Top 5 Best Live Poker Series In 2025: Part 1

Battle of Malta (BoM)

The small but gold series Battle of Malta (BoM) has been known since 2012 for its upstanding organization, large fields (especially for local Maltian series), diverse schedule including non-Hold’em games, and an absolutely jaw-dropping atmosphere that makes you fall in love with poker for the first time (or all over again).

The high quality organization is possible because the schedule has remained quite modest over the years. Of course, it grew over time, expanding from just one event to twenty five through the years, with a buy-in range between €100 and €1,100. Still, as a result of the limited schedule, you can’t win as large as at other popular smaller series.

For example, the 2025 Battle of Malta Spring Edition champion Adrian Ziemichod took only €120,000 while the Irish Open 2025 Main Event winner Simon Wilson was awarded with €600,000.

Moreover, the series has non-competitive coverage on YouTube with only a few broadcasts with English and Italian commentary with barely 10k views each. With that said, the series itself is still worth every cent you are willing to pay there because of how good the organization is.

PokerGo Tour (PGT)

We know the PokerGo Tour (PGT) as a brand of multiple series but since they’re all organized in a similar manner it makes little sense to separate them for this article.

Compared to other tournaments on the list, the PokerGo Tour is quite young. Even though it was created just a few years ago, in 2021, the series went through an explosive growth spur. As of 2025, it’s comprised of the series including PokerGO Cup, Poker Masters, U.S. Poker Open and Super High Roller Bowl – just to name the major ones.

Apart from the tables, players love the PGT series because of the comfort of the PokerGO Studio. There’s this feeling of playing in a close-knit environment of professionals accompanied by high quality coverage.

However, almost all PGT series target players who can afford spending more than $3,000 on one entry, so it is not accessible to the wider public, especially recreational players. On the other hand, this aspect also attracts the best players in the industry, making the coverage extremely entertaining to watch.

Finally, every PGT series is based in the US and doesn’t have internationally available satellites online.

World Series of Poker (WSOP)

The World Series of Poker (WSOP) is without a doubt the most recognizable (and covered) event in poker media. A lot of players will see it as the place to reach during their poker career and secure that golden bracelet once and for all.

Unfortunately, the WSOP has some specific issues that other live poker series somehow manage to avoid.

While the WSOP has an insane schedule with more than enough events, it0s based in the US, which makes it hard to reach for players from Afro-Eurasia — especially after Trump became the president again and started changing policies towards foreigners, taxes and other poker-related issues. This also makes the series overloaded with Americans.

WSOP has huge fields and a convenient app for registration. Unfortunately, as a huge organization, it’s often understaffed and offers what could only be described as a close-to-horrible experience when it comes to playing with inexperienced dealers.

For a very long time, the WSOP was the most prestigious series in the industry but the amount of controversies and scandals, and players’ dissatisfaction seriously tarnished its reputation. 

WSOP Circuit

The star child of WSOP, the WSOP Circuit is a smaller version of the famous series that travels from state to state (sometimes even between countries) all year round, offering trophies in the form of beautiful chunky rings.

It’s definitely got similarities with the WSOP but doesn’t have all its organizational issues because of the difference in scale. It’s also less controversial but still has its fair share of scandals.

For example, one of the top holders of WSOP Circuit rings — U.S. poker player Maurice Hawkins — is a notorious debtor who even has a court order to repay debts to one of the backers but still continues to play WSOPC events somehow avoiding bans or other restrictions.

WSOP Europe

The European version of World Series of Poker combines the grandeur of the original WSOP, the coziness of the Circuit with a picturesque vibe of the old continent.

It has smaller yet more diverse fields. It is far from the US, yet accessible for more players from different countries. It has smaller prize pools yet attracts more recreational players.

Some even argue that the WSOPE is better than the “original” because it doesn’t suffer from American dominance, which contributes to their more frequent deep runs and wins.

WSOPE is also much less controversial than its parent brand. You can barely find any news about controversies or scandals here, people rarely complain about the organization, staff skills or attitude.
However, WSOPE’s smaller scale makes it less prestigious in terms of victories. It is also rarely visited by US-based poker legends because of logistics.

But in the end the series itself is very atmospheric with a solid organization and convenient location for a lot of recreational players from Eurasia.

Read second part: Triton Poker, European Poker Tour, World Poker Tour, The Festival and Irish Poker Open.