World Poker Tour announces $40 million guarantee for 2023 WPT World Championship at Wynn Las Vegas
By: pokerstake
“The WPT World Championship at Wynn Las Vegas is poised to reach new heights and we wanted to match that expectation with a guarantee that no live poker tournament has ever seen before,” said Adam Pliska, WPT CEO, in a press release. “The journey to December begins now, and we plan on giving players another unforgettable experience at Wynn Las Vegas.”
The World Poker Tour’s World Championships will return in December and after a successful debut in 2022, this year’s festival looks to be bigger and better in every way. With dozens of tournament events and a Main Event that this year has an amazing $40 million guarantee, the end of 2023 is sure to be the biggest in live poker for many years.
Last year, the $10,400-entry WPT World Championships Main Event saw its $15 million guarantee smashed to pieces as Eliot Hudon won the $4.1 million top prize. A prizepool of $29 million – 2,960 entrants – surpassed even the WPT’s wildest dreams and players compared the festival to a ‘mini World Series of Poker’.
This year, with 27 events on the schedule and a $40 million guarantee for the Main Event alone, it will surely become confirmed as the second enormous festival on the calendar. The Main Event takes place between December 12th and 21st, with the six-handed final table streamed as live around the world.
The Main Event is sure to be the jewel in the WPT World Championships crown, but what else is on offer? Well, with the festival kicking off at the Wynn in Las Vegas on November 29th, one of the biggest is the $1 million buy-in WPT Big One for One Drop. That starts on Dec. 18th and ends the next day, representing the first time in history that the United States has played host to the event without the World Series of Poker’s involvement.
December 4th sees the commencement of the iconic $1,600 Mystery Bounty event, which has a $2m guaranteed prize pool. The WPT Prime Championship costs $1,100 to play and has a $5 million guaranteed, beginning on December 7th, as players look to emulate last year’s winner of the $712,650 top prize, WSOP bracelet holder and GPI Male Player of the Year Stephen Song.
The $1,100-entry Ladies Championship also makes a welcome return for three days from December 6th, and could top the scales at 1,000 entries if attendances sky-rocket. Last year saw 578 players take to the felt, where Lina Niu took the title and $105,136 top prize.
World Poker Tour announces $40 million guarantee for 2023 WPT World Championship at Wynn Las Vegas
The WPT World Championships will be a huge draw for poker players, but it is not the only choice they have on the poker schedule. There are three massive festivals vying for attention at the same time as organizers throw caution to the wind in an attempt to ‘win’ December and proclaim themselves the last big poker festival of the year.
The first ever World Series of Poker Paradise series takes place in The Bahamas between December 3rd and 15th, meaning that it falls just short of the start date and ends before the WPT does, perhaps a crucial factor in the World Poker tour’s favor.
Anyone who is in Europe may well decide not to travel so far with the EPT Prague festival taking place between December 6th and 17th. With EPT Barcelona showing once again in crowning its winner Simon Wiciak that no-one does it quite like the European Poker Tour, the agony of choice is very real for poker players. One thing you can guarantee is that live players will have endless possibilities to win big on the countdown to Christmas.
