Published 22 September 2026. Analysis and views here are our opinion,
not a guarantee of anything. 18+, please gamble responsibly.
24 September 2026 – 12 October 2026 · The Lodge Card Club, Round Rock, Austin, Texas · UK time
The World Poker Tour returns to Texas on Thursday 24 September, when the WPT Prime Lodge Festival opens at The Lodge Card Club in Round Rock, just outside Austin. It is a series built to run nearly three weeks, guaranteeing more than $2 million across its events and closing with the $1,100 buy-in WPT Prime Lodge Championship, which itself carries a $1 million guarantee, from 8-12 October.
Between the opening flights and the Championship sits the event most players are circling on the schedule: the Half Milly, a $400 buy-in tournament guaranteeing $500,000, running 25 September to 4 October. A $400 buy-in guaranteeing half a million dollars is the kind of overlay-friendly number that pulls a big field even before the marquee event starts, and the daily structure gives grinders multiple chances to bag a stack and re-enter across the ten-day window.
Why The Lodge, and why it matters
The Lodge is not a neutral venue. It is owned and run by some of the most recognisable names in modern poker media: Doug Polk, Brad Owen and Andrew Neeme bought a controlling stake in 2022, and poker vloggers Ethan “Rampage” Yau and Nik Airball came in as investors more recently. Between them their YouTube channels pull hundreds of millions of views, and The Lodge has built its reputation as much on livestreamed cash games and vlogged tournament runs as on its 80-plus tables of live action. When the WPT brings a Prime festival here, it is guaranteed the kind of streamed coverage a regional stop in a less content-driven room would not get, and that pulls a mixed field of grinders, recreational players chasing a Lodge appearance on camera, and satellite winners looking to turn a small stake into a Championship seat.
Texas itself makes the field interesting. The state has no legal online poker and limited commercial card rooms, so a series of this size concentrates a lot of the region’s live talent and bankroll into one building for three weeks, alongside the usual WPT Prime travelling contingent chasing ranking points and Tour stops across the calendar.
The festival runs a full daily schedule of preliminary events and satellites from 24 September, giving players repeated entry points and multiple ways to win a seat into the bigger buy-ins without risking the full $1,100 up front. The Half Milly anchors the middle of the series at $400, big enough to matter but not so steep it prices out the room’s recreational base. The WPT Prime Lodge Championship itself runs 8-12 October at $1,100 with $1 million guaranteed, live-streamed from The Lodge’s own production set, the same setup that has carried its vlogged content to millions of views over the past few years.
What looks the smart angle
There is no outright market to price here, and we are not going to invent one: WPT Prime regional stops of this size do not carry the kind of bookmaker coverage a World Matchplay or a Cheltenham meeting does, so there is nothing to link out to with confidence. What is worth saying is that a guarantee-heavy series like this one tends to run soft in its early flights, when the field is at its widest and least experienced, and sharper in the closing Championship days once the grinders and satellite winners who have survived the first two weeks are the ones left at the table. Anyone thinking about which stage to target should weigh that shift, but this is analysis and not a recommendation to enter any specific event.
Elsewhere this week
Football’s domestic leagues are paused for the September international break, with the 2026-27 UEFA Nations League opening across the same week: Germany travel to Amsterdam to face the Netherlands on 24 September, and England open their own campaign away to the Czech Republic on 29 September.
The offers worth checking before you sit down
Ad: If poker is where your bankroll is headed this month, William Hill’s poker welcome offer is the one worth reading first: a £100 bonus redeemed through WHPoints over 45 days, plus a Twister Discovery Pack of seven tournament tickets credited up front once you deposit £10 or more. It is not a Lodge satellite, but it is a genuine bankroll top-up for anyone building a roll toward a series like this one, and the ticket pack gives you live tournament reps while the bonus unlocks.
Sport does not stop while the poker runs, and all three of our sportsbook partners are worth a look if you fancy a bet alongside the cards. Virgin Bet’s welcome offer pays £20 in free bets plus 2 x £5 Bet Builder tokens for a £10 deposit and a £10+ bet at 1/2 or better. Betfred’s bet £10, get £50 in free bets needs odds of Evens or bigger on the qualifying bet. William Hill’s bet £10, get £30 in free bets has the lowest qualifying-odds bar of the three at 1/2.
Whether you are staking a Lodge run or just want a bankroll boost to start the month, claim the William Hill poker offer here before the Half Milly gets going on 25 September.
