WPT’s Tournament Of Champions Set To Take Place In May At Aria Resort & Casino
The World Poker Tour (WPT) recently announced that it will be ending Season XVI with its popular Tournament of Champions event and a newly added WPT Bobby Baldwin Classic in May 2018. The WPT introduced its Tournament of Champions event in 2016 and for the last two years the tournament was held at the Seminole Hard Rock in Florida.
The WPT announced this week that it will host this year’s Tournament of Champions event at the Aria Resort & Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada. Aria has played host to some of the biggest poker tournaments in the world and was very happy to play host to the WPT Tournament of Champions event for the first time since its inception.
WPT Tournament of Champion Series
The WPT Tournament of Champion series will run from May 17 and conclude on May 26. The series will have a number of high stake events and is expected to attract the top poker players in the world. The series will commence with a $10,000 no-limit Hold’em tournament followed by 4 x $25,000 high-roller events that will take place on May 18, 19, 22 and 23. The high-roller events will end with a super high-roller event that has a $100,000 buy-in that is scheduled to take place from May 25 to 26.
Tournament Of Champions Main Event
The Tournament of Champions will be the Main Event as the top WPT winners will battle it out to see who will be the champion of champions. The 2016 edition was won by Farid Yachou and the 2017 edition was won by Daniel Weinman. There will be a rake free edition for 2018 that will allow past WPT champions to see if they can win a seat as current champions have already secured a seat. Yachou and Weinman won over $380,000 along with different prizes that included a car and hi-tech headphones.
In a statement, Adam Pliska, CEO of the World Poker Tour said “The World Poker Tour is thrilled to bring the illustrious WPT Tournament of Champions to the luxurious Aria, as we close out a historic Season XVI. The WPT Tournament of Champions is our most prized event, and the winner will join Farid Yachou and Daniel Weinman as a WPT Tournament of Champions winner. We look forward to returning to Las Vegas, the birthplace of the WPT and the global home of poker, to crown this season’s champion of champions.”
WPT Bobby Baldwin Classic
The WPT has introduced a new event known as the Bobby Baldwin Classic in recognition of poker pro Bobby Baldwin who won four WPT bracelets and accumulated more than $2 million in cashouts back in the day. While this amount of money may not appear all that much in relation to the current poker circuit, this was a massive sum of money when Bobby Baldwin was at his peak.
Baldwin’s biggest claim to fame on the poker circuit was when he became the World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event champion in 1978. Legendary poker pros such as Doyle Brunson recognize Baldwin as one of the top cash game players of his times.
Baldwin’s contributions to the game of poker were not just as a poker player. He took on a top executive role at the Golden Nugget for a number of years before moving on to the Bellagio and The Mirage. He is currently working with the Aria Resort & Casino as President and Chief Operating Officer.
The WPT and Aria decided it was the right time to honour Baldwin by introducing the first ever WPT Bobby Baldwin Classic. This is also the last opportunity for players to win the Baldwin Classic and book a seat for themselves at the Tournament of Champions. The Baldwin Classic has a $10,000 buy-in and will run from May 20 to 23. The final table will receive a lot of publicity as it will be streamed via the PokerGO app.
The WPT Tournament of Champions series will finish with the final table taking place at the Luxor – which is the new eSports Las Vegas Arena. This Tournament of Champions final table will also be streamed via PokerGO.
