The World Poker Tour (WPT) has announced that it will add 10 main tour stops to the second half of its seventeenth season.
The WPT will have two more stops this year—the WPT Five Diamond World Poker Classic, which will be played on Dec 10 – 15 and the WPT Seminole Rock N Roll Poker Open, which will be played on November 23 – 28. A holiday break will follow these two stops and then the WPT will continue will stops all over Europe, Canada, and the US.
First Six Months Of 2019
The WPT’s first stop of 2019 will be at Gardens Casino in California, where its seventeenth season began. Poker player Simon Lam had beaten a field of 584 players to win a first-place prize of over $565,000 in the $5k WPT Gardens Poker Festival.
The California stop will be the $10k WPT Gardens Poker Championship, which will be played on January 12 – 16. This event, however, will not be capturing the attention of all the pros as some of them will be taking part in the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure (PAC) and the PokerStars Player’s NL Hold’em Championship (PSPC), which will be played at the same time.
The final table action will be at the Luxor Hotel Casino’s HyperX Esports Arena in Las Vegas, making it the first WPT main tour with a final table being played and filmed in this venue. The WPT’s plans to play several final tables simultaneously at this venue in 2019 have created a lot of discussion and excitement in the poker gaming world.
Adam Pliska, the chief executive officer of the WPT, said that the WPT has not only introduced new events to its growing seventeenth season, but also plans to play the first final table of this season at Luxor Hotel Casino’s HyperX Esports Arena in Las Vegas in partnership with Allied Esports, its sister company. The WPT also enjoys the support of Ourgame in hosting the most exciting final table action at this venue.
The Choctaw Casino Resort of Durant in Oklahoma will host the season’s second event, the WPT Choctaw, which will be played on May 17 – 20. The final table of this event will be played at the Luxor Hotel Casino’s HyperX Esports Arena. In August 2018, Brady Holiman emerged as the winner of a 755-strong player field to win the first place prize of $469,000 in this event.
WPT Looks To Deliver Superstar VIP Experience
Angelica Hael, the vice president (global tour management) for the WPT, said that the company’s casino partners and customers deserve the best and the most exciting venues. The best way to give them what they deserve is to host the final table action at the Luxor Hotel Casino’s HyperX Esports Arena. She said that the company is very happy about working with the players who have reached the final tables with the aim of delivering the superstar poker VIP experience.
WPT Stops
Here is the list of other WPT stops in 2019. Things start off with the $3k WPT Russia at Casino Sochi on January 21 – 27 which will be followed by the $3,500 buy-in WPT Borgata Winter Poker Open at Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa on January 27 – 31.
The action in Feb will see the CA$5k WPT Fallsview Poker Classic at Fallsview Casino Resort on February 23 – 25 while two events are scheduled in March. They are the $5k WPT Rolling Thunder at Thunder Valley Casino Resort on March 8 – 12 and the $3,300 WPT Barcelona at Casino Barcelona on March 10 – 17.
The next WPT stop is the $3,300 WPT European Championship at Dusk Till Dawn on April 7 – 14, followed by the $10k WPT Aria Summer Championship at ARIA Hotel & Resort on May 27 – 31 and then the $15k WPT Tournament of Champions at ARIA Hotel & Resort on June 1 – 3.
WPT Tournament of Champions
The seventeenth season of the WPT will end with the Baccarat Crystal WPT Tournament of Champions on June 1 – 3. This $15k buy-in tournament is meant for all the members of the WPT Champions Club. The champions of the seventeenth season will receive a free pass to the event. The final table of this event too will be played at the HyperX Esports arena.
The former champions of the WPT Tournament of Champions are Farid Yachou, who won $381,600 in Season XIV; Daniel Weinman, who won $381,500 in Season XV; and Matt Waxman, who won $463,375 in Season XVI.