World Poker Tour Review
WPT · 5 ambassadors · Last updated April 2026
The original live poker brand - 22 seasons, $1.35 billion in prizes, still the broadcast standard
The World Poker Tour invented televised poker in 2002 and never stopped. From Travel Channel to CBS Sports Network, from $556K first prizes to $18M prize pools at Wynn Las Vegas, WPT is less an online room than a living institution - a global circuit with 760+ events behind it and the most recognisable broadcast booth in the sport.
Visit World Poker Tour →01 The signings that matter
Tony Dunst
Tony Dunst is the voice of WPT. He joined as host of the Raw Deal segment in Season 9 after winning an open casting competition, and stepped into the primary commentary role alongside Vince Van Patten in 2017 when Mike Sexton retired after 15 years in the booth. As a working tournament pro with $4.3M in career earnings and three WSOP bracelets - including wins in 2016, 2020, and a WPT Caribbean title - Dunst brings rare credibility to the broadcast: he is simultaneously the person analysing a hand on television and the person likely to be playing in the next event down the schedule. His dual identity as player-broadcaster is the central tension that makes WPT's commentary more trustworthy than most.
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Brad Owen
Brad Owen is WPT's bridge to a younger audience. An eight-year WPT ambassador with 780,000+ YouTube subscribers, Owen built the modern poker vlog format alongside Andrew Neeme and turned casual home-game players into live-tournament regulars. His content actively feeds WPT events - he hosts ClubWPT Gold qualifier streams and gives away WPT World Championship Passports to his audience. He is also a serious player: $1.27M in career earnings, a December 2024 H.O.R.S.E. title at the WPT World Championship, and a 2025 WSOP PPC debut at $50,000. The combination of reach and genuine competitive credibility is what makes him valuable to WPT's brand rather than just its marketing.
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Alexandra Botez
Alexandra Botez signed with ClubWPT Gold in May 2025 after a year at GGPoker, bringing 2.95 million followers and a mainstream crossover identity that no other poker brand has access to. A Woman FIDE Master and five-time Canadian national girls chess champion, Botez made her name on Twitch before moving into poker - her Hustler Casino Live session where she won $450,000 in a single night drew audiences far outside the poker community. For WPT, she represents the same recruiting logic that Alexandra Botez always has: a gateway for non-poker viewers to discover the game through a trusted content personality. She joins a ClubWPT Gold roster that includes Doug Polk and Rampage, making it one of the better-assembled influencer teams in the US-facing market.
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Vince Van Patten
Vince Van Patten has been in WPT's commentary booth since Season 1 in 2003 - over two decades at the same desk, which is essentially unmatched in poker broadcasting. A former professional tennis player and working actor before poker, Van Patten brings a different dimension to the booth than a pure poker grinder would: he treats the table as theatre, which is precisely what a televised poker show needs. He was honoured with the WPT Honors Award in 2022. For viewers who came to poker through WPT's Travel Channel era, Van Patten's voice is inseparable from the brand itself.
Profile →Lynn Gilmartin
Lynn Gilmartin has anchored WPT broadcasts since Season 12 in 2013, making her the face most viewers associate with the tour's floor reporting and sideline access. The Australian Hall of Famer - inducted into the Australian Poker Hall of Fame in 2020 - is also a genuine player: she won the largest women's event in EPT history in Barcelona in 2015 and has $87,000 in recorded tournament earnings. Her credibility on both sides of the camera gives WPT's broadcast a different texture than pure entertainment hosting, and her 12+ years of institutional knowledge means she is as important to understanding WPT events as any of the players at the table.
Profile →02 At a glance
03 What WPT actually is in 2026
The World Poker Tour is not an online poker room. There is no rake to compare, no traffic chart to consult, no HUD policy to evaluate. Founded in 2002 by attorney and television producer Steven Lipscomb, WPT is the oldest continuously operating live poker tour in the world - a circuit of live events across five continents, an established television show, and a brand that has survived four ownership changes without losing its identity. The current owner, private equity firm Element Partners, acquired WPT for $105 million in 2021.
What WPT provides to players is a structured ladder of live events with significant prize pools, a broadcast ecosystem that turns final table appearances into television exposure, and the Champions Club - a closed membership earned only by winning an official WPT Main Tour event. Over 22 seasons, more than 323 players have won WPT titles and had their names engraved on the Mike Sexton WPT Champions Cup. The tour has awarded over $1.35 billion in prize money across 760+ global events.
