The 2024 World Poker Tour Season 22 schedule has traversed the world. In the next month, Asia and North America are on the schedule, with one tournament in Osaka, Japan, and another (arguably more notable) stop by the circuit in one of their familiar stomping grounds. On Friday, the WPT Choctaw will kick off action and is expected to draw a sizeable field for the tournament.
Oklahoma the “Hot Spot” for Poker
The Choctaw Casino & Resort in Durant, OK, will serve as the home base for the U. S. version of a WPT event. Beginning on Friday, the WPT Choctaw Championship will be contested, with a $3500 buy-in event featuring two Day Ones. What will make this tournament is the fact that there is a $2 million guaranteed prize pool, plus the unlimited reentries should a player bust out from either Day 1A or Day 1B.
Day 1A will kick off on Friday at noon, with the players receiving 50K in chips and looking to play through Level 10. Late registration for the event (as well as reentry) will cut off with the start of Level 9 on both Day Ones. This is NOT a “best forward” tournament, meaning that players who take part in Day 1A will either have to be happy with their stack for Day 2 on Sunday, or they will have to sacrifice that stack and take another shot on Day 1B on Saturday with no guarantee of making it through.
For the tournament, the levels will be an hour long, enough time for skillful play to have an effect but rapid enough to force the action. The two-Day Ones will feature ten levels of play, while Day Three will play down to the six-handed WPT final table on Monday. At that point, play will be suspended until May 30, when it will be concluded as a part of the WPT’s Weekend of Champions before the start of the 2024 World Series of Poker.
Strong History of Large Fields
The stop in Choctaw has become a tradition for the World Poker Tour. It started in 2015 when the tour made its first foray into Oklahoma, and the players have always come with their games ready. That first stop in 2015, one of the first events following that year’s WSOP, saw 1175 entries put their money on the line and a final table that featured Jake Schindler, Darren Elias, and Andy Hwang. Topping them all was Jason Brin, who took home his largest-ever poker payday of $682,975 for his efforts.
Since 2015, the WPT Choctaw has continued to have large fields and excellent players. James Mackey, Jay Lee, Brady Holiman, Dapo Ajayi, Chance Kornuth, and defending champion Jared Jaffee have all had their names etched on the Mike Sexton WPT Champions’ Cup and, in every year the WPT Choctaw has been contested, the prize pool for the tournaments cracked the 2024 guarantee of $2 million. Jaffee is expected to be back in the saddle in Oklahoma to defend his championship. Action from the 2024 WPT Choctaw will kick off bright and early (for poker players) at noon on Friday, with complete coverage and a live stream from the WPT.
Can Jaffee come back and go back-to-back (and win his third WPT title)? Or will another notable name – or potential breakthrough star – capture the Mike Sexton WPT Champions’ Cup? Although we will have to wait until the end of May to find out, we will know who the six players in contention are by the end of Monday evening.
