WPT® Cambodia Championship 2026: Key Storylines, Schedule, and $1.5M Guarantee

WPT® Cambodia Championship 2026 at a glance

Championship details

The structure is classic WPT® Main Tour: deep stacks, one-hour levels to start, and room for real post-flop edges rather than shove-fest poker.

From Prime to Championship: Kalgin’s breakthrough sets the tone

The festival crowned one major champion, poker pro Andrei Kalgin from Russia, before the $3,500 Championship even shuffled up.

WPT® Prime Cambodia Championship

Kalgin closed it out in a headline final hand where his A-J made Broadway against queens and held. That win pushed him into six-figure live earnings and gave him 900 WPT® Player of the Year points right out of the gate for Season 24.

The question now is simple. 

Can the fresh Prime champion roll straight into the $3,500 Championship and turn Phnom Penh into a two-trophy week?

How 2026 compares to 2024 and 2025

WPT® Cambodia Championship is only in its third year as a $3,500 WPT® Main Tour event at NagaWorld, but the first two editions already showed real WPT® Main Tour scale.

2024 WPT® Cambodia Championship

2025 WPT® Cambodia Championship

Set against those numbers, the 2026 $1,500,000 guarantee looks conservative. Prime has already crossed the seven-figure mark this week, and Day 1A of the Championship hit 210 entries. 

A similar or bigger turnout on Day 1B should push the prize pool toward the $2.4 million range again, even if the final figure lands slightly below or above past years.

NagaWorld and the 2026 festival in context

WPT® Cambodia 2026 runs from 21 January to 9 February with 138 tournaments and more than $3.5 million guaranteed across the series.

Buy-ins stretch roughly from $200 to $20,000 and cover:

•  WPT® Cambodia Championship Warm Up
• WPT® Prime Cambodia Championship
• WPT® Cambodia Championship and Mini Championship
• Mystery Bounty events and high rollers
• Turbos, PLO, Seniors, Ladies, and daily side events.

Side-event coverage already shows the usual NagaWorld mix of travelling pros, regional regulars, and satellite qualifiers:

Mystery Bounty High Roller and other big side titles have gone to players like Norberto Korn and Pham Bao. Furthermore, Patrik Selin has already picked up multiple trophies, including a Seniors title and a freezeout win. 

Also, The Warm Up event and early Championship Warm Up drew large international fields and produced final tables with players from across Asia, Europe, and the Americas.

The $3,500 Championship now sits on top of that festival pyramid and functions as the clear WPT® Main Tour flagship.

How players qualified on WPT® Global

For many players, WPT® Global is the main online bridge into Phnom Penh.

A dedicated satellite ladder ran in the WPT® Global client in the lead-up to the festival:

• Step satellites starting at $0.55
• Mid-tier satellites at $11
• Weekly $110 qualifiers that each guaranteed at least one $4,000 WPT® Cambodia package.
• Each $4,000 package includes:
• $3,500 entry to the WPT® Cambodia Championship
• $500 travel stipend
• Access to a WPT® Global VIP lounge and players’ party
• WPT® Global merchandise
• Preferential hotel rates at NagaWorld, subject to availability and local terms.

Package winners also have an extra sweat. WPT® Global attached a $100,000 Golden Ticket to selected WPT® Cambodia Championship packages. If a tagged package winner goes on to win the $3,500 Championship, they receive an additional $100,000 on top of the live first-place prize, subject to full promo terms and successful verification.

Passport Dollars (PP$) earned in earlier WPT® Global promotions can also be used toward buy-ins at WPT® Cambodia 2026, including the Championship, depending on each player’s balance and the current PP$ rules in-client.

The net result is simple. The room in Phnom Penh now provides a mix of local and regional regulars, travelling WPT® Main Tour and WPT® Prime pros and online qualifiers who spun small WPT® Global entries into full live packages.

Storylines to watch as the Championship plays out

With the Championship mid-flight as of 5 February, the final prize pool and full payout ladder are still to come. The main threads are already clear.

Can the Prime champion double up?

Andrei Kalgin arrives in the Championship with fresh momentum, a six-figure score, and a WPT® World Championship seat already booked from his Prime win. A deep run in the $3,500 event would turn WPT® Cambodia 2026 into a genuine breakout week and create a rare “Prime + Championship” double-shot storyline for Season 24.

Will past champions run it back?

Konstantin Held and Artem Vezhenkov are the two existing WPT® Cambodia Championship winners. Any sign of another deep run from either one would create a clear “NagaWorld specialist” narrative and show how repeat visits to the same WPT® Main Tour stop can pay off.

Season 24 Player of the Year implications

The WPT® Cambodia Championship winner will bank a big block of WPT® Player of the Year points along with a six-figure payout. Season 23 showed through Harvey Castro that a mix of one Prime win, one big WPT® Main Tour result, and steady volume can be enough to win POY. A Phnom Penh title early in Season 24 is the kind of foundation that keeps a name on the leaderboard all year.

Golden Ticket pressure

Any WPT® Global qualifier who reaches the final table plays for more than the published pay jumps. If a Golden Ticket package winner closes the Championship, the extra $100,000 bonus will matter just as much as moving up a rung on the ladder.

A quick word on playing live and online

The WPT® Cambodia Championship and the wider festival offer real-money poker at meaningful stakes. That always comes with risk.

Only play where poker is legal in your jurisdiction, and only with money you can afford to lose. If the fun stops, take a step back, use the responsible gaming tools on WPT® Global, or sit out entirely.