The WPT ecosystem in 2026 spans three main tiers: the Main Tour (buy-ins $3,500-$10,400, Champions Club eligibility), WPT Prime (buy-ins typically $1,100, the mass-participation tier), and the WPT World Championship at Wynn Las Vegas each December - the flagship event that anchors the entire season. The December festival at Wynn now runs 70+ events across three weeks, from $600 side events up to a $25,800 high roller.
04 The live schedule and what the numbers actually show
The 2026 WPT season opened at Seminole Hard Rock Hollywood in January (WPT Lucky Hearts Poker Open, $3,500 buy-in, $3,932,800 prize pool), followed by stops in Cambodia ($3,500, NagaWorld Integrated Resort), the Venetian Las Vegas ($5,000, $2,244,800 prize pool), Thunder Valley in California, and the Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown ($3,500, $3,000,000 GTD). The mix of domestic US stops and international venues in Asia, Europe, and Australia reflects WPT's genuinely global footprint.
The 2025 season demonstrated that WPT is in a stable operational phase rather than a growth-or-bust one. The flagship World Championship drew 1,865 entries versus 2023's record 3,835, a reduction that partly reflects the competitive December calendar (multiple major stops now compete in that month) rather than declining interest. The WPT Prime Championship, which launched in 2022 as a $1,100 alternative, has found a consistent 9,000-10,000 entry band - making it one of the largest $1k tournaments in the world outside the WSOP.
2025 WPT Main Tour selected stops
| Event | Venue | Buy-In | Prize Pool | Winner |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| WPT Cambodia | NagaWorld, Phnom Penh | $3,500 | $2,400,750 | Artem Vezhenkov |
| WPT Rolling Thunder | Thunder Valley, CA | $3,500 | $1,292,800 | — |
| WPT Seminole Hard Rock Showdown | Hollywood, FL | $3,500 | $5,616,000 | Art Peacock ($776K) |
| WPT Choctaw | Durant, OK | $3,800 | $2,051,000 | — |
| WPT Venetian | Las Vegas | $5,000 | $5,303,300 | — |
| WPT Cyprus | Cyprus | $3,500 | $2,480,000 | — |
| WPT Australia | Australia | AUD 5,500 | AUD 3,000,000 | — |
| WPT Bay 101 Shooting Star | San Jose, CA | $5,300 | $3,225,600 | — |
| WPT World Championship | Wynn Las Vegas | $10,400 | $18,277,000 | Schuyler Thornton ($2.26M) |
| WPT Prime Championship | Wynn Las Vegas | $1,100 | $9,579,720 | Aaron Johnson ($1.01M) |
A pattern visible across the 2025 schedule: events with strong local poker cultures (Florida, California, Las Vegas) tend to outperform their guarantees significantly. International stops like Cyprus and Cambodia draw smaller fields but serve a purpose as regional anchors that keep WPT relevant in European and Asian markets where live poker is growing.
05 How to qualify and what it costs
WPT operates two parallel online qualification routes. For US players, ClubWPT Gold is the primary platform - a sweepstakes-based poker site with Diamond subscriptions at $149.95/month that unlock access to tournaments awarding WPT Championship Passports. WPT Global handles international qualification, with step satellites and milestone tournaments feeding players into the live schedule from most countries outside the US.
The Main Tour buy-in range runs $3,500 to $10,400 for flagship events, with the World Championship sitting at the top at $10,400 ($9,800 goes to the prize pool, $400 is the tournament fee). WPT Prime events are typically $1,100. Side events at the major festivals run from $600 to $25,800. There is no rake in the traditional sense - these are straight tournament fees, and at $10,400 the effective fee is just under 4%, which is competitive for a tournament of this profile.
The Champions Club - WPT's most exclusive membership - is earned solely by winning a Main Tour event. All 323 champions since Season 1 are eligible for an annual Tournament of Champions with a $15,000 buy-in, invitation only. It remains one of the few truly closed prestige events in poker, and winning a WPT Main Tour event is still the credential that defines a serious live tournament career.
06 The broadcast and media operation
WPT's television product is the backbone of its brand value. Season 22 premiered on CBS Sports Network under a multi-year broadcast agreement signed in November 2024 - the latest in a series of network homes that includes Travel Channel (Seasons 1-5), GSN (Season 6), Fox Sports Regional Networks (Seasons 7-21), and now CBS Sports. The show airs globally in more than 150 countries and territories. Final tables are filmed with hole card cameras and produced in the traditional WPT format that Mike Sexton and Vince Van Patten established from Season 1.
