Over the past two days, the World Poker Tour has announced the addition – or return, to be exact – of two stops to its 2022 schedule. The WPT Venetian in Las Vegas will run July 7-17 in Las Vegas, while the WPT Seminole Hard Rock Tampa is slated for August 25 – September 6.
“We look forward to continuing to build upon our storied history of premier tournament poker at The Venetian Resort this summer”, said World Poker Tour CEO Adam Pliska in Wednesday’s press release. “I am confident that players will be impressed by our joint efforts with The Venetian Resort to make this event bigger and better than ever.”
The $5,000 WPT Venetian Main Event is scheduled for July 12-17 and features a $4 million guaranteed prize pool. Last year’s edition, held around the same time of year, attracted 1,199 entries, easily beating its $3 million and ending with a prize pool of over $5.5 million. Chad Eveslage won the tourney and the $910,370 first prize.
Among the preliminary events at the Venetian stop is a three-day No-Limit Hold’em DeepStack Championship.
Across the country in Florida late this summer, the WPT Seminole Hard Rock Tampa Main Event will be September 2-7. The buy-in is lower than at the Venetian – $3,500 – and it does not appear that any prize pool has been guaranteed. This is the seventh time the Seminole Hard Rock Tampa will host the World Poker Tour.
Last year’s Tampa Main Event fielded 1,165 entrants and saw its prize pool eclipse $3.7 million. Brian Altman got to pose for the winner’s photo, the third time he has won a World Poker Tour title. That tied him for second all-time with Eric Afriat, Gus Hansen, Chino Rheem, Anthony Zinno, and Carlos Mortensen. Darren Elias is the record holder with four WPT wins and has a chance to make it five, as he made the final table of WPT Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown.
“Our players have always shown enthusiasm for WPT events,” said Pablo Perez, director of poker at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino Tampa. “It is going to be an exciting summer of poker here in Tampa, and players should look forward to the release of the full tournament schedule.”
Those who play in tournaments at both Tour stops can earn points toward the WPT Player of the Festival leaderboard, the winner of which receives a $1,100 WPT Prime Passport.
