December is the busiest time of the year for poker players other than the Las Vegas World Series of Poker and PokerStake’s finest are in action this month. With the World Poker Tour hosting its third inaugural WPT World Championships, the World Series of Poker returning to Paradise in The Bahamas and the European Poker Tour welcoming players back to Prague, there is something for everyone in the next few weeks.
WSOP Returns to Paradise
With just a few days until the kick-off, players are excitedly booking tickets, confirming hotel bookings and selling action to the hottest live poker series remaining this year. The 2024 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Paradise festival guarantees 15 WSOP bracelets will be won at the Atlantis Resort in The Bahamas and with some of the best poker players in the world attending, you can play along with them from the comfort of your own home.
The 15 bracelet events take place at Atlantis Resort, where the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure was held for its glory years. Four hotels – The Ocean Club ($800-$1200/night),
Comfort Suites ($150-$250/night), Warwick Paradise Island ($300-$500/night, adults only) and Hotel Riu Palace ($350-$550, adults only – are between a five-minute and 12-minute walk from the cardroom and you can deposit funds for events in a number of ways.
Easy methods such as bank wire, direct deposit on www.wsopplus.com, the cash desk with Atlantis chips, e-wallet via payment partner Luxon Pay or online through the GGPoker lobby mean you can be right into the action.
There are a number of huge guarantee events, with the opening event, the $1,000-entry WSOP Mini Main Event on Friday Dec 6 having a $5 million guarantee, as does the Mystery Millions Online event on Sunday 11th and the GG MILLION$ NLHE Championship on Monday Dec 16. Players are flying through qualifiers on GGPoker online in order to get into events for a fraction of the entry fee.
The WSOP Super Main Event has an incredible $50,000,000 guarantee (as Kid Poker himself describes here) and costs $25,000 to play but as you may already know, PokerStake guarantee to buy all your unsold action to the event if you’re one of the first 100 players to register. Read all about the Halfway to Paradise promotion right here. Back your chosen player(s) in Paradise by heading straight to the WSOPP staking page here.
| WSOP Paradise 2024 Tournament Schedule: | ||||
| Date | # | Event Details | Buy-In | Reg. Fee |
| Fri 6 Dec | 1 | WSOP Mini Main Event | $2,500 | $250 |
| Sat 7 Dec | 2 | Triton Million | $500,000 | $25,000 |
| Sun 8 Dec | 3 | PLO Super High Roller | $100,000 | $3,000 |
| Sun 8 Dec | 4 | GGMasters Online Championship | $2,500 | $250 |
| Mon 9 Dec | 5 | Dealer’s Choice Championship | $25,000 | $1,000 |
| Tue 10 Dec | 6 | Deepstack No Limit Hold’em | $5,000 | $300 |
| Tue 10 Dec | 7 | Triton Main Event | $100,000 | $6,000 |
| Wed 11 Dec | 8 | PLO Championship | $50,000 | $2,000 |
| Thu 12 Dec | 9 | WSOP Super Main Event | $25,000 | $1,000 |
| Sat 14 Dec | 10 | Paradise PLO | $10,000 | $400 |
| Sun 15 Dec | 11 | Mystery Millions Online | $2,500 | $250 |
| Mon 16 Dec | 12 | GG MILLION$ NLHE Championship | $10,000 | $400 |
| Tue 17 Dec | 13 | NLHE High Roller | $50,000 | $2,000 |
| Wed 18 Dec | 14 | Super Saver $1m Invitational | n/a | n/a |
| Wed 18 Dec | 15 | The Closer NLHE Bounty Turbo | $5,000 | $300 |
WPT World Championship Lights Up Las Vegas
For two years now, the World Poker Tour have welcomed thousands of players to Las Vegas in December in what has become the winter festival to rival the WSOP in the summer months. With multi-million guaranteed prizepools and buy-ins for every level of bankroll, the festival, which takes place from December 3 to 23 is a belter, with a massive $40,000,000 guarantee for the Main Event.
All the action takes place at the Wynn Las Vegas casino, which is consistently voted for as poker players’ favorite venue to play the game at. Set in the heart of Las Vegas, Sin City comes alive during December and will feature plenty of action at the cash tables too. The WPT World Championships have filled a gap in the market at this time of year and fulfil a lot of Americans’ poker dreams.
Many players will take part in the World Poker Tour festival as well as playing events at either WSOP Paradise or in Europe, flying in to late register in the Main Event, which concludes with a televised final table on December 21, just a few days before Christmas. It’s not only the Main Event which attracts a lot of attention, either, as the $1,100 buy-in WPT Prime Championship is back for a third time on the schedule, taking place between December 8 and 14.
If you’re looking to stay in Las Vegas during the festival, then take advantage of the money off savings applied for players by following the links on the official WPT World Championships page. You can back your PokerStake favorites during the event series right here.
Prague Pulls in Festive Players
With events in The Americas dominating our preview so far, it would be wrong to understate just how popular Prague is going to be for thousands upon thousands of European players. EPT Prague has long been one of the most popular stops on the EPT and across all major live championships. The setting is stunning, there are the Christmas markets in residence and one of the most reasonable cities to dine out in Europe is perfect for December.
With a real ‘Winter Wonderland’ feel to the event series, PokerStars know just how much a jewel in the crown Prague is and always invest heavily in the tournaments. The so-called ‘City of a Hundred Spires’ is a real poker vacation and from Dec 4 to 15, there are 11 days of non-stop tournament and cash game action going on, with the Eureka Main Event and two side events rolling right into the European Poker Tour schedule.
Last year, it was the Irishman Padraig O’Neill who won over a million dollars when he took down the top prize in the €5,300-entry EPT Prague Main Event, beating Jon Kyte heads-up. Invest in PokerStake players taking on Prague by heading to the official staking page for the festival.
Wherever you choose to play or back players from home, one thing is certain – December is going to be a month to remember.
Photograph of EPT Prague courtesy of Tomas Stacha for PokerNews, the home of live reporting for the European Poker Tour.
