The penultimate event of the Season Ten schedule of the World Poker Tour, the WPT Championship at the Bellagio in Las Vegas, kicks off this Saturday, with the additional thrills of a Super High Roller tournament joining it next week.
The WPT Championship, the $25,000 buy in event that has traditionally closed each year of the WPT schedule, is getting a bit later start this year than in the past. Formerly held in April of each year, the WPT may have made the move to the later start date in May to take advantage of the hordes of players that will be descending on the desert oasis for the World Series of Poker that begins at the end of this month. Regardless of the reason, the 2012 WPT Championship promises to be an exciting week of poker.
“The prestige of this event is unmatched as whoever is left standing will have defeated what many consider to be the toughest field in all of poker,” Steve Heller, the WPT Chief Executive Officer, stated leading up to the tournament. “Earning the right to be called WPT World Champion is poker’s crowning achievement and a career-defining moment.”
The list of prior victors at the WPT Championship demonstrates the factor of its difficulty. Alan Goehring won the inaugural champion back in 2003, with champions Martin De Knijff, Tuan Le, Joe Bartholdi, Carlos Mortensen, David Chen, Yevgeniy Timoshenko, David Williams and defending champion Scott Seiver following in his path. Others such as Hasan Habib, Matt Matros, Phil Ivey, Doyle Brunson, Gus Hansen, Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier, Eric “basebaldy” Baldwin, Shawn Buchanan and Galen Hall (among others) have made at least one appearance at the final table of this tournament.
Adding to the pressure of the tournament will be the race for the WPT Player of the Year honors. The eventual winner of the WPT Championship will take down 1400 points for the effort and, as such, there are a host of players that are in contention for the prestigious honor of WPT POY.
After leading the POY race for much of Season Ten, Will “The Thrill” Failla was unceremoniously dumped from the top slot by Joe Serock at the WPT Seminole Hard Rock Showdown during the WPT’s swing through the state of Florida. Undaunted, Failla climbed right back to the top of the table by finishing in sixth place at the WPT Jacksonville BestBet Open.
With 2050 points, Failla’s lead is far from secure. Other than Serock (who holds 1800 points in second place), there are 76 other players that are within the 1400 points that earning the WPT Championship would give them. Some of the players who could rise up to snatch the POY award (if none of the players in front of them make the money) include Season Ten champions James Dempsey, Tommy Vedes and Sean Jazayeri, Vanessa Selbst and Andrew Lichtenberger.
For those who find themselves on the rail after the WPT Championship is in full swing – and if they have deep enough pockets – the WPT will also be bringing back its Super High Roller tournament, beginning on May 23. The $100,000 buy in tournament (which will actually be a rebuy tournament), which first played last year, drew the crème of the poker playing world to battle it out for a $2.8 million prize pool. 29 players went to the felt in 2011, with Erik Seidel outlasting Erick Lindgren for the $1.09 million first place prize, and it is expected that this field will once again pull in several high profile names to compete for the Super High Roller title.
Late registration for the WPT Championship will last well into Day Three of the tournament, so the actual prize pool for the tournament will not be known until early next week. As the finale of the Season Ten schedule for the WPT, though, it is expected that the field will be replete with big name pros and the amateurs that are looking to take them down.
