There is perhaps no moment in poker history when the three biggest live festival brands have met in direct combat and held their festivals on the same date. There's a first time for everything, and the proof will be in the next two weeks when the WSOP Paradise festival in the Bahamas, the traditional EPT in Prague, and the season finale of the WPT World Championship in Vegas all take place at the same time.
It is the WPT series that has been described by many as the most progressive in recent times, and the detailed schedules for this festival are just the unwavering proof of that. Whether you're looking at the million-dollar Big One for One Drop, the huge WPT Prime set for 5,000 entries, or the spectacular Main Event with the biggest guarantee ever seen in live poker, it's clear that there's plenty to look forward to.
Huge Opening Event
High expectations are met right from the start by the side events, which are seeing a rich player turnout. A great example of this was the opening $600 NLH event, which made it clear right away that we had something to look forward to. In fact, the million-dollar guarantee was totally demolished as 4,960 entries took care of the $2,554,400 prizepool, which was redistributed among the top 614 players. At the end of them, Italian player Michael Rossito was able to enjoy the title and a cool $340,698 reward after heads-up action.
| # | NAME | COUNTRY | PRIZE |
| 1. | Michael Rossito | ITA | 340,698$* |
| 2. | Brian Barker | USA | 268,559$* |
| 3. | Lawrence Chow | USA | 186,493$ |
| 4. | Alex Britton | USA | 143,927$ |
| 5. | Paul Hizer | UK | 110,888$ |
| 6. | David Wintersberger | GER | 84,477$ |
| 7. | Meraf Tedla | - | 63,479$ |
| 8. | Florin Iacoban | USA | 46,640$ |
| 9. | Jai Davenport | USA | 33,372$ |
Unlucky Joe McKeehen
There was no shortage of good action in the $1,100 NLH 6-max event, where 2015 WSOP Main Event champion Joe McKeehen was long in the hunt for the title in a field of 367 entries. The WPT title was eventually snatched from him by Michael Berk ($70,045) in the final heads-up, leaving Joe to settle for a $46,714 payday for once.
WPT Prime
Before the WPT World Championship Festival moves on to the Main Event + One Drop, there's some equally exciting action starting tomorrow. That will be the popular WPT Prime, a $1,100 buy-in tournament that sent the $2 million guarantee into oblivion last year thanks to 5,430 entries. This year, the organizers have already set the guarantee at $5 million, and it will have to be collected in four flights, which will be played from December 7-10.
Stephen Song - winner of the record-breaking WPT Prime Championship ($712,650)
Source - worldpokertour, flickr
