Playing under the bright lights
The World Poker Tour has announced the addition of the WPT Ladies World Championship to this year’s schedule. The tournament will part of the WPT World Championship event lineup at Wynn Las Vegas, slated for December 1-20. The WPT Ladies World Championship will run December 16-18.
The buy-in will be $1,100; the WPT says that buy-in is “for women,” which implies that men are not technically excluded, but will have to pay more. The World Series of Poker does this for its Ladies No-Limit Hold’em event to abide by Nevada regulations, which do not allow people to be excluded from poker tournaments based on their gender. The price can be varied, though, which is why men must pay ten times what women pay. One would assume it will work similarly with the WPT Ladies World Championship.
The tournament will also have a $200,000 guaranteed prize pool.
“We are committed to increasing the number of women in our global poker community, and will continue to introduce thoughtful initiatives both live and online at ClubWPT and WPT Global,” said VP of global tour management at World Poker Tour Angelica Hael in Monday’s press release. “The WPT Ladies Championship will prominently showcase today’s talent and set the stage for future high-profile tournaments.”
The WPT Ladies Championship will be one of three events during the WPT World Championship that will be televised. In addition to the Ladies final table, the final tables of WPT World Championship and WPT Prime Championship will also be broadcast.
“It is our privilege to give the WPT Ladies World Championship the biggest stage possible,” said Loc Sondheim, vice president of studio. “Sharing this event with as many WPT viewers as we can is part of our efforts to share the game of poker far and wide.”
Other action during the WPT World Championship festival
The WPT World Championship will run December 12-18, the first three calendar days of which will be Day 1 flights. The buy-in is $10,400 and the tournament comes with a $15 million guaranteed prize pool. The final table will be on December 20.
The WPT Prime Championship has a $1,100 buy-in and a $2 million guaranteed prize pool. That one goes December 8-12, with the final table on December 19. Like the WPT World Championship, the first three calendar days are all separate starting flights.
One other “featured” event during the three weeks at Wynn Las Vegas is the $1,600 Mystery Bounty tournament with a $2 million guarantee. December 16-18 are all Day 1 flights, while December 19 is the final day of the event.
