The WSOP Paradise 2026 schedule is official: December 2-17, 20 bracelets on the line and $120 million in total guarantees. The World Series of Poker's winter series also moves into a new home — the Baha Mar resort in the Bahamas — and arrives with changes that speak directly to regular players, not just the high-roller elite.
The facts
The headliner is still the $25,000 Super Main Event, guaranteeing $50 million. That's a step down from the $60 million of 2025 — an edition that ended up building a prize pool of over $72 million and crowned Austria's Bernhard Binder for $10 million — but it remains one of the largest guaranteed prize pools in poker.
The most interesting move belongs to the GGMillion$ Championship: its buy-in drops from $25,000 to $10,000, its guarantee doubles from $10 to $20 million, and it switches from a one-day turbo to a multi-day format. There's a broader signal too: 9 of the 20 events cost $10,000 or less (2025 offered just 4 of 15), the $100,000 events shrink from six to three, and the Triton branding is gone from the schedule. Poker's most exclusive series just opened the door a crack. Mixed games grow as well — five PLO events, dealer's choice, 8-Game and 9-Game — and the WSOP Player of the Year race will be settled there, with Shaun Deeb, Naoya Kihara and Alex Foxen separated by fewer than 30 points.
Why it matters: guarantees, overlay and the online route
First, learn to read a guarantee. When a tournament promises more than it collects, you get an overlay: the organizers cover the gap and every player's share of the prize pool grows. The Super Main trimming its number after a comfortable 2025 shows how organizers price that risk — and it teaches you to weigh the guarantee against the expected field before committing a buy-in.
Second, the route exists even if the buy-ins look out of reach. Every champion of the ongoing WSOP Online series earns a $30,000 Super Pass with a direct seat in the Super Main Event, and satellites will do the rest. Nobody needs $25,000 in their pocket — they need method, discipline and a properly managed bankroll.
December feels far away, but prepared players start now. In the community we'll track every step of the road to the Bahamas — with analysis, not hype.