Another exciting year of poker is behind us, and it was marked by some of the greatest poker stories of all time, including The Grinder’s amazing victory in the WSOP Main Event, and many others.
With just days left in December, it’s time to wrap up 2025 and look ahead to 2026, a year that may bring excitement for some players and anxiety for others, especially those in the United States.
Given the information that’s available right now, we look at the coming year and make our predictions for what the poker world can expect in 2026.
#1 – Game Fairness and Security Will Be in Focus
The development of new poker tools, many of which are based on game-theory-optimal strategies, has revolutionized how we learn poker in the 21st century.
Yet, these tools have also opened a Pandora’s Box of their own, with many malicious entities looking to exploit them and cheat in online poker games.
At the same time, we have seen numerous attempts at cheating in live poker, too, ranging from cheating accusations in live-streamed poker games to solvers being used to coach players on the sidelines of major live tournaments.
Both online and live poker operators have been cracking down on cheaters with all disposable means, with mixed results.
In 2026, we can expect more major online poker rooms and tournament operators to continue enhancing their security measures and exploring new ways to ensure fairness for all players.
#2 – American Players Will Experience Taxation Issues
American poker players have had to pay some of the highest taxes on their winnings of any players anywhere in the world for years, but in 2026, it may get a whole lot worse.
On July 4, 2025, President Donald Trump signed his One Big Beautiful Bill into law, and it included thousands of provisions, including one related to gambling.
According to this provision, gamblers (including poker players) in the USA will only get to deduct 90% of their gambling losses from their taxable income, which may be a real problem for many players.
For many poker players, this could mean paying taxes on income they never actually received and even owing more in taxes than they earned.
In some cases, players could end up breaking even or losing slightly on the year, yet still owe tens or even hundreds of thousands in taxes to the US government.
President Trump recently made a comment indicating he is considering “eliminating gambling taxation altogether,” but there is no clear indication that any such move is being considered.
In either case, 2026 will be a year filled with anxiety for professional poker players in America, with the likes of Erik Seidel already announcing they will likely retire from playing professionally if this law doesn’t change.
#3 – Sweepstakes Poker Sites Will Be In Trouble
In 2025, several states across the USA effectively banned sweepstakes poker, including New York, New Jersey, California, Montana, and Nevada.
Given that sweepstakes poker has been one of the few “legal” options for online poker in most of these states, the move has been catastrophic for online poker players there.
As we go into 2026, sweepstakes poker is under more pressure than ever before, and many other states are considering similar bans on sweepstakes gaming sites in the new year.
More bans will mean many players won’t be able to play online in 2026, and the pool of poker players who can play at sweepstakes sites will shrink significantly.
Poker operators like Club WPT Gold have been trying to circumvent bans by changing their operating models, but it remains to be seen whether these changes will allow the sites to legally operate in states that have banned sweepstakes poker.
#4 – The WSOP Player of the Year Race Will Be Even Better
The WSOP Player of the Year is one of the most coveted titles in all of poker, and players like Daniel Negreanu and Shaun Deeb have been actively pursuing it for years.
The WSOP recently announced changes to the 2026 POY race that will make it even more exciting.
The race will now include all WSOP events, including those played in Las Vegas, Europe, and the Bahamas, and it will award a total of $1,000,000 to the top 100 finishers.
The new format will make competing for POY points more rewarding than ever, with a $100k WSOP Paradise package reserved for the winner.
The title is also more likely to actually go to the most deserving player than before, as events across three different festivals will be included, and more tournaments will count for the race than in previous years.
We can expect to see many of the world’s best players get involved, and the WSOP Paradise festival finally break the tie in December of 2026.
#5 – The Biggest Televized Poker Hand Will Be Played
The 2024 Hustler Casino Live “Million Dollar Game” brought us the massive $3 million pot played between Tom Dwan and Wesley Fei, a record we thought would take a while to break.
Yet, this record was not only broken, but blown out of the water in 2025, as Ossi “Monarch” Ketolla challenged the poker world to a series of massive heads up matches, one of which produced an insane $12 million pot.
The high-stakes poker games on TV have escalated to a new level in the last couple of years, and we have seen more seven-figure and even a few eight-figure pots played by some of the high rollers and VIPs.
We know for a fact that shows like Hustler Casino Live and High Stakes Poker will continue to compete over who can throw a bigger and more action-packed game, while only time will tell what kinds of curveballs the likes of Onyx Poker and Triton Poker can throw at us in 2026.
With an unprecedented number of big games on the docket for 2026, we predict that the biggest pot records will be broken in both heads-up and ring game formats in the coming year.
#6 – Crypto Poker Will Continue to Thrive
Online poker has not been like it used to be for some time now, and it’s mostly thanks to the overregulation that’s being imposed by the governments of many of the biggest and wealthiest countries in the world.
Markets across America and Europe are being regulated and excluded from international player pools one by one, which means fewer and fewer players can compete on major real-money poker platforms.
This has created an exceptional opportunity for crypto poker sites like CoinPoker that operate internationally, accept players worldwide, and process deposits and cashouts in minutes.
In 2026, crypto poker platforms will be bigger than ever, with more players finally realizing that these sites give them a real chance to compete, as if it were 2006 all over again.
#7 – International Poker Tournaments Will Thrive
The new U.S. tax rules, combined with the growth of poker in Asia, Africa, and Latin America, will drive growth in international poker tours.
Poker tournaments outside the U.S., such as those on the European Poker Tour, Asian Poker Tour, and Triton Poker Series, will attract more players than ever before.
Local communities of poker players are growing each year across Europe and Asia, while quite a few American players may decide that playing, and perhaps even relocating to other locations, may be their best chance at success.
The World Series of Poker Europe (WSOPE) recently unveiled its new schedule and is now set to take place in the spring of 2026 in Prague, the Czech capital. This festival will be a great early test of just how big poker tournaments can get beyond America in the new year.
