By Neal Farran | December 29, 2009

Now that PartyGaming and the World Poker Tour (WPT) have joined forces, the online poker room is offering its users a chance to get in on the tournament circuit action, starting with February’s Los Angeles Poker Classic (LAPC) at the Commerce Casino in Commerce, California. Not only will PartyPoker customers have a chance to win their way into one of the biggest stops on the WPT, they will also have a shot to win an additional $1 million courtesy of the site.

A series of online satellites are running from now until February 7th, giving players a chance to freeroll their way into the $10,000 buy-in LAPC Main Event. Freeroll tournaments are running daily at 12:50PM and 6:50PM ET and the top 25 finishers in each freeroll will advance to a $3 daily sub-qualifier tournament. The $3 speed rebuy event will award one entry to the Satellite Qualifier event for every $80 in the prize pool. Players can also choose to win their seats into the Satellite Qualifier by taking part in a $9 speed event that awards one seat for every ten people in the field.

The Satellite Qualifier tournaments will run daily at 3:20PM and 8:05PM ET with a special Speed version running on Sundays at 11:20AM ET. One in ten players in each of the Qualifier tournaments will advance to the final step in the LAPC satellite process, a $700 + $50 buy-in tournament held Sundays at 2:15PM ET. One in twenty players in these weekly tournaments will earn an LAPC prize package and at least two packages will be given away each week.

The prize package is valued at $14,000 and includes tournament buy-in, seven nights of hotel accommodations and $2,500 in spending money. Should any of the qualifiers make it to the six-handed final table of the event their hotel accommodations will be extended. The Main Event is set to run from February 26th thru March 4th. Those who win a prize package on PartyPoker cannot exchange it for cash and must take part in the event in order to redeem it.

There is also an added incentive for qualifiers to do well in the tournament, as they stand to profit some extra cash should any of them win the whole thing. PartyPoker is offering to pay an additional $500,000 to any PartyPoker online qualifier who wins the LAPC Main Event and will also divvy up an additional $500,000 between all the other qualifiers who took part in the tournament. The prize money for the $1 million bonus will be paid into qualifiers’ PartyPoker accounts and will only be paid out if a PartyPoker qualifier wins the event.

Last year’s winner was Cornel Andrew Cimpan, who defeated a field of 696 players to take home the top prize of $1,661,260. More recently, Cimpan racked up his second career WPT win with a victory at the Foxwoods World Poker Finals back in November.

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