2026 WSOP schedule, what we know so far

The 2026 World Series of Poker runs at Horseshoe and Paris in Las Vegas from late May through mid-July. The official festival opens on May 27 with the Casino Employees Event, builds through the Colossus and the Millionaire Maker in early June, and finishes with the Main Event final table on July 16. The structure is the now-standard Horseshoe-and-Paris two-venue split, with the high-roller events at Paris and the mass-market fields at Horseshoe.

Headline events

The events that matter for most players, the ones that move the needle on schedule planning and bankroll allocation:

• WSOP Main Event ($10,000 buy-in): July 3 through July 16, 2026. Four starting flights, two-day registration, freeze-out from Day 2. The headline event of the year and the only $10K most recreational players will ever play.
• $50,000 Poker Players Championship: July 7 through July 11. Eight-game mix, traditionally the strongest non-Hold'em field of the year.
• $25,000 High Roller No-Limit Hold'em: July 12 through July 14. Tight three-day structure, the cleanest pure-NLH high-roller of the series.
• The Goliath ($400 buy-in, 50,000-plus runners): June 14 through June 18. The biggest live tournament in the world by entries every year. Plays soft early, gets serious by Day 3.
• Colossus ($400): Early-June launch, multi-flight, traditionally pays four-figure scores deep into the field.
• Millionaire Maker ($1,500): Mid-June, single $1M guarantee for first, structurally a value spot for recreational players willing to play the variance.

Online qualifiers and satellite paths

Four operators run meaningful qualifier paths to the 2026 WSOP. WSOP.com runs the official path in regulated US states with seats starting at $50 and a Step satellite ladder. GGPoker runs the international qualifier path with weekly Main Event seats and dedicated Mystery Bounty satellites. PokerStars runs Step satellites starting at $7, which is the cheapest entry point on the market if a player has time to ladder up. Americas Cardroom runs a parallel package programme aimed at US-facing players who cannot use WSOP.com because they are not in a regulated state.

The value question on satellites is mostly about expected ROI versus the straight-buy alternative. A player satelliting in for $200 effective is buying a $10,000 entry for 2% of its face value, but is also paying a structural EV cost in the satellite itself. The tournament variance calculator handles the back-of-envelope on this; for a 1,000-runner satellite paying ten seats, a player needs roughly 8% ROI on the satellite itself before it beats a direct buy-in on dollars per hour.

What looks like value, and what does not

The Goliath at $400 with 50,000 runners is structurally the best value buy on the schedule, full stop. The field is the softest of any field over $100, the structure has been gradually upgraded each year, and the prize pool top-heaviness has been moderated to pay more spots above $5,000. The Millionaire Maker at $1,500 is the second-best pure value spot. The $25K High Roller and the $50K PPC are not value, they are products, and the players in them know exactly what they are buying.

The Main Event is its own category. It is not a value spot. It is a once-a-year experience that no other tournament in the world replicates, and for most players the EV calculation is irrelevant to the decision to play. For a worked example of the ICM dynamics that show up at the WSOP final tables, see our Sunday Million ICM walkthrough; the math is identical, the numbers are just bigger.