WPT Championship Moves to Atlantic City This Month, $5 Million Guaranteed
The end-of-season World Poker Tour Championship is on the move. This year, the tournament will move across the United States from its old digs at the Bellagio in Las Vegas to the Borgata in Atlantic City. The action begins on April 21 and features the New Jersey Championship of Online Poker, or NJCOP, running alongside it, giving players the chance to battle offline and online. Sign up for PartyPoker New Jerseyand sign up for Borgata Poker today.
WPT President Adam Pliska commented in a press release that a change of scenery for the WPT Championship should provide a fresh start: “After 11 years in Las Vegas, we saw an interesting opportunity to shake things up and update our iconic Championship. With the move to New Jersey, the lower buy-in, and the support of PartyPoker, which is qualifying players online, we’re giving players who may never have been able to join us for this prestigious event a chance to enjoy the ultimate WPT experience.”
New Jersey players will have a unique opportunity, as PartyPoker and Borgata Poker are qualifying players for the WPT Championship. There are three ways to score a WPT Championship seat, including a 64-player Heads-Up Shootout on April 13 at 4:00pm Eastern Time, three freezeouts the same day that range in buy-in from $100 to $2,000, and a Last Chance Qualifier on April 17.
The Borgata has been the site of five of the six largest WPT events ever, including Season X’s Borgata Poker Open, which drew 1,313 entrants, and January’s Borgata Winter Poker Open, which attracted 1,229 entrants. First place in the WPT Championship is guaranteed $1.35 million. This year, the tournament boasts a more affordable $15,400 buy-in.
One PartyPoker official told PocketFives that the WPT Championship represents “one of the best TV poker events in the world and the crown jewel of the WPT.” The same source added, “Making the WPT Championship a success in New Jersey would be great for all of us: for PartyPoker, for Borgata, and for the New Jersey poker landscape.”
Last year, David “Chino” Rheem won the WPT Championshipand earned $1.1 million, defeating Erick Lindgren heads-up in a final table that also included PocketFiver David Davidp18 Peters, who finished sixth. The 2013 WPT Championship, which had a $25,500 buy-in, drew 146 entrants.
The NJCOP runs from April 19 to 27, concurrently with the WPT Championship, and has a $500 High Roller on April 27 that guarantees $20,000 to first place. The NJCOP will shell out at least $600,000 total across 15 events.
Sign up for PartyPoker New Jerseyand sign up for Borgata Poker today. You don’t have to be a New Jersey resident to play on either site; instead, you just need to be physically located in the Garden State. Best of luck to all PocketFivers entering the WPT Championship and NJCOP!
Want the latest poker headlines and interviews? Follow PocketFives on Twitterand Like PocketFives on Facebook. You can also subscribe to our RSS feed.
