Wynn Las Vegas will host its first World Poker Tour (WPT) in December and wind up the current season. The 2022 WPT World Championship $10,400 buy-in no-limit hold'em main event will have a $15 million guaranteed prize pool, the biggest in live poker tournament history.
Adam Pliska, WPT CEO, stated that it is one of WPT's most ambitious initiatives in its two-decade history. They believe that it will be an anticipated festival as it partners with Wynn Las Vegas.
The WPT World Championship will have a live-streamed final table and three single-entry starting flights kicking off at 11 a.m. between December 12 and December 14. The winner will be crowned at the December 20 final table.
All players will start the action with 100,000 tournament chips. The event will start with hour-long levels and later switch to 90-minute levels.
The eventual winner's name will be included in the Mike Sexton WPT Champions Cup, besides getting a huge chunk of the eight-figure prize pool. The tournament was named