The 57th WSOP opens today in Las Vegas, GGPoker hits 900,000 concurrent players during its record $300M festival, and PokerStars x FanDuel launches in the US.
The 57th Annual World Series of Poker gets underway today, May 26, at Horseshoe and Paris Las Vegas, running through July 15. This year's schedule features 100 bracelet events in what WSOP is billing as a "revamped lineup," with several new formats and the series' return to ESPN for live prime-time final table coverage.
The series opens with Event #1: the $550 Mini Mystery Millions, a multi-flight mystery bounty event running May 26–30. Players who advance to Day 2 earn a mystery bounty for every player they eliminate, with one lucky player drawing an envelope containing a Event #1 — $550 Mini Mystery Millions May 26–30 Series opener, Event #88 — $300 Gladiators of Poker TBD Cheapest multi-flight bracelet event on the schedule Hustler Casino Live Million Dollar Game June 12 at WSOP High-stakes livestream moves to Las Vegas for the first time Event #82 — July 2–5 (starting flights) 60,000 chips, 120-min levels, no re-entries. Final table August 3–5 The biggest storyline entering the series remains Phil Hellmuth's bracelet chase. He holds 17 all-time — more than any player in history — with Phil Ivey second at 11. On the women's side, all eyes will be on whether anyone can build on Leo Margets' 2025 Main Event final table appearance, the first by a woman since Barbara Enright in 1995. Sources: Pokerfuse WSOP 2026 Guide · ESPN WSOP 2026 Preview · WSOP Official Schedule GGPoker made history on May 3 when it recorded over 900,000 concurrent players online during the opening day of its GG World Festival — the largest guaranteed online poker series ever run, with $300,000,000 in guaranteed prize money across 1,600 tournaments running through June 9. The $300M guarantee is six times larger than the next-biggest comparable online series, and surpasses last year's GG World Festival record of $300M Total Guarantee 1,600+ Tournaments 900,000+ Peak Concurrent Players 2.6M+ Total Entries (3 wks) −20% Average overlay June 9 Series ends The 900,000 milestone puts the 1,000,000 concurrent player mark within sight before the series concludes. Industry observers have noted that GGPoker has now surpassed PokerStars as the world's busiest poker network by traffic, a reversal that would have seemed impossible five years ago. Sources: Pokerfuse — GGPoker 900K Record · PokerNews — GG World Festival Announced PokerStars, exclusively on FanDuel, went live in the United States, merging player pools across New Jersey, Michigan, and Pennsylvania into a single shared liquidity network. The launch represents the most significant structural change to the US regulated online poker market in years, giving American players access to PokerStars' global tournament infrastructure backed by FanDuel's 18-million-strong sports betting user base. The platform's inaugural tournament series — the Ignite Series — concluded with over Separately, PokerStars is running its 25th Anniversary Series this month — a $50,000,000 guaranteed festival celebrating a quarter century of operations. The anniversary series is available to international players and has drawn strong fields across all buy-in tiers. Several WSOP Circuit stops wrapped in May ahead of the summer series, producing notable champions and a historic milestone in Texas. Harrah's Cherokee (NC) Hamid Izadi won the Main Event at Harrah's Cherokee in North Carolina. Commerce Casino (CA) Anthony Marques won the Commerce Casino WSOP Circuit Main Event. Historic First Thomas Brabham won the first-ever WSOP Circuit Main Event held in Texas, taking home $368,545 in a record-breaking field — a landmark moment for the rapidly expanding Texas poker scene. Source: PokerNews — 2026 WSOP Coverage Free tools to help you prepare for tournament and cash game play.Key Events to Watch
GGPoker Hits 900,000 Concurrent Players in Record $300M Festival
PokerStars x FanDuel Goes Live in the US
WSOP Circuit: Recent Main Event Winners
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