December’s Live Poker Series Wars: WPT vs WSOP vs EPT
Live poker has its prime seasons. The summer months in Las Vegas is the most notable, dominated by the 100-plus
December’s Live Poker Series Wars: WPT vs WSOP vs EPT
Live poker has its prime seasons. The summer months in Las Vegas is the most notable, dominated by the 100-plus event series that is the World Series of Poker. And most other casinos in Las Vegas have built around that by offering alternatives from the end of May through the middle of July. Summer poker in Las Vegas is unmatched.
December poker, however, has become the second most popular season. The World Poker Tour hosted a massive December series for many years, though Black Friday did its damage to its growth, and Bellagio reconfigured its tournament area. All the while, however, the European Poker Tour kept its EPT Prague in place for much of its tour history, not making too many significant changes over time.
When the WPT World Championship returned to the scene, it happened with Wynn Las Vegas, a much-praised player favorite poker room. The World Series of Poker saw the WPT’s success in December 2022 and couldn’t let it stand. The next year, WPT Paradise was born in the Bahamas, directly competing with the WPT World Championship.
As December poker has now become the most popular poker season after “summer camp,” we can look at some information to grade tour performances.
December Poker is No Summer Camp
While the WSOP mostly rules over the summer poker kingdom, and other poker rooms build their series around the World Series schedule, December poker is different, notably so.
PokerStars has been the most consistent of the December series over the past two decades. The WPT was the same except its notable change to Wynn and relaunch of December poker in coordination with its 20th anniversary celebration in 2022. Big guarantees, as well as the stellar reputation of both the WPT and Wynn for prioritizing player experiences, brought players to Vegas in droves that year, though the EPT maintained its core player base.
It was the WSOP that turned December into a competition, not just by introducing its WSOP Paradise series in the Bahamas in 2023 but by luring players with hotel packages, invitations to a number of poker pros with sponsorship-type deals, and incentives to win additional prize money by achieving a certain number of cashes or bracelets. It worked for some players, and others found a way to split their time and play both series.
Most poker players, as is their nature, say that competition is good and keeps the market healthy.
Year-on-Year Performances: 2023 to 2024
The best way to judge the popularity of a live poker series is by the number of players. However, when the tournament schedules vary significantly from one year to the next, that becomes an impossible task. With so many factors in play – buy-ins, guarantees, lineup, accommodation availability – it is not possible to do exact year-on-year comparisons.
EPT Prague: Consistency Brings Growth
There is a lot to be said for consistency. EPT Prague’s long history and the ability of PokerStars and EPT management to know their players gives this tour the distinct advantage over the others. They’ve resisted the trend of putting up big guarantees, and they keep their integration of live and online play tied to satellites only, as always. They simply tweak the schedule per player feedback and let the offering speak for itself.
Out of the 45 tournaments (excluding live satellites) on the 2024 EPT Prague schedule with results showing on Hendon Mob, only eight of them could not be compared directly to a tournament from the 2023 EPT Prague lineup. And of the 37 tournaments that repeated in 2024, thirty-three of them showed increased entries from the previous year. Some of the key events showing this growth were:
- €1,100 Eureka Main Event
- 2024: 4,732 entries / €4,542,720 prize pool
- 2023: 4,403 entries / €4,226,880 prize pool
- €550 Eureka Cup
- 2024: 2,716 entries / €1,358,000 prize pool
- 2023: 2,373 entries / €1,139,040 prize pool
- €2,200 Eureka High Roller
- 2024: 1,652 entries / €3,171,840 prize pool
- 2023: 1,478 entries / €2,837,760 prize pool
- €330 Women’s Event
- 2024: 112 entries / €32,256 prize pool
- 2023: 84 entries / €24,192 prize pool
- €5,300 EPT Main Event
- 2024: 1,458 entries / €7,071,300 prize pool
- 2023: 1,285 entries / €6,232,250 prize pool
- €550 Seniors Event
- 2024: 203 entries / €97,440 prize pool
- 2023: 142 entries / €68,160 prize pool
- €10,300 EPT High Roller
- 2024: 289 entries / €2,803,300 prize pool
- 2023: 240 entries / €2,328,000 prize pool
Consistency clearly matters, as players know what they’re getting and they want more of it every year. Of course, it doesn’t hurt that Prague is a historic city in a beautiful part of the world, filled with holiday lights and markets in December.
WPT at Wynn: Proven Brands Still Adjusting
The World Poker Tour has proven itself over its two-plus decades of poker. Players know that the company cares about them and takes player feedback seriously. Wynn Las Vegas has built a poker room based on the same player focus, all in a luxurious setting. The two brands working together for the WPT World Championship at Wynn is poker perfection. They proved it in 2022 and the two years since.
