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Another amazing year of poker is behind us, and we have seen some spectacular tournaments in 2022 as live poker finally made a full recovery. For the first time in history, the WSOP was played out on the Las Vegas Strip, and a number of other amazing live events marked the year.
With 2023 just around the corner, it’s time to look at what’s coming up and what exciting poker tournaments the New Year has in store for us.
This is a close look at the biggest poker tournaments to expect in 2023, the dates to get ready for, and the action you can expect.
For many years, PokerStars Caribbean Adventure (PCA) was one of the top poker tournaments on the yearly calendar and one of the best ways to kick off the year.
Hosted in the beautiful Caribbean, the PCA brought us some epic poker moments, from the days Gus Hansen first won it in 2004 to the likes of Elky, Harrison Gimbel, and Galen Hall all cementing their names in poker history at this tropical poker stop.
The last PCA was played back in 2019 when David “Chino” Rheem won the Main Event and made another piece of poker history.
Now, PCA is back in 2023 and scheduled to be played at the Baha Mar Resort in Nassau in its usual winter time slot. The PCA Main Event is scheduled to kick off on January 23, along with a number of side events, including High Rollers and a Mystery Bounty event.
The $10k PCA Main Event will be one of the highlights of the winter for poker players from around the world, who will rejoice at the return of one of the most prestigious poker festivals ever played.
Another one of the largest poker tournaments in the world that’s making a return in 2023 is the PokerStars Players Championship (PSPC), which will be played along with the PCA at the Baha Mar Resort in Nassau.
The PSPC Main Event is scheduled to play out from January 30 to February 3 and will feature its usual $25,000 buyin, making it one of the year's biggest tournaments.
The PSPC is typically a very attractive event, and with hundreds of players set to play it via the coveted PokerStars Platinum Pass, this year’s PSPC should be another huge one.
High rollers traveling out to Nassau to play in the PCA are all likely to stick around and play in the PSPC as well, which means that the Resort will be hosting some of the biggest names in poker for two full weeks.
Expect plenty of amazing poker events, insane cash game action, and lots of crazy parties this winter in Nassau, as two of the largest poker tournaments of the year are played back-to-back at the very start of the year.
For the first time, the European Poker Tour (EPT) will stop in the world's most romantic city, the French capital of Paris. Just as players travel back home from Nassau after playing in the PCA and PSPC, it will be high time to pack up the suitcases again and head out to Paris.
The EPT Paris Main Event is scheduled to kick off on February 20, with Super High Roller action starting a day before.
The EPT Paris stop will display class and style as it plays out at the beautiful Club Barriere Paris and invites players to join high-stakes action in an atmosphere that gives off vibes of elegance.
Paris is only the first of the EPT stops that have already been announced, and it will be the first big opportunity to play a major poker event on European soil for the year.
Every other event on this list of the top poker tournaments to play in 2023 is a much higher buyin than the WSOP Gladiators of Poker, which comes with a very affordable price tag of just $300.
However, Gladiators of Poker will still have a $3,000,000 prize pool, which makes it ideal for poker players with a smaller bankroll but a big desire to play and succeed.
The Gladiators of Poker is a brand new event on the WSOP schedule and one that will be played for the first time ever at the 2023 Series. We don’t know exactly what to expect from this one, but with attendance guaranteed to be massive, we can be pretty sure it will be super fun to play in.
The chips are going to fly around, and some great value can be had in this one. With a bit of a good run, you could easily see yourself spinning up a stack and making a deep run.
The 2023 Gladiators of Poker event is scheduled for June 7 and will be one of the earlier events of the year, making it the perfect time to get in the mix and start preparing for the bigger events of the summer.
Talking about the biggest poker tournaments of the year without mentioning the WSOP Main Event would be nonsense, so we are not even going to try.
A partial schedule for the 2023 WSOP has already been announced, and we now know that the $10,000 WSOP Main Event will kick off on July 3.
