WPT® Prime Returns to The Lodge: The $1M Lodge Championship Preview

WPT® Prime is back in Texas.

The main event is the $1,100 WPT® Prime Lodge Championship. It comes with a $1,000,000 guarantee andruns October 8–12, 2026 at The Lodge Card Club just outside Austin. This is a headline of a festival that has brought the tour back to the Lone Star State for a second year.

It's accessible and it's got a seven-figure guarantee. With many starting flights and online satellites feeding seats, there's still time to get in.

Here's the essentials, how to enter, and what's on the line.

The Championship carries a $1,100 buy-in ($970 to the prize pool, $130 fee) and a $1,000,000 guarantee. It runs October 8–12 at The Lodge Card Club in Round Rock. This is north of Austin and one of the largest poker rooms in Texas.

It's a multi-flight event with a patient structure. Four Day 1 flights give you several ways in:

• Flight A — Thursday, October 8, 12:15 p.m.

• Flight B — Friday, October 9, 12:15 p.m.

• Flight C — Saturday, October 10, 11:15 a.m.

• Flight D (Turbo) — Saturday, October 10, 6:15 p.m.

Survivors return for Day 2 on Sunday, October 11, and the tournament plays down to a champion on Day 3, Monday, October 12.

Day 1 levels run 40 minutes (20 in the Turbo flight). It steps up to 60 minutes from Day 2, and a WPT® Action Clock comes into play deeper in each Day 1 to keep the pace honest.

If you're in Texas, you haven't missed your window.

The event runs four Day 1 flights across the opening days. It includes a Saturday-evening Turbo that suits anyone who can't make a daytime start. So you can still fire a bullet, and unlimited re-entry stays open until the start of Level 10 on each flight.

The Lodge champion also takes home the WPT® Prime Trophy and a haul of WPT® Player of the Year points. These have season-long recognition across the Prime circuit. Roughly one in eight runners will finish in the money, but there's only one trophy.

For a $1,100 buy-in, a shot at a WPT® title and a seven-figure prize pool is strong value.

The Championship anchors a deep festival. It runs September 24 through October 12, with more than $2 million in combined guarantees. The marquee supporting events include:

• The "Half Milly" — a $400 buy-in with a $500,000 guarantee, the festival's big-value secondary.

• The 100K — $300 buy-in, $100,000 guaranteed.

• PLO Hundred Grand — a $1,100 Pot-Limit Omaha event with a $100,000 guarantee.

• The WPT® Prime Lodge High Roller — $2,000 buy-in, $100,000 guaranteed, late in the series.

Around those sit a wide range of events for every bankroll.

Texas Ladies and Texas Seniors championships, a Big-O championship, a Mystery Bounty, more Pot-Limit Omaha, and a full satellite slate that reaches all the way down to low-cost qualifiers.

Whatever your game, there's something running in Austin this fortnight.

The Lodge stop lands in the thick of a packed WPT® autumn. The tour is building toward its season-ending WPT® World Championship at Wynn Las Vegas in December. A deep run here is a strong way to carry form and Player of the Year points. It's a great way to head in strong to the biggest stretch of the calendar.

For now, the focus is Austin: a $1,000,000 guarantee, a $1,100 way in, and a WPT® Prime title on the line from October 8.