The World Poker Tour (WPT) is a series of live poker tournaments and a long-running TV show, founded in 2002 by Steve Lipscomb and owned since July 2021 by the investment firm Element Partners. Its season ends with the $10,400 WPT World Championship at Wynn Las Vegas, which Schuyler Thornton won in December 2025 for $2,258,856. The 2026 championship festival runs from 27 November to 21 December 2026.
The WPT helped spark the poker boom of the early 2000s by putting hole-card cameras on television. This guide covers its history and ownership as of October 2026, how a WPT Main Tour event works, recent World Championship and Main Tour winners, how to watch, and what US players can and cannot do with the brand online.
World Poker Tour at a glance
| Item | Detail (October 2026) |
|---|---|
| Founded | 2002 by attorney and TV producer Steve Lipscomb |
| First TV season | Spring 2003, Travel Channel |
| Owner | Element Partners (since July 2021, $105 million) |
| CEO | Adam Pliska |
| Season finale | WPT World Championship, Wynn Las Vegas, $10,400 buy-in |
| TV in the US | FanDuel Sports Network (season 24, 2026) |
| Broadcast team | Vince Van Patten and Tony Dunst, with host Lynn Gilmartin |
| Online poker brand | WPT Global (not available in the US) |
History of the World Poker Tour
Steve Lipscomb, an attorney turned television producer, started the World Poker Tour in 2002 and ran it as CEO of WPT Enterprises. The first season aired on the Travel Channel in the spring of 2003. Its key innovation was the table camera that shows each player’s face-down cards, so viewers could follow every bluff. A few months after the show debuted, an amateur named Chris Moneymaker won the World Series of Poker Main Event, and the two events together set off the televised poker boom.
Mike Sexton and Vince Van Patten called the show for its first 15 years. Sexton retired from the commentary role after that run, and Tony Dunst joined Van Patten in the booth, with Lynn Gilmartin as anchor. Over the years the show moved from the Travel Channel to networks including GSN, NBC and the Fox Sports regional networks. In 2026 its 24th season airs on FanDuel Sports Network in the US, and the WPT says the show has been broadcast in more than 150 countries and territories.
Why the hole-card camera mattered
Before the WPT, televised poker mostly showed players’ faces and the final cards, so viewers rarely knew who was bluffing. Cameras built into the table changed that: the audience saw both players’ cards before the action, which turned every big call or fold into a story. Gaming rules mean the commentators cannot watch a live feed of hidden cards while the hand is played, so their remarks about hole cards are recorded after the tournament. Most poker broadcasts since have copied the format, including the WSOP, the EPT and PokerGO’s studio events.
Who owns the World Poker Tour in 2026?
Ownership has changed three times since the founding company. The timeline below uses the reported deal values.
| Year | Owner | Deal |
|---|---|---|
| 2002 to 2009 | WPT Enterprises (founded by Steve Lipscomb) | Original company |
| 2009 | PartyGaming (bwin.party from 2011) | Bought the WPT for $12.3 million |
| 2015 | Ourgame International Holdings | Bought from bwin.party for $35 million; later held through Allied Esports Entertainment |
| July 2021 to date | Element Partners | Bought from Allied Esports Entertainment for $105 million |
The 2021 sale followed a bidding contest. Element Partners first agreed a deal worth about $78 million in January 2021, then Bally’s Corporation offered $100 million in March. Allied Esports ultimately stayed with Element Partners at $105 million, and the sale closed in July 2021. Adam Pliska, the WPT’s long-time CEO, remained in charge, and no change of ownership had been announced as of October 2026.
How a WPT Main Tour event works
WPT Main Tour events are multi-day no-limit hold’em tournaments held inside partner casinos, usually as the centrepiece of a festival with many side events. The basic flow:
- Buy-in. Most 2025 and 2026 Main Tour stops cost $3,500 to $5,500, while the season-ending World Championship costs $10,400.
- Starting flights. Players start on one of several Day 1 flights, and most events allow re-entry during registration.
- Combined days. Survivors from each flight merge, the field plays through the money bubble and down to a final table.
- Final table. Finalists play under the TV lights, and the winner receives the title, the prize and a seat in WPT history. Some regional stops play the final table weeks later at a dedicated filming date.
Ways into a WPT event
- Direct buy-in at the host casino during registration, usually with re-entry allowed.
- Live satellites run by the host casino in the days before the Main Event, often for a fraction of the buy-in.
- Online satellites on WPT Global, which award seats and travel packages to players in the countries it serves; this route is closed to US residents.
- Side events at the same festival, which give lower-stakes players a WPT experience for a few hundred dollars.