Tony Dunst and Vince Van Patten call the action from the commentary booth. Dunst won his booth role through an open casting competition in Season 9, served as host of the Raw Deal final-table analysis segment, and stepped into primary colour commentary in 2017. Van Patten has been in the booth since Season 1 - over two decades of continuity that gives WPT's TV product a familiarity no other poker broadcast can match. Lynn Gilmartin anchors all broadcast coverage from the floor since Season 12, handling sideline interviews and tournament updates.
The streaming operation runs alongside the television product. WPT broadcasts extended multi-table coverage during major events, which draws a different, more poker-intensive audience than the edited TV show. Dunst has noted he adjusts his commentary style significantly between the two formats - more strategic depth and hand analysis in streaming coverage, more accessible explanations for the television edit. This dual-format approach is important context for understanding what WPT is as a media brand: it serves both the casual viewer who wants drama and the serious grinder who wants to study the decision-making.
07 Who WPT is actually for
For aspiring live tournament players, WPT is still the single best-structured live circuit for building a resume. A WPT title carries more name recognition with casual audiences than almost any other result outside a WSOP bracelet, and the tour's broadcast reach means a final table appearance will likely end up on television in 150+ countries. The entry points are accessible: WPT Prime events at $1,100 now produce $9.5M prize pools and have delivered seven-figure payouts to players who qualified online for a few hundred dollars.
For recreational players who want the live poker experience, the December festival at Wynn is the most comprehensively structured live event in the US poker calendar. The buy-in range ($600 to $25,800) covers essentially every bankroll tier, the side event schedule runs for three weeks, and the WPT production team has consistently received positive player feedback for the quality of the playing environment. Tony Dunst's publicly stated advocacy for 'player-friendly' event design is not just marketing language - WPT events have historically been run with attention to structure details (blind levels, starting stacks, payout structures) that matter to players.
For content consumers and poker fans, WPT is the original home of televised poker entertainment. If you came to the game through Gus Hansen's Season 1 WPT win at Bellagio in 2002 or the Travel Channel era, this is where that tradition lives. The commentary booth trio of Dunst, Van Patten, and Gilmartin is the longest-tenured in the sport, and the production quality of the CBS Sports Network deal reflects a brand that still takes its broadcast product seriously.
08 The honest assessment
WPT's weaknesses are structural rather than operational. The World Championship field has contracted from its 2023 peak of 3,835 entries to 1,865 in 2025 - partly due to calendar competition from WSOP Paradise and other December events that have fragmented the high-stakes live calendar. The Champions Club format is also showing its age: a $15,000 buy-in invitation-only event with 323 eligible members is a prestige vehicle that fewer players can access every year as the total champion pool grows. And the online qualification infrastructure - split between ClubWPT Gold for the US and WPT Global for international - is more fragmented than it should be for a brand at this level.
WPT's strengths are harder to replicate. Twenty-two seasons of broadcast history and 150-country television distribution are not things a new entrant can buy. The Wynn Las Vegas relationship - which produces the December festival and the World Championship - is one of the most valuable venue partnerships in live poker. And the Dunst-Van Patten-Gilmartin commentary team is, purely on the merits of longevity and recognisability, the best-established in the sport. If you are playing a WPT event, you are playing in an environment where someone who has won hundreds of tournaments on this exact tour is talking through every hand from the booth. That matters to the experience.
WPT is not the biggest brand in poker by traffic or prize-pool scale in 2026. WSOP and GGPoker command larger online numbers, and several EPT and WSOP Circuit stops produce comparable live fields. What WPT is, uniquely, is the brand that defined what a live poker tour looks like - and it still does that job better than anyone else on television.
09 Quick facts
10 Full World Poker Tour ambassador roster (5)
Top 5 by lifetime earnings
| Ambassador | Country | Lifetime |
|---|---|---|
| Tony Dunst | United States | $4.3M |
| Brad Owen | United States | $1.3M |
| Alexandra Botez | Canada | $151K |
| Vince Van Patten | United States | $125K |
| Lynn Gilmartin | Australia | $88K |
Full roster
WPT GlobalInside World Poker Tour
