With all due respect to singer Andy Williams who crooned about Christmas, it’s the wonderful time of the year. Yes, poker fans and dreamers, the World Series of Poker Main Event begins today.
That is, the first of four starting days kicks-off at 11 a.m. Las Vegas time, and while the temperature outside the Horseshoe and Paris will be hot enough to cook an egg on Scott Seiver’s head, it will be hotter under the butts of all the pros and amateurs who should only have one goal for the day — make it to Day 2.
After all, you can’t win the whole damn thing if you don’t make it through Day 1. To make it through to Day 2, players must survive five blinds levels of two hours each.
There are two Day 2s. The first, on July 6, will have all the players who made it through the first three Day 1s get together. The second Day 2 starts July 7, when all the players from the last Day 1 (Day 1D) rejoin. Day 1D always has a substantially more players, needing its own second day.
July 8 (Happy Birthday Mom!) is the first day that the survivors will be in the building at the same time. Survive and advance should be the song running trough these player’s heads, because if they make it to Day 4 on July 9, they have a chance to be sitting at the table during one of the greatest moments in the poker year happens when the money bubble bursts.
Celebrate now, maybe even have a sip of champagne, because you made it half-way to home. That’s right, there are four more days until the field is boiled down to the final nine players.
Then, for the first time since the WSOP delayed the final table until November, the tournament will pause for a few weeks so ESPN can broadcast it as close to as legally allowed for three days starting Aug. 3.
Things like double-knockouts or a chip beast eating a bunch of small stacks could alter the schedule, but Aug. 3 should see the nine players turn into four, four into three, and three into the Main Event champ.
“It’s the one no-miss tournament of the year. If you’re available and you have the 10K, you’re going to show up and play,” Jack Effel, SVP of poker operations at Caesars Entertainment, which runs the event, told ESPN. “Winning the main event is the absolute greatest title that any poker player can achieve and it’s not even close.”
2026 WSOP Main Event Schedule
| July 2: Day 1A |
| July 3: Day 1B |
| July 4: Day 1C |
| July 5: Day 1D |
| July 6: Day 2 ABC |
| July 7: Day 2D |
| July 8: Day 3 |
| July 9: Day 4 |
| July 10: Day 5 |
| July 11: Day 6 |
| July 12: Day 7 |
| July 13: Day 8 |
| August 3-5: Final Table |
