On Tuesday night, the World Poker Tour released the information we've all been waiting for. After last year's spectacular $40 million guarantee in the Main Event of the entire festival, everyone was anxiously waiting to see what kind of guarantee the series would announce this year.
Last year's 40 million guarantee was decided by the organizers after the success of the 2022 series. Back then, the Main Event guarantee was 15 million and the prizepool reached almost as high as 30 million dollars. However, the 40 million guarantee was not met and the organizers had to pay up to $2.4 million out of their own pocket. The WSOP series can also owe this to the WSOP, which just a few months earlier announced its new stop at the WSOP Paradise in the Bahamas, which was held at the same time as the WPT.
No guarantee this year
The WSOP Paradise series announced its continuation this year, and with it came the announcement of the Main Event guarantee, which is the largest in poker history and worth up to $50 million. WSOP Paradise will once again be on the same date as the WPT, and so we've all been waiting to see what the WPT would surprise us with this year.
The wait is now over and the WPT has announced that their Main Event, called the World Championship, will have no guarantee this year. However, the buy-in for the tournament will remain the same at $10,400. The entire series will also be held at the same venue as the last few years, namely the Wynn Las Vegas Casino, on the dates of December 3-23.
The WPT World Championship this year will take place on the dates of December 14-21 and will offer only 3 flights, which is one less flight than last year. As mentioned earlier, the tournament will not have any guarantees, but instead the WPT is offering something special for players.
The biggest freeroll in history
The WPT has announced the biggest freeroll ever held in poker history. The guaranteed prizepool will be worth up to $5,000,000, and there will be an even $1,000,000 up for grabs for the winner. In addition, the prizepool will also include 100 tickets worth $10,400 to the WPT World Championship. A total of 2,000 players will take part in the freeroll.
The freeroll will be open to players who obtain a Golden Passport and also have a registration on the new online platform that the WPT plans to launch. Players can earn the Golden Passport through various promotions, contests or raffles. The freeroll will run from December 13 to 15.
Program Highlights
We can also look forward to a successful WPT Prime Championship this year, which will have a standard buy-in of $1,100 and a $5,000,000 guarantee. This tournament is on the schedule from December 8-14. Last year, it brought as many as 10,512 entries and a prizepool of $10,196,640.
The schedule will also feature the Ladies Championship with a buy-in of $1,100 and a guarantee of $250,000, or the Senior Championship for players over 50 with the same buy-in of $1,100, but this time with a guarantee of $500,000.
Of course, there is also a high roller in the WPT series called WPT Alpha 8, which will have a buy-in of $25,800 and will take place on the dates of December 18-19.
Source - WPT, Flickr, Wynn Las Vegas