has a reduced admin fee of $300.

Altogether that’s 12 of the 20 bracelet events that will be charging a little less for the pleasure of playing them. Side events and satellites remain unaffected, as far as we’re aware.

Will that make a difference to participation numbers? Possibly, and it’s always good to see operators making allowances to leave extra cash in players’ pockets.

After all, those Bahama Mama cocktails ain’t cheap.

The move appears to have the seal of approval from the PoY favorite, too.

WSOP Paradise takes place at the Baha Mar Resort in Nassau, The Bahamas, from December 2-17.

Stick with PokerOrg for all the news from the WSOP’s end-of-year shindig in the sun.