Deputy Editor
On Tuesday, the World Series of Poker unveiled a massive overhaul in its Player of the Year mechanics for 2026. An increase in prize money is bound to be universally popular with players, but a reversion to an older scoring model that rewards high-volume players may raise a few eyebrows. The new leaderboard runs year-long across three series and will award prizes to the top 100 finishers. (Editor’s note: the WSOP later clarified to PokerScout that there is still a cap on scoring, but it’s been raised from the 10 best scores to 15).
The prize pool for the race will be $1 million, including a $100,000 WSOP Paradise package, presumably for the following year. That marks a significant jump from prizes in prior years. This year’s winner, Shaun Deeb earned a $10,000 seat for the 2026 Main Event.
Players can accumulate points across the spring’s WSOP Europe and the winter WSOP Paradise in the Bahamas, as well as the main series over the summer in Las Vegas. The new scoring system means every cash counts, so players hoping to vie for the title may need to attend all three.
The Tuesday press release also included the schedule for spring’s WSOP Europe in Prague. It will feature 15 bracelet events spanning March 31-April 12.
“By uniting our three flagship live series under a unified, $1M Player of the Year competition, we’re giving players a true global season to chase history,” said WSOP CEO Ty Stewart. “Starting with a monster guarantee in Prague, continuing through our summer homecoming in Las Vegas, and culminating in Paradise, we are dedicated to offering the best value and the biggest stages in the world.”
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New WSOP POY Expands Prizes Significantly
For players, the best part of the new WSOP Player of the Year system is the significant expansion of prizes available. While chasing points will now require much greater investment — the most recent POY chase encompassed only summer WSOP events — the WSOP will provide a correspondingly much more robust prize system. The rewards have significantly increased in both top-end value and depth.
Here’s a look at the new prize distribution:
| Place(s) | Prize | Random Draw? |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | $100K WSOP Paradise Package + POY Title | None |
| 2-3 | $100K WSOP Paradise Package | None |
| 4-15 | $30K Super Main Event Package | None |
| 16-50 | $5K Circuit Championship Package | 1x upgrade to $30K package |
| 51-100 | $2.5K Circuit Championship Ticket | 6x upgrade to $5K package |
All of the prizes look like they’ll award packages and/or seats to the following year’s WSOP Paradise. After an initial hiccup with a missed guarantee, attendance surged this year, and the WSOP looks to be aiming to keep that success rolling.
It’s not clear what the $100,000 package encompasses. WSOP told PokerScout more details will be released in 2026. The $30,000 Super Main Event package will likely include a hotel package plus a seat in the $26,000 tournament.
The Circuit Championship was a $2,500 mystery bounty this year. It awarded $350,000 plus bounties for first place. All WSOP Circuit ring winners will earn a seat to it next year as part of the new calendar-year scheduling and reorganization.
Initial WSOP POY winner Daniel Negreanu received a promotional Toyota Tundra truck as a reward in 2004. The most recent winners received a $10,000 WSOP main event seat, as well as a special trophy and the traditional banner, hung at the WSOP venue.
The 2026 prizes, which total $1 million, far outstrip anything the WSOP has ever given for its points leaders. And since nobody besides the winner has traditionally received a prize, the new system will make many more players happy. It’s more akin to the old WSOP Circuit leaderboard, which was discontinued when the WSOP began awarding championship seats to all ring winners starting in 2021-22.
Points Chase Now Encompasses All Open, Live Bracelet Events
The new points system features major changes to the way players accumulate scores:
- Scoring is no longer limited to summer live events
- Players continue to accumulate points all year instead of only counting their 10 best scores
That second point isn’t 100% spelled out by the WSOP in the press release. But it looks like the WSOP is returning to the old system of rewarding volume, as there’s nothing in the release about a cap on the number of point-scoring events. PokerScout requested confirmation on the possible removal of the 10-score cap, but the WSOP did not respond immediately. A tweet from Kevin Mathers, sometime WSOP media czar, appears to confirm the rollback to volume scoring. (Editor’s note: We want to reiterate that after publication, the WSOP clarified that only the top 15 scores will count.)
WSOP POY scoring has been the subject of much debate in recent years. The WSOP has enacted a number of changes, and response has been mixed at times.
Non-Vegas WSOP events have variously counted or not counted. Most recently, WSOP stopped counting them in 2021.
The WSOP instituted the 10-event scoring cap starting in 2024. It also allowed a maximum of one online score to count. Ian Matakis won in 2023, with a large chunk of his points coming via online events.
For 2026 (and presumably beyond), no online events will count. Non-open events, such as seniors and ladies tournaments, remain excluded as well.
WSOP Europe Drops Price on Main Event
WSOP Europe will give players their first chance to start racking up points for the new leaderboard. Players can begin planning in earnest, as the WSOP has released the official schedule for the series.
| Date | Event | Guarantee |
|---|---|---|
| March 31 | €1,000 The Opener NLHE Mystery Bounty | |
| March 31 | €3,000 Mixed PLO (Big O, PLO, PLO8) | |
| April 2 | €500 Colossus NLHE | |
| April 3 | €500 PLOssus Bounty | |
| April 3 | €5,300 Main Event NLHE European Championship | €10 million |
| April 5 | €2,000 NLHE Super Turbo Bounty | |
| April 6 | €1,500 Monster Stack NLHE | |
| April 6 | €5,300 PLO European Championship | |
| April 7 | €2,500 Rounder Cup (EU vs Rest of World) | |
| April 8 | €800 NLHE Freezeout | |
| April 8 | €10,400 High Roller 8-Max NLHE | |
| April 9 | €1,500 European Circuit Championship NLHE | €1.5 million |
| April 10 | €25,000 GGMillion$ High Roller NLHE | |
| April 11 | €1,000 PLO Double Board Bomb Pot | |
| April 12 | €2,000 The Closer NLHE Turbo Bounty |
Fifteen events match the bracelet volume from the 2025 series, the last one in Rozvadov. For the second straight year, all events are either no-limit hold’em or some form of PLO. However, there are still some notable changes to the schedule.
The most noticeable is that the main event buy-in has been lopped in half to €5,300. Throughout the WSOPE’s history, which dates to 2007, every single main event has been at the €10,00 level, matching the Las Vegas main event, give or take exchange rates.
WSOP has also attached a lofty guarantee of €10 million to the event. That’s piddling by Las Vegas standards, but it’s quite a large number for Europe. No WSOPE main event has even hit 1,000 entries, much less the 2,000 needed here.
WSOP has shown it can meet some ambitious guarantees, albeit with some structural shifts to encourage maximum reentries.
A European Circuit Championship will also debut with a €1,500 price tag and a €1.5 million guarantee. It’s the only other event with a guarantee on the schedule.
Other new events include a double-board bomb pot and the €2,500 Rounder Cup. The former made its Las Vegas bracelet debut in 2024 before moving to an event entirely devoted to bomb pots in 2025. No details were given about the Rounder Cup, though it’s billed as an event that somehow pits Europe against players from the rest of the world.
