Updated on 04 Aug 26 by
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New World Series of Poker rules announced

New rules on sponsorships, stalling, and an attempt to prevent a repeat of the Millionaire Maker scandal highlight upcoming rules for this year's World Series.

We are just under a month away from the World Series of Poker, and ahead of the festival, some new tournament rules have been released

The man in the know, KevMath, has highlighted some of the key changes and what they mean for players. 

Rule 52 states that players must sign a release form if they intend to wear logos or patches at the tables. No more than two players at the same feature table can wear a patch for the same entity. If, for example, three players were all wearing CoinPoker patches, one of them would have to remove them. 

It appears that there is no longer a ban on cryptocurrency-related sponsorship; however, it appears that marijuana-related businesses are still banned. In all cases, the World Series of Poker has the right to remove any patch it deems offensive. 

No more Millionaire Maker scandal

Poker
The series is less than a month away

Rule 40 penalises any action inconsistent with the best interests of the World Series of Poker tournament. It specifically calls out the act of receiving a prize from a third party based on the outcome of a World Series of Poker event. Any player found doing so will have their prize money forfeited. 

This is a reaction to the Millionaire Maker scandal last year, where the World Poker Tour awarded a seven-figure first prize to the winner of that tournament for wearing their patch. The promotion led to the final two players allegedly soft-playing each other, which ultimately resulted in them being banned from the WSOP, though they did receive their prize money. 

A new rule about being seated when you register for a tournament before it starts states that your stack will be blinded off if you are not at the table. This appears to be to avoid the practise of stalling to arrive at your seat to avoid paying the big blind. However, it will likely just encourage more late registration. 

A new rule about stalling has been introduced, which states that somebody found stalling for pay jumps may be put on a clock for future decisions. The wording includes when a player is using time banks to ladder up for a payout, which was not in the rules document before. 

As is always the case, it will be interesting to see how well these rules are implemented going forward. The World Series of Poker tends to be the vanguard for these things, and if successful, we could see similar rollouts to other poker tours.