The World Poker Tour announced Wednesday that it is continuing to increase its presence in Asia, returning to both Japan and Korea with WPT Japan and WPT Korea at Paradise City, respectively. Both tour stops will take place in September.
“The World Poker Tour is thrilled to announce WPT Japan and WPT Korea as part of our 2018 schedule,” said World Poker Tour CEO Adam Pliska in a press release issued to poker media outlets. “Asia played an important role in the WPT’s success in 2017, and we are proud to return to the region in 2018. Last year, the WPT historically kicked off Season XVI with WPT Beijing and held the first-ever WPT Japan. We are honored to have the opportunity to continue to fuel poker’s growth in this burgeoning region and showcase the wealth of talent Asian players have to offer.”
The World Poker Tour is once again partnering with Japan Poker Union Corporation for WPT Japan, which will be held in Tokyo September 15th through September 17th. The buy-in will be JPY 30,000 (approximately USD $272). When WPT Japan was announced last year, there was some confusion initially as to whether there was actually a buy-in, but there was: JPY 25,000. All prizes, though, were in the form of WPT event packages. For instance, the winner of the WPT Japan Main Event won a $10,000 “multi-passport.”
WPT Korea will be September 18th through September 24th at Paradise City Casino in Incheon, South Korea. The Main Event will begin on September 21st. In a player-friendly setup, the World Poker Tour will give players at WPT Japan the opportunity to play the early stages of the WPT Korea Main Event while still in Japan and then join up with the rest of the field in Korea later. Buy-in for the WPT Korean Main Event is KRW 1.1 million (approximately USD $1,018).
WPT Korea is also unique in that it will feature the first-ever $5,000 WPT Teams Event (yes, it’s in U.S. currency, not Korean currency). Not much detail has been given as to the structure, but each team will be composed of four players. Each team will also represent a country and only one team is permitted per nation, with 16 teams max. The teams will battle it out in “up to” six events, all variations of No-Limit Hold’em and Pot-Limit Omaha. That’s all the detail the World Poker Tour has put out there for now. We don’t know if it will be a tag-team type of event, if all members of every team will be competing simultaneously, or if each team will select one player to represent it during each event. In any case, it’s interesting. The players on the winning team will receive entries into the WPT Korea Main Event.