Satellite winners often reach the late stages: the format rewards patience and survival as much as a big bankroll. For practical advice on reaching events like these, read our guides to getting into poker tournaments and live poker tournament strategy.
WPT World Championship winners
The WPT season finale has been held in Las Vegas for most of its history, first at Bellagio. Since December 2022 it has been played at Wynn Las Vegas as a $10,400 event with a large guarantee, which turned it into one of the biggest tournaments in the world.
| Year | Winner | Entries | First prize |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | Eliot Hudon | 2,960 | About $4.1 million |
| 2023 | Dan Sepiol | 3,835 | $5,282,954 |
| 2024 | Scott Stewart | 2,392 | $2,563,900 |
| 2025 | Schuyler Thornton | 1,865 | $2,258,856 |
In December 2024, Scott Stewart beat Rob Sherwood heads-up in a battle that lasted more than five hours, finishing with pocket kings against pocket sixes, and took $2,563,900 from a $23,441,600 prize pool. Chris Moorman finished fourth that year for the second December in a row. The 2025 field of 1,865 entries built an $18,277,000 prize pool, of which Thornton took $2,258,856.
What a $10,400 buy-in buys
The World Championship figures show how the money flows. In both 2024 and 2025 the prize pool worked out to exactly $9,800 per entry ($23,441,600 from 2,392 entries; $18,277,000 from 1,865 entries), so about $600 of each $10,400 buy-in went to fees rather than prizes. First place took 10.9% of the pool in 2024 and 12.4% in 2025. That is typical for big-field events: the title is life-changing, but most of the field leaves with nothing, and a minimum cash returns little more than the buy-in.
2026 WPT World Championship
The 2026 festival at Wynn Las Vegas is scheduled from 27 November to 21 December 2026, with $20 million in guarantees across more than 85 events. The $10,400 championship runs from 13 to 20 December and adds $1 million in mystery bounty cash and prizes on top of the main prize pool, according to the schedule published in 2026.
Recent WPT Main Tour winners
Season 23 (2025) had 11 Main Tour events on three continents. A selection, with results as listed in the season’s records:
| Event (2025) | Venue | Buy-in | Winner | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| WPT Cambodia Championship | NagaWorld, Phnom Penh | $3,500 | Artem Vezhenkov | $390,650 |
| Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown | Hollywood, Florida | $3,500 | Arthur Peacock | $776,000 |
| WPT Choctaw Championship | Durant, Oklahoma | $3,800 | Mike Vanier | $338,000 |
| WPT Venetian Las Vegas Championship | The Venetian, Las Vegas | $5,000 | Nicolás Betbesé | $706,960 |
| Bay 101 Shooting Star | San Jose, California | $5,300 | Kharlin Sued | $480,700 |
| Seminole Rock ‘N’ Roll Poker Open | Hollywood, Florida | $3,500 | Kevin Nee | $605,100 |
| WPT World Championship | Wynn Las Vegas | $10,400 | Schuyler Thornton | $2,258,856 |
Season 24 (2026) has followed a similar pattern. The completed spring events, as listed in the season’s records:
| Event (2026) | Dates | Entries | Winner | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| WPT Lucky Hearts Poker Open, Seminole Hard Rock | 16 to 20 Jan | 1,229 | Giuseppe Iadisernia | $611,700 |
| WPT Cambodia Championship, NagaWorld | 3 to 8 Feb | 425 | Xiaosheng Zheng | $244,500 |
| WPT Rolling Thunder, Thunder Valley | 29 Mar to 1 Apr | 310 | Alexander Farahi | $193,725 |
| Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown | 8 to 28 Apr | 1,417 | Ian Cohen | $656,200 |
The Venetian in Las Vegas and the Gold Coast in Australia also host 2026 stops, and the season builds to the World Championship at Wynn in December. Field sizes swing widely by venue: the Florida stops at the Seminole Hard Rock regularly draw more than 1,000 entries, while smaller regional events can finish with a few hundred.
Among players, Darren Elias is listed as the record holder for the most WPT Main Tour titles. The WPT also names a Player of the Year each season based on points from Main Tour results.
