The World Series of Poker announced today its return to the tropical islands this December for the second iteration of its winter tournament series, WSOP Paradise. WSOP Paradise will run this year from December 6-19 at Atlantis Paradise Island in the Bahamas.
It follows the 55th World Series of Poker in Las Vegas, a series that once again broke the record for most Main Event entrants.
The second WSOP Paradise festival will feature a comprehensive slate of high roller and super high roller events. While full details are still to come, the event schedule will include buy-ins ranging from $2,500 to $1,000,000. The dates mean that it is set to clash with the WPT World Championship again.
This year, WSOP Paradise will take its own shot at making waves with the largest-ever guarantee in live poker history. The $25,000 No-Limit Hold'em Championship — dubbed this year as the 'Super Main Event' — boasts a historic $50,000,000 guarantee. Online qualifiers start straight away on GGPoker.
“The action we saw during the WSOP summer series is a testament to the health of poker, particularly for high-roller tournaments,” said Ty Stewart, SVP & Executive Director of the WSOP. “Last year was no one-time gimmick. We’re thrilled GGPoker has reaffirmed their commitment to building WSOP Paradise through the biggest guarantee in poker history.”
As the first iteration of WSOP Paradise ran, back in Las Vegas the World Poker Tour set a lofty goal with a $40,000,000 guarantee on its WPT World Championship – a then record. The $10,000 buy-in event fell just short of the mark, but the buzz surrounding the massive prize pool drew thousands of entrants and it was lauded as a hugely successful event.
The WPT has yet to announce a guarantee for the 2024 World Championship.
In 2023, Stanislav Zegal won the inaugural WSOP Paradise Main Event, pocketing a cool $2,000,000 for his efforts.
Following in the footsteps of Chris Moneymaker, Zegal qualified for the event by winning a $1,200 WSOP satellite package via a $125 satellite event on GGPoker. Then, he won the $1,200 satellite event to earn his $5,300 Main Event seat. From there, he turned his original $125 investment into a $2,000,000 top prize by outlasting the 3,010-entrant field.
WSOP legend and Poker Hall of Famer Daniel Negreanu will be one of several prominent professionals making the trip to Paradise. “This is one you can’t miss,” said Negreanu, GGPoker Global Ambassador. “There were a lot of learnings from year one and everything is going to be bigger and better. A 50 million guarantee in the Bahamas! Are these guys crazy?”
The complete schedule of WSOP Paradise events will be announced later this year.
