Battle For Winner Of World Poker Tour Takes Off

The World Poker Tour World Championships, which is considered as being one of the leading events in poker, got going for the fourth time this week in Las Vegas at the Bellagio Hotel and Casino. It is starting off with 606 contestants and a gigantic prizepool of $15,125,000.

The rewards will be enormous for the woman or man who succeeds in beating the 605 opponents from 40 countries in games that will take place over a 6 day period. He or she will win a $3.8 million first prize. Those players who come in at second through fourth place also stand to do well, with a million dollar or greater individual payout.

The $25,500 tournament buy-in is certainly not the cheapest available, but when you consider prestige, media coverage and prizes, this tournament is very hard to beat.

Founder and CEO of WPT Enterprises, Inc., Steve Lipscomb, says that the WPT World Championship is thought of as being the most difficult tournament in the world to win when you consider the quality of the competitors. With the buy-in set at $25,500 just to reach the table, you need to be a very proficient poker player, according to Lipscomb. To make it into this tournament, he says, you either must built up a very sizable bankroll or you must have outlasted thousands playing in satellite tournaments. He figures that there is no doubt that the final table will be a cliffhanger.

The WPT World Championship is the crown on the WPT's fourth season. This brings to $85,120,000the overall prize money for the 17 tournaments. The 20 newest WPT Poker Millionaires have been provided by these tournaments, which are currently airing at 9 p.m. on every Wednesday night on the Travel Channel.

When the final table is assembled on Monday, April 24, at 4 pm the entire group of 606 contestants will have been cut down to only six. It is from these six that the one overall champion will be selected.

Update: April 22nd, 2006

It is Day 4 of the championship and the field has already been brought down to 74 players. Included in this group are many well known poker names.

Back to Online Gambling News - April 2006
Online Casino Latest News
Online Casino News Archive