WPT Championship Kicks Off at Bellagio

The World Poker Tour’s sixth season comes to an end this week with the WPT Championship, one of the biggest (and most prestigious) events of the year along with the WSOP main event and the EPT Grand Finale.

The Championship is a $25,000 buy-in event and runs from April 19th through April 26th at the Bellagio Resort and Casino. It’s once again a two-starting-day tourney with 1A on Saturday and 1B on Sunday. As with all Bellagio events, Jack McClelland and his staff will be running the tournament in their classic “player friendly” fashion (huge money, short days and a nice, slow structure). Players start with $50,000 stacks and the ninety-minute levels (which provide more play than most stops on the circuit) begin at $50-$100.

Last year’s WPT Championship attracted a massive field of six hundred and thirty-nine competitors, creating a $15,495,750 total prize pool. The top hundred players walked away with paychecks for at least $46,410. The TV table saw 6th place earn over $300,000 and the eventual winner netted just under $4 million. The final table featured a number of big name players including: Scott Fischman, Thomas Wahlroos, Mike Wattel, Tim Phan, Guy Laliberte (founder of Cirque du Soleil), Kirk Morrison and Juan Carlos Mortensen.

The final results and corresponding payouts were as follows:

The Bellagio staff is expecting another huge field with a prize pool exceeding $15 million, and PokerRoad will be on site everyday bringing you all new episodes of PokerRoad Radio.

Preview by LA Mike