As usual, the Main Event will feature four starting days and one of the deepest tournament structures you can imagine, as is fit for the event that’s widely considered the most prestigious one on the poker calendar.
With the Series returning to the Strip this year, we can expect some amazing numbers in the Main Event yet again, and the possibility of shattering attendance records is very real.
If you plan to play just one big poker tournament in 2023, then the WSOP Main Event should be it for more reasons than one.
We could hardly talk about the largest poker tournaments without mentioning the WSOP Players Championship, the biggest mixed games tournament of the year.
The $50k Players Championship has long been the most prestigious event of the calendar among the high rollers, with many considering it to be a bigger deal than the Main Event itself.
The Players Championship typically attracts a relatively small field of the world’s best mixed games players, and while it is not big player numbers, it is massive in terms of prestige.
The last two Players Championships were both won by Daniel “Jungleman” Cates, and it will be fun to see if he can make another deep run and possibly make history by booking his third consecutive win.
If you are a mixed games specialist, finding a way into the Players Championship is high on the list of priorities, and while the exact date of the event is not yet clear, you can bank on it being a part of the summer schedule at the WSOP.
Scheduled to play out between August 21 and September 3, 2023, EPT Barcelona will surely be one of the biggest and most attended live poker festivals of the year.
Barcelona has traditionally been one of Europe's most appealing poker destinations for many years, and with all Covid-related restrictions now lifted, it is sure to remain one in 2023.
The festival will feature the usual €5,300 Main Event, along with a €3,000 Mystery Bounty event and even a €100,000 Super High Roller.
With such events on the schedule, it goes without saying that many of the world’s biggest poker names will attend the festival, even if only to compete in the €100k event on August 26.
Those with a more limited bankroll will still have a chance to compete during this stop, as ESPT tournaments will be played alongside the EPT, including a €1,100 Main Event and €2,200 High Roller.
Action will be fast and furious on European soil this year, and the EPT Barcelona festival will almost surely be one of the most exciting of the whole year.
The World Series of Poker Europe (WSOPE) has not been announced yet either, with the 2022 series only just ending, but we can be pretty sure it will go down in the same time slot and in the same venue next year.
Being one of the biggest poker tournaments of 2022, the WSOPE Main Event was a massive success, and players will be flocking to Rozvadov for more of the same next year.
The time slot will likely be sometime in November, giving players plenty of time to get some rest or practice following the main leg of the WSOP in Vegas.
The WSOPE Main Event is typically quite a bit smaller than the WSOP Main Event, although the action is still furious.
European players, in particular, have a lot to look forward to, as the WSOPE Main Event is one of the best opportunities to play a big $10,000 buyin poker tournament without having to leave Europe.
The WPT Championship event is traditionally the biggest event of the Tour and the season closer, and we fully expect to see it back on the schedule in 2023.
Following a super-successful WPT Championship at the Wynn in December 2022, a repeat performance can also be expected next year.
While the WPT schedule for next year is not yet public, you can be pretty sure that the WPT Championship will happen around the end of the year and will go down in one of Las Vegas's prestigious hotels/casinos.
The festival always brings a ton of action, including one of the biggest $10k events of the 10k events of the year and a ton of side events across all buyin levels, including several high-roller events attended by the best players in the world.
If you are looking for high-stakes action and a real challenge to end 2023 with, the WPT Championship will be the one festival you will not want to miss.
Talking about elite poker tournaments, we would be remiss if we did not mention the Super High Roller Bowl, the one event that high rollers truly look forward to.
Super High Roller Bowl is an elite event that is usually attended by no more than a few dozen players, as the stakes are high and competition is tough.
Yet, if you are truly looking to play with the best of the best, Super High Roller Bowl is your best opportunity of the year.
We have seen more than one Super High Roller Bowl organized in recent years in different parts of the world, but the one played out in Vegas is what we look forward to the most.
While few players will be able to afford the buyin, Super High Roller Bowl will be one of the biggest tournaments of 2023 and one of the best opportunities to win millions of dollars in a single live poker tournament.
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