WPT Tournament of Champions Schedule Announced

6 years ago
WPT Tournament of Champions Schedule Announced
11:48
29 Jan

The schedule for the 2018 WPT Tournament of Champions Festival has been released - the highly anticipated $15K Main Event will be held May 24th-26th at the Aria Casino in Las Vegas, with a special location for the final table. 

Season XVI of the World Poker Tour will end with a bang in May: the 2017-2018 run’s last stop will be the Tournament of Champions Festival, the venue is the world-famous Aria Resort & Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada. The festival has 14 events on its schedule; it kicks off on May 17th with the $10K Omaha 8 tournament.


The three most anticipated events on the menu are the $10K Bobby Baldwin Classic, the $100K Aria High Roller and the $15K Tournament of Champions Main Event.

Bobby Baldwin is a poker legend from the “Johnny Moss times” of the game: he won the WSOP Main Event in 1978 and 3 more bracelets in the 70’s, two in 2-7 Triple Draw and one more in 7-Card Stud. After he withdrew from the highest levels of professional poker, he went on to be a top executive at the biggest casinos in Vegas, including The Golden Nugget, The Bellagio and The Mirage. He’s still up for some action on at the card tables, however, as evidenced by the fact that he was spotted in August last year playing a high stakes cash game with Tom Dwan and Dan Bilzerian

The last $10K event of WPT Season XVI bears his name - it starts on May 20th.

A few days later, on May 24th the $15K Main Event launches. Only players who have won at least one WPT tournament in the past are eligible to enter; champions of the running season already have their seats reserved for them. Last year’s Tournament of Champions winner, Daniel Weinman pocketed $381,000 at the Seminole Hard Rock Casino, topping a field with some impressive names: Stefan Schillhabel and Erik Seidel also made it to the final table, but Weinman turned out to be the eventual champion.


The venue will be different this year: the first two days will be played at the Aria, while the final table will be filmed at the Esports Arena Las Vegas at the Luxor Hotel & Casino. 

Players buying in for this $15K rake-free tournament will receive a 50,000-chip starting stack, which means they start incredibly - over 300 BB - deep as the first 60-minute long level has 150-750-25 blinds. No re-entry is allowed - maybe that’s part of the reason why the starting stacks are so deep.

And with that season XVI of the World Poker Tour will come to a close - but don’t worry, the wait will not be long, the 2018-2019 season starts on June 14th with the WPT DeepStacks Tampa event at the local Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino.


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Marton Magyar is a Hungarian online poker player and writer who covers the latest in poker news.Read more

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