Players do know that the WPT and Wynn will offer a substantive, varied, and exciting schedule. There will be featured tournaments, prestigious titles, and livestreaming for several events. But the changes from 2022 to 2023 and now 2024 have been significant. The World Championship Main Event, for example, went from smashing its 2022 guarantee in a grand way to setting the highest bar in 2023 and handling a big overlay with class. But then in 2024, there was no guarantee at all. While there was a massive $5M freeroll that dominated social media and played out in spectacular fashion, the Main Event guarantee remained a glaring omission.
The 2024 WPT WC schedule offered 46 events per Hendon Mob results, but only 15 of those appeared to have corresponding events on the 2023 schedule. Many events changed and some were just rearranged. But of those 15 matching events, only four of them showed increased participation in 2024 – two PLO8 events, the Seniors Championship and Ladies Championship. The latter numbers were:
- $1,100 NLHE Ladies Championship
- 2024: 485 entries / $470,450 prize pool
- 2023: 457 entries / $443,290 prize pool
- $1,100 NLHE Seniors Championship
- 2024: 939 entries / $910,830 prize pool
- 2023: 805 entries / $780,850 prize pool
The key tournaments, while still drawing solid numbers, saw downswings from the previous year.
- $1,100 WPT Prime Championship
- 2024: 9,670 entries / $9,379,000 prize pool ($5M GTD)
- 2023: 10,512 entries / $10,196,640 prize pool ($5M GTD)
- $10,400 WPT World Championship Main Event
- 2024: 2,392 entries / $23,441,600 prize pool
- 2023: 3,835 entries / $40,000,000 prize pool ($2.4M overlay)
Most of the guaranteed tournaments met their mark, some exceeding the promised prize pool by quite a lot. And the addition of more mixed games was a hit, as TORSE, Big O, Mixed Triple Draw, and 5-Card PLO delivered well. Put those options together with proven brands, top service, a festive luxury hotel, and even other tournament options around Las Vegas, and the series did well overall.
WSOP Paradise: Bracelets and Big Money
The WSOP bracelet speaks for itself. Whether there are 100 or 300 awarded every year, players want them. The World Series of Poker will draw crowds wherever it goes. Add in the Triton Poker Series name for a partnership, and the high-stakes poker crowd can’t resist. And needless to say, the option of Bahamas weather and beaches in December is tempting for nearly every player.
This year, the stakes were even higher because of WSOP’s new ownership by the now-largest online poker site in the global market. GGPoker parent company NSUS Group bought the WSOP brand earlier in 2024, and it was undoubtedly going to offer more crossover live/online events.
There were only three of the 14 live bracelet events (one played online) this year that were comparable to the 2023 schedule. Two of them did increase participation in 2024:
- $106,000 Triton Main Event
- 2024: 182 entries / $18.2M prize pool
- 2023: 111 entries / $10,878,000 prize pool
- $2,750 Pot Limit Omaha
- 2024: 200 entries / $2M prize pool
- 2023: 104 entries / $1,008,800 prize pool
The WSOP Paradise Main Event was entirely different from year to year. The 2023 Main Event only required a $5K buy-in and guaranteed $15M, which it missed with 3,010 entries to create an overlay. This year’s Main Event required a $25K buy-in and guaranteed $50M. It missed as well, with 1,978 entries. Of course, the WSOP Paradise, now under new ownership, is still finding its way. Players are sponsored and incentivized to make the trip, and the focus is generally on international players who can qualify for events on GGPoker in the global market.
Looking Toward Next Year
The only thing that players can know for sure is that December 2025 will likely offer more tournament options than ever before. All three tour operators will solidify their places in the market, and at least surrounding the WPT at Wynn, other poker rooms will offer alternative series, as did Aria, Orleans, and Venetian in 2024.
If history has anything to say about it, EPT Prague will shine again in 2025. Players can count on a number of events and buy-ins remaining the same, and the overall schedule will only improve if it changes much at all.
The WPT and WSOP will likely try to outshine each other once again. The WPT is not likely to do another $5M freeroll, and it is unclear if the WSOP will try its $50M guarantee for a Main Event again, either. Players will anxiously await those schedules to decide whether to play in Vegas, Bahamas, or both, and the WSOP and WPT will likely try to wait each other out to see who is brave enough to release a schedule first.
Competition is healthy, sure. But players often get caught in the middle, unable to plan sufficiently and having to choose between two favorite brands.
All the while, PokerStars and EPT Prague will press on and likely continue their steady and impressive growth.
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