Main Event Without Guarantee, But With Huge Winnings
Just like in 2024, this year's WPT World Championship Main Event will not have a guarantee. As a reminder, in 2023, the WPT set a record by offering a $40 million guarantee (the largest in poker history at that time), but ultimately it wasn’t met, and organizers had to cover the overlay. In response, in 2024, they took a different approach: dropping the guaranteed amount and instead enticing players with a special $5,000,000 freeroll for qualifiers.
Despite the absence of a guarantee, last year saw a colossal prize pool exceeding $23 million, placing the WPT World Championship among the biggest live tournaments (right after the World Series of Poker events). It's expected that the 2025 Main Event will also attract thousands of players from around the world. WPT CEO Adam Pliska calls it a "true celebration of poker," emphasizing that Wynn Las Vegas is the perfect venue for the event. Last year, the tournament champion Scott Stewart walked away with $2.5 million!
Key Events of WPT World Championship 2025:
- $10,400 WPT World Championship Main Event: Three starting flights on December 13, 14, and 15; final table on December 21
- $1,100 WPT Prime Championship: Four starting flights from December 7 - 10; final six will be known on 12/12 and will play for the title in front of TV cameras
- Other Tournaments: According to WPT, special surprises for players will be announced in the coming weeks
Brief History of the Event
The WPT World Championship boasts a rich history. Initially, it was the traditional season-ending event of the World Poker Tour with a $25,000 buy-in, held annually from 2003 to 2015 in the Bellagio Casino in Las Vegas. During that time, legends like Alan Goehring (the first winner in 2003), Carlos Mortensen, and Asher Conniff, who became the last champion before a long hiatus in 2015, etched their names into history. Subsequently, the WPT removed the event from their tour for a few years (seasons 2016–2021 concluded with the elite Tournament of Champions), and the WPT World Championship returned only in 2022 in an entirely new format.
The revived WPT World Championship at Wynn Las Vegas immediately exceeded expectations: in December 2022, it attracted 2,960 entries with a $10,400 buy-in, creating a record prize pool of $29 million, with each finalist taking home at least $1 million. Canadian Eliot Hudon claimed the title and won $4,136,000. A year later, the tournament had an astronomical $40 million guarantee and recorded 3,835 entries, with the winner Dan Sepiol taking home $5,300,000. In 2024, the strategy shifted again, and instead of pursuing a record guarantee, the WPT hosted a massive $5M freeroll for players, drawing in the crowds once more.
The Next Showdown: WPT, WSOP, and EPT
The timing of the WPT World Championship in early December means we’ll witness another grand December showdown among the three poker giants. Around the same period, three colossal festivals will vie for the attention of players worldwide:
- WPT World Championship (Las Vegas): December 2 - 22
- WSOP Paradise (Bahamas): December 4 - 18. WSOP Paradise primarily targets the high-roller community in collaboration with Triton Poker, with its main lure being the $25,000 Super Main Event, boasting a record $60 million guarantee – the largest guaranteed prize pool in poker history
- EPT Prague (Czech Republic): December 3 - 14. EPT Prague is one of the most popular events among players, regularly breaking attendance records. In December 2024, the EPT Prague Main Event recorded 1,458 entries and a prize pool of €7.07 million.
December 2025 will be incredibly packed for poker fans. Three major festivals will run concurrently on different continents – in Las Vegas, the Bahamas, and Europe – each offering a unique chance to be part of poker history. It will be fascinating to see which series attracts the largest attendance and prize pool and if any records will be broken. One thing is certain: the year will end with top-tier poker, and we'll once again witness the December showdown of WPT vs. WSOP vs. EPT in all its glory.
Sources - PokerNews, WorldPokerTour, Poker.org, flickr