Tournament terms you will see in WPT coverage
| Term | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Flight | One of several starting days; players who survive any flight advance to the combined Day 2. |
| Re-entry | Buying in again after busting, allowed only during the registration window. |
| Guarantee | A minimum prize pool the organiser promises to pay. If entries fall short, the organiser covers the gap, known as an overlay. |
| Mystery bounty | A cash prize for eliminating a player, drawn at random from a pool of envelopes once the late stages begin. The 2026 World Championship adds $1 million of these on top of the prize pool. |
| ICM deal | A payout agreement at the final table based on the Independent Chip Model, which converts chip stacks into a fair share of the remaining prize money. |
| Final table | The last table of the event, filmed for TV; some stops play it weeks later at a separate filming date. |
How to watch the World Poker Tour
- Television: season 24 airs on FanDuel Sports Network in the US; the show is also sold to broadcasters abroad.
- Streaming: the WPT posts final tables, episodes and highlights on its YouTube channel, and runs live streams from major events.
- In person: most final tables are open to spectators at the host casino, subject to the venue’s age rules.
WPT for US players: live yes, WPT Global no
Most WPT Main Tour stops are in the United States, so US players can enter them in person at the host casino. Age limits follow the venue: 21 in Nevada casinos such as Wynn and the Venetian, while some tribal casinos in other states set different minimums. Check the stop’s own page before travelling.
Online is different. WPT Global, the brand’s real-money online poker site, is operated by Everstronglink Limited of Costa Rica under a licence from the Tobique Gaming Commission, and its FAQ says plainly that it is not available in the United States due to regulatory restrictions. US players who want real-money online poker are limited to state-licensed sites in the states that allow it; our guide to real-money poker apps explains what is available.
Tournament winnings from US casinos are taxable income, and large cashes are normally reported to the IRS by the casino, so keep a record of every buy-in and cash across the year. Whatever the format, play within a budget you set in advance. The National Problem Gambling Helpline is 1-800-MY-RESET (1-800-697-3738), and our responsible gambling page covers limits and self-exclusion.
WPT compared with other major tours
| Tour | Owner / organiser | Typical flagship buy-in | Our guide |
|---|---|---|---|
| World Poker Tour | Element Partners | $10,400 (World Championship) | This page |
| European Poker Tour | PokerStars | €5,300 Main Events | EPT guide |
| US Poker Open | PokerGO | $5,000 to $25,000 events | US Poker Open guide |
For the hands that made televised poker famous, see our pick of the most exciting poker tournament moments, and for live dealer poker variants you can play at a casino table, our live poker guide.
Frequently asked questions
Who owns the World Poker Tour?
Element Partners, a US investment firm, has owned the World Poker Tour since July 2021, when it bought the tour from Allied Esports Entertainment for $105 million. Adam Pliska is the WPT’s CEO.
Who won the 2025 WPT World Championship?
Schuyler Thornton won the $10,400 WPT World Championship at Wynn Las Vegas in December 2025, beating 1,865 entries for $2,258,856.
When is the 2026 WPT World Championship?
The 2026 WPT World Championship festival at Wynn Las Vegas is scheduled for 27 November to 21 December 2026, with the $10,400 championship event running 13 to 20 December.
Where can I watch the World Poker Tour?
Season 24 (2026) of the WPT television show airs on FanDuel Sports Network in the US, and the WPT also streams final tables and highlights on its YouTube channel.
Is WPT Global available in the United States?
No. WPT Global, the brand’s real-money online poker site, states that it is not available in the USA due to regulatory restrictions. It is operated by a Costa Rican company under a Tobique Gaming Commission licence.
How much does it cost to play a WPT event?
WPT Main Tour events in 2025 and 2026 cost from $3,500 at many regional stops to $10,400 for the WPT World Championship. Satellites and smaller festival events offer cheaper ways in.
When did the World Poker Tour start?
Steve Lipscomb founded the WPT in 2002, and the first season aired on the Travel Channel in the spring of 2003.
Is WPT still active?
Yes. The World Poker Tour, founded in 2002 and owned by Element Partners since 2021, still runs a live main tour and a televised season, with season 24 on FanDuel Sports Network in 2026. Its 2026 WPT World Championship festival at Wynn Las Vegas is scheduled from 27 November to 21 December, with the $10,400 championship from 13 to 20 December. WPT Global, its online poker brand, is not available in the US.
Sources
- Wikipedia: World Poker Tour (founding, broadcast history, ownership, CEO)
- Business Wire (12 Jul 2021): Allied Esports Entertainment completes sale of World Poker Tour to Element Partners
- PokerNews (Jan 2021): World Poker Tour sold for potentially $78 million
- PokerNews (Dec 2024): Scott Stewart wins WPT World Championship for $2.5M
- Wikipedia: World Poker Tour season 23 results (2025)
- Wikipedia: World Poker Tour season 24 results (2026)
- CardPlayer: 2026 WPT World Championship at Wynn schedule
- WPT Global: operator, licence and US availability FAQ
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