The World Poker Tour debuted a chaotic livestream — the White Elephant game — as part of its ongoing Wildcard series during the WPT Championship at Wynn Las Vegas in December.
The game was a $5/$10 cash event featuring a cast of familiar faces, including Liv Boeree, Hayley Hanna, Alexandra Botez, Nikki Limo, Tim Pool, Hanna Guiterrez, and King Cap.
The ‘White Elephant’ twist was a competitive gift exchange between players, in which, at the end of the game, players could win or steal prizes ranging from an espresso machine to a $2,000 poker table.
Why create Wildcard?
PokerOrg reached out to Sam Simmons, the WPT’s VP Tour Entertainment, to get the lowdown on the new ‘Wildcard’ format.
“Part of the mission was to utilize the WPT’s incredible legacy, the footprint of the tour, and the strength of the brand to reinvent poker storytelling,” says Simmons.
Simmons expects the WPT Wildcard events to pop up throughout the coming year, whether it's a WPT open event, a livestream, or a cash game."
Sam Simmons wants to bring a wider range of poker personalities to the WPT Wildcard events. “We want to bring various content creators and interesting people to the table, including celebrities and popular players. We will be showcasing many of the WPT personalities fans know and love, as well as people from outside the poker world.
“I think that's what's been most striking to me in the past year with WPT, how many influential people have dabbled in poker but have never considered the prospect of playing it on a stage.
“Wildcard is about the poker, but it's also not about the poker at the same time. It's about bringing interesting people to the table and giving them an environment where they can have fun and create good content, not only for the WPT brand purposes, but for their own channels as well.”
Previous ‘Wildcard’ events
Last year, the WPT hosted two Wildcard events in October during the WPT Prime Lodge festival in Austin, Texas.
The first event debuted on October 8 and was aptly named – Heart Attack Poker. A few WPT ambassadors and other popular content creators allowed themselves to be wrapped in heart rate monitors, which added to the drama and intensity of a livestreamed cash game.
A few days later, the WPT announced a $300 Mystery Bounty Wildcard Chaos event where players could make use of power-ups during play, such as a stack boost, table swap, a ticket to the final table, and more. Penalties were also in play, such as a nit tax, button ban, and halve your stack.
December’s White Elephant event closed out ‘Wildcard’ for the 2025 season with a chaotic and competitive gift exchange battle.
Liv Boeree continued her return to the poker streets with an appearance in the WPT Wildcard White Elephant game. “Whoever lost the most opened their gift first from under the Christmas tree,” shares Simmons. “Then the next person who lost the second-most got to steal that gift or open a new one. It went on until only Liv Boeree remained, the winningest player of the day. Liv stole the $2,000 custom poker table from another player.
“We received overwhelmingly great feedback after all of the events from the participants, who are all hoping to come back and join in the chaos again in the near future.”
And next? ‘Shot clocks on steroids’
The WPT has announced plans for an upcoming event at Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino Hollywood during the WPT Lucky Hearts Poker Open Championship.
“During the Seminole series, we will host a ‘lightning stack’ event, which is basically shot clocks on steroids,” says Simmons.
“There will be 10-second timers for preflop action. Excessive tanking tends to be an issue on the tour, and this is an extreme version of a shot clock. We will test it and, if needed, integrate some changes to the tour going forward, using this as a case study for us.
“In March, we’ll be going back to Thunder Valley; we're planning some fun stuff there, particularly a livestream event of some sort. The announcement will be forthcoming soon.
“But first, I want to share with PokerOrg that we will also be going back to the Venetian Las Vegas in February. We'll have a footprint there as well and will be sharing more about that ‘Wildcard’ event soon. Stay tuned.”
Visit WPT for more info.
Images courtesy of Luther Redd/World Poker Tour
