WPT® Fall 2026 by the Numbers: Fields, Prize Pools and Breakout Performances

WPT®'s autumn swing has a been busy one. In fact, it's been one of the busiest of season 24. It's been a run of Main Tour and WPT® Prime stops spanning three continents. Cities ranging from Jacksonville and Sydney to Cyprus. And, for the first time ever, Seoul.

Thousands of entries, millions in prize pools, and a run of underdog winners later, here's the story. Everything is now leading up December's WPT® World Championship at Wynn Las Vegas.

A few figures capture the fall:

• Biggest field (completed): 1,084 at the WPT® Prime Lodge. Great turnout, but down from last year. The same Austin stop drew 1,648 entries for a $1,598,560 pool in 2025.

• Two $1M guarantees cleared in a week: the Prime Lodge (1,084) and Prime Cyprus (953) both beat their $1,000,000 guarantees.

• Biggest completed prize pool: $2,613,200 at WPT® Bay 101. $5,300 field punching well above its 584-entry headcount.

• Richest prize still on the line: $470,500 is the Bay 101 top prize. But it won't be decided until the final table on December 15.

• Historic debut: WPT® Seoul's 1,033 entries and ~$1.15 million pool on the tour's first-ever South Korea stop.

• Biggest winner's cheque of a completed main: Alex Thompson's A$450,900 at the WPT® Australia Championship. Won wire-to-wire from the final-table chip lead.

If one thread ran through the fall, it was the underdog. Again and again, the player who shouldn't have won did.

Blake Ellinghaus — a $580 satellite to a WPT® title. The Illinois player turned a $580 satellite seat into the bestbet Scramble Championship and $294,900. He arrived before with roughly $140,000 in lifetime cashes. He led from Day 3 on and rivered a straight to close it out heads-up.

It was a critical week for the Ellinghaus from the cheapest way in.

Cooper Feltham — 17 big blinds to champion. Feltham drew a tough final-table seat at WPT® Prime Australia and found himself sixth in chips with just 17 big blinds.

A few hours later, he came out on top. A$187,793, a trophy and a Vegas ticket. He survived an all-in, making one of the calls of the festival, and completing a wheel on the river.

Shrikant Pillamarapu — the shortest stack standing. At the WPT® Prime Lodge, Pillamarapu came to the nine-handed final table last in chips. He was on around 25 big blinds, and climbed all the way to the title and $148,527.

The final day also produced an all-time hero fold. Runner-up Kenneth Quattrocchi layed down the nut flush, correctly, to a straight flush.

Ivelin Kolev — six-four for the win. Kolev closed out the WPT® Prime Cyprus Championship ($171,600).

He turned a modest six-four into a seven-high straight on the final hand to beat Said Tahar. Tahar had carried the chip lead into the final table.

Alex Thompson — wire to wire. At the WPT® Australia Championship, Thompson didn't lose his lead once at the final table. He closed out his first WPT® title and A$450,900 (about $325,000). It's the biggest winner's share of a completed fall main event.

Quoc Mai — a $4,660 best, now a chip leader. At WPT® Bay 101, Mai — whose previous best live cash was $4,660 — leads the six-handed final table that resumes December 15 in Las Vegas, chasing a $470,500 top prize. The fall's last Cinderella story is still being written.

Three of the fall's biggest numbers aren't final yet.

The WPT® Seoul INSPIRE Championship plays its final table on November 9. Dongli Shen leads the last nine. The WPT® Venetian Fall Championship is live on the Strip now. It's building the field across three flights toward a November 10 finish.

And WPT® Bay 101 is the long pause. Its televised final six don't return until December 15, which lands right in WPT® World Championship week.

Put together, the autumn was a great period for WPT®. Exactly the ideal situation heading into the flagship. Big, global fields, an accessible price of entry, a successful debut in a brand-new market. As a bonus, there's a steady supply of feel-good champions. And, several of them now holding Vegas seats.

The Season 24 finale, the WPT® World Championship at Wynn Las Vegas, opens its festival November 27. It goes to the $10,400 Main Event in December, where many of these fall stories will get their next chapter.