Big event on the down-low? The $25,000 World Poker Tour (WPT) Heads-Up Poker Championship was an odd bird. It was a 32-player invitational with an eclectic mix of poker stars, e-sports athletes, celebrities, and a couple online qualifiers. It was played online, but some players showed up in person at an undisclosed location in Cabo… Read more »
Things move awfully fast during the first two days of a large-field poker tournament. Going into Sunday’s Day 2, just 284 players remained of the original 1,165 entries in the 2021 World Poker Tour (WPT) Seminole Hard Rock Tampa Main Event. At the end of the night, that number was whittled down to only 40… Read more »
It seems to be a bit of odd scheduling for the World Poker Tour. While the first event of their Season XIX schedule kicks off in Tampa on Friday, the WPT will also be running an international event online. The WPT Heads Up Championship is set to begin on Friday alongside the first-ever WPT Seminole… Read more »
Good thing they were comfortable at home Christian Rudolph came back from the middle of the final table pack on Wednesday to win the World Poker Tour (WPT) Online Series Main Event on partypoker. After striking a heads-up deal, Rudolph walked away with $487,442.75, about $40,000 less than he would have won without an agreement… Read more »
Out of the house, into the poker room Summer unofficially began this week with the start of June, though it doesn’t officially began for about three weeks. With the United States beginning to emerge from its collective home as COVID-19 numbers keep trending downward, it feels more like the beginning of spring. We break out… Read more »
The ribbon has been placed on what has been the longest season in the history of the World Poker Tour. Brek Schutten earned the championship of the delayed final table of the 2021 WPT Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown, taking home a million-dollar plus payday. In the same event, Brian Altman finished off an outstanding… Read more »
Balakrishna Patur won the 2020 World Poker Tour (WPT) L.A. Poker Classic Monday night and now we are all caught up. The WPT L.A. Poker Classic was the last of the three delayed WPT final tables that had to be postponed for over a year because of the COVID-19 pandemic. And now Mr. Patur is… Read more »
Veerab Zakarian won the 2020 World Poker Tour (WPT) Borgata Winter Poker Open Sunday night, claiming a first prize of $674,840. If it sounds weird that he won a 2020 tournament nearly halfway through 2021, that’s ok. It is weird. The hopefully never-to-be-seen-again confluence of events that created the odd name/calendar pairing were the planned… Read more »
The second annual* WPT Online Series kicks off on Friday on partypoker and organizers have made it bigger than last year’s. Over the course of two and a half weeks, running May 14 to June 2, the 2021 WPT Online Poker Series will feature more than 130 tournaments with buy-ins ranging from just $5.50 up… Read more »
If you have been around the world of poker for any length of time, you always wonder “whatever happened to” a few players. In the case of champion poker player Joanne “J. J.” Liu, it is something that sometimes pulls her away from the tables but still challenges her business sense. Liu, it seems, has… Read more »
After such an exciting start, it almost seemed to be a shame that they had to interrupt the tournament. Alas, they did – the final table of the 2021 World Poker Tour Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown has been determined from the largest entry field in WPT history. The downside is that the champion will… Read more »
Everyone in the poker community figured it would be big, but I do not believe that anyone thought it would be this big. Two Day Ones are in the books at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Hollywood, FL, and the WPT Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown is certainly one for the record… Read more »
It seems like it has gone on forever, but Season XVIII of the World Poker Tour will finally come to a close over the next week. The WPT Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown will begin tomorrow, the final event on what has been a season like no other. The WPT Seminole Hard Rock will also… Read more »
It is one of the biggest new trends in the digital world. The offerings of “non fungible tokens,” or NFTs, has been one of the most unique offerings that have come into the collectables market in the last few decades. Now, the World Poker Tour is looking to get on that train beginning on April… Read more »
Look, I don’t know what the World Poker Tour is actually worth, but Allied Esports Entertainment is certainly wringing all it can out of it. On Tuesday, the company announced that it once again going with Element Partners after amending its stock purchase agreement with the equity fund. Element has now agreed to buy Allied’s… Read more »
After the “lost year” that 2020 was for tournament poker, 2021 is not exactly roaring off to a great start, either. So far in 2021, there have been a few World Poker Tour events that have gone off and some smaller events in Las Vegas and Sochi…and that has been it. Still, if we are… Read more »
Looks like the sale to Element is back on Something fascinating happened on Monday. I was proven wrong. I know, I know, impossible, but it happened. Last week, when Bally’s Corporation made a new offer to Allied Esports Entertainment for the World Poker Tour and Allied announced that it was considering it, I wrote that… Read more »
The world of tournament poker has been in a slumber for the past year-plus. Slowly, however, tournaments are coming back to life. The World Poker Tour is running some live events in Florida and Nevada (next stop is the Seminole Hard Rock in Hollywood, FL, for the WPT Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown in April),… Read more »
After maintaining a “radio silence” after the signing of a new ambassador and the resulting controversies that has resulted from it, GGPoker has finally responded on a multitude of issues. In one situation, it blames the female in the case for the issues that have arisen and, in another, it continues to back their ambassador… Read more »
When you have two invitations to the prom When Element Partners agreed to acquire the World Poker Tour from Allied Esports in January, the companies said that they expected the deal to close later that month or in early February. Element is probably kicking itself right now that it didn’t happen, as Bally’s not only… Read more »
This is already the week of Qing Liu’s poker life. It could get legendary today. Last night, Liu won his first World Poker Tour title, outdueling 2015 World Series of Poker Main Event champ Joe McKeehen heads-up in the WPT Venetian Main Event. Things could get even better for him on Wednesday, though. Early last… Read more »
The World Poker Tour (WPT) Venetian Main Event has reached its final table, with six players left to vie for the title. Leading the charge toward the three-quarters of a million dollars first prize is 2015 World Series of Poker Main Event champ Joe McKeehen with 10.850 million chips. Though there are just six players… Read more »
Competitive battle at the top The World Poker Tour (WPT) Venetian moves into its third day on Monday with just 32 players remaining. Leading the charge into the home stretch is James Carroll with 2.690 million chips. It is tight race at the top of the leaderboard, as no one person, or even a group… Read more »
The World Poker Tour’s successful return in 2021 has been further demonstrated by their current stop at The Venetian in Las Vegas. The WPT Venetian had nearly 1000 entries for their $5000 Main Event and, beginning on Sunday’s Day 2, more than 200 players were still alive for the title. By the end of the… Read more »
The World Poker Tour continues forward into the “brave new world” of post-COVID tournament poker, and it seems the rest of the poker community is ready to come along. The sheer number of players ended up crushing the guarantee at the WPT Venetian in Las Vegas before the dinner break on Friday night. On Saturday,… Read more »
