The second WPT World Championships festival kicks off tomorrow November 29 and another massive turnout is expected.
The full WPT World Championships festival, which marks the grand finale for Season XXI of the World Poker Tour, runs from November 29 to December 23 at the glamorous Wynn Las Vegas casino. The robust schedule features a great mix of tournaments including the WPT Prime Championship (December 7-12) and the WPT World Championship Event (December 12-21) which features four starting flights and a televised final table.
WPT Prime
The WPT Prime series made its debut last year and has already proved a huge success. This year’s season-ender – the $5 million guaranteed WPT Prime Championship – is running from December 7-12 at the Wynn with a $1,100 event featuring four starting flights and a televised final table on December 19. The inaugural $1,100 WPT Prime Championship event was a blockbuster with 5,430 entrants and a prize pool of $5,267,100, way more than the $2 million guarantee. The winner was American Stephen Song (pictured above) for a career-best live cash of $712,650. Among the 677 players who cashed was Britain’s Tom Middleton who finished 11th for £56,500.
WPT World Championship
The $10,400 WPT World Championship gets underway on December 12 just as the WPT Prime Championship is drawing to a close. Last year’s event carried a $15 million guaranteed prize pool - the largest guaranteed prize pool in live tournament poker history. The World Championship Main Event attracted nearly 3,000 entries creating a prize pool of $29,008,000, nearly double the $15k guarantee. The award-winning tournament was named Event of the Year in the 2022 Global Poker Awards. This year the prize pool guarantee has been boosted to an incredible $40 million making it the biggest tournament guarantee ever offered.
Among those set to compete in this year’s Main Event is Benny Glaser, one of Britain’s all-time top live tournament players. Glaser was runner-up to Canada’s Eliot Hudon last year for a lifetime best cash of $2,830,000, as well as runner-up in the $3k 8-Game Mix for another $73k. He said: “I feel like I basically have to go there again this year, given last year's scores! Last year was bitter-sweet - I was obviously overall happy but still disappointed with coming second. It's probably a once-in-a-lifetime situation, having a $1.3 million pay jump for just one place! The festival is very well run and the variety of side events offered was great too. I was also really pleasantly surprised by how huge the fields were.”
Staying in Vegas
It's not too late to make your way to Vegas for this incredible event. When it comes to accommodation, MainEventTravel.com has rooms available at every hotel on the Vegas strip, some only a few minutes from the tournament venue. Even those hotels that are slightly further away are a great option as the weather in December is ideal for a refreshing stroll along the Strip as you prepare yourself for a day at the tables.
Full Schedule
The festival schedule features more than 30 events overall kicking off with a $1 million guaranteed, $600 multi-flight NLH tournament from November 29 to December 4. This is followed by other player favourites such as the $250,000 guaranteed WPT Ladies World Championship from December 6-8, the ever-popular $2 million guarantee Mystery Bounty, a $1,100 50+ Seniors Championship and a $10,000 Seniors High Roller. Multiple mixed game tournaments are also available ranging from a $1,100 HORSE Championship to the new $3,000 Dealer’s Choice Championship. The $1 million buy-in Big One for One Drop runs from December 18-20 and a $25,700 High Roller is set for December 17-18, followed by the $50,000 buy-in WPT Alpha8 from December 20-21.
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Photo Credit: WPT Prime Championship