The World Poker Tour (WPT) has announced its low buy-in tournament during World Series of Poker (WSOP) in Las Vegas for the 2nd year. This year the guaranteed prize pool has also been doubled to $2 million with no hike in buy-in which stands just $565. The tournament will be held at Aria in Las Vegas starting May 31.
10 flights will be run out of which the last flight on July 5 will be of turbo structure. All survivors from different starting flight will take seat for main action on Day 2 of the tournament on July 5. The final table battle has been scheduled on July 6. Each opening day clashes with one or more WSOP event.
Here is the full schedule with clashing WSOP events :
Day 1A: May 31, Day 2 of the WSOP’s $565 Colossus event; Day 1 of $1,000 Hyper Hold’em
Day 1B: June 1, Day 3 of the $565 Colossus; Day 2 of $1,000 Hyper Hold’em; Day 1 of $1,500 Pot-Limit Hold’em and $1,500 razz.
Day 1C: June 2, Day 2 of $1,500 events; Day 1 of $1,500 Limit Hold’em.
Day 1D: June 6, 2nd starting flight for Millionaire Maker $1,500 No-Limit Hold’em.
Day 1E: June 7, Day 2 of Millionaire Maker; Day 1 of $1,000 Turbo No-Limit Hold’em, $3,000 Limit Hold’em 6-Handed.
Day 1F: June 8, Day 2 of $1K, $3K events; Day 1 of $1,500 No-Limit Hold’em.
Day 1G: July 2, Day 3 of $1,111 The Little One for One Drop; Day 2 of $1,500 Bounty No-Limit Hold’em, Day 1 of $1,000 WSOP.com Online No-Limit Hold’em and $1,500 Seven Card Stud Hi-Lo 8 or Better.
Day 1H: July 3, Day 1 of $777 LUCKY SEVENS No-Limit Hold’em, Day 2 of $1,500 stud.
Day 1L: July 4, Day 2 of $777 event.
Day 1J (Turbo): July 5, First of three starting flights for the $10,000 main event.
Day 2: July 5
Day 3 Final Table: July 6
Players can make a re-entry once in each starting flight while they can also play more than one starting flight and take the biggest stack out of all to Day 2.
In the official press release, WPT President Adam Pliska said, “After experiencing great success last summer, we are proud to announce our return to Las Vegas for the partypoker presents: WPT500 at ARIA in Las Vegas. In order to create more value for the thousands of players who will flock to Sin City in the coming months, we have doubled the previous guarantee and scheduled more starting flights across three different weekends. In addition, we will be awarding at least one package a day in May on ClubWPT.com, creating more than 40 opportunities for players to win a Las Vegas experience and compete in this massive event.”
There are two sets of opening flights: Day 1A – Day1F which will be played from May 31 to June 8 and Day 1G – Day 1J to be played from July 2 to July 5. The first set of flights is expected to draw more players than the 2nd set which is a few days before the starting flights for the WSOP’s $10,000 Main Event. Last year, this tournament with a guaranteed prize pool of $1 million attracted 3,599 entries.
It would be interesting to watch how doubling the guaranteed prize pool will boost the number of entries and how WPT headways with this WSOP’s rival event.