As the Grateful Dead once said, “What a long, strange trip it’s been.” Then again, you could say that about pretty much every season of the World Poker Tour! Over the next week, the WPT will wrap up its Season XVI schedule with two tournament stops at the ARIA Resort & Casino in Las Vegas, NV.
What started over a year ago (the first official tournament on the Season XVI lineup was in Beijing back in April 2017), Season XVI has crowned 18 champions to this point. Over the next week, two more men will pick up the moniker of “WPT Champion” as they battle through some of the most difficult competition in the world. It will all kick off on Sunday afternoon as the final “open” event on the WPT schedule for this season takes place.
Announced during the run of the Season XVI schedule, the first of those two tournaments will be a newcomer to the WPT family. The WPT Bobby Baldwin Classic is a $10,000 ($9600 to the prize pool, $400 to the “juice”) buy in event that is a throwback to the “old school” ways of tournament poker. No multiple Day Ones, no rebuys, no bells and whistles. Day One will start at noon on Sunday and that is the ONLY “first day” of the tournament, although late registration will run until the start of Level 11 on Monday. Not only is it a throwback in the structure of the tournament, it is also one of the few $10,000 buy in tournaments on the WPT schedule (the L. A. Poker Classic and two tournaments at the Bellagio, the WPT Bellagio Elite Poker Championship and the Five Diamond World Poker Classic, round out the $10K roster).
The tournament is named for one of the venerable legends of the world of poker. Bobby Baldwin has pretty much done it all in in his time in poker – winner of the 1978 World Series of Poker Championship Event, four WSOP bracelets in total and an extended time as one of the most feared cash game players in the world that was elected to the Poker Hall of Fame in 2003 – and in the business world. In 1982, he became a consultant with the Golden Nugget casino and, two scant years later, was named the president of the casino.
Baldwin moved on from the Golden Nugget to helm some of the biggest casino operations in Las Vegas. In 1987, he would move to the Mirage and, in 1998, was named the president of the Bellagio. Only two years later (after the merger of Mirage Resorts and MGM Grand), Baldwin became the Chief Executive Officer of the Mirage Resorts arm of MGM Mirage. Because of his presence in the world of high stakes poker and legend in the game, the poker room at the Bellagio was christened “Bobby’s Room” when it was built and now he has a tournament in his name on the WPT circuit also.
The eventual champion of the inaugural WPT Bobby Baldwin Classic, which will be crowned on May 23, will be the last qualifier for arguably the biggest show on the WPT calendar. The WPT Tournament of Champions begins on May 24, featuring a unique roster of players that can take part. The champions of the Season XVI schedule have had $15,000 removed from their prize pools to be able to participate in this tournament, but what makes it special is the other players who can participate in the event.
While the Season XVI champions are automatically qualified for the event, every previous champion on the WPT – roughly 220 players – can take part in the tournament, if they pony up their $15K entry fee. This is the third running of the event, with the first two events being contested in Florida at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Hollywood, FL.
Those two tournaments, to be honest, were a bit smaller than perhaps expected. In 2016 (the first year of the event), only 64 players took part (with WPT Champions’ Club member Farid Yachou taking the title; he has had two tournament cashes since then and hasn’t cashed since 2016). In 2017, Daniel Weinman emerged from the 66-player field to capture the title. It is hoped with the move to Las Vegas (and the upcoming 2018 WSOP on the schedule afterwards) that there will be more former champions taking their shot at the WPT Tournament of Champions (which replaced the WPT World Championship).
However you look at it, the next week will be filled with poker action and the WPT will be in the middle of it. For more info on the tournament or to follow the live action, be sure to visit the WPT website to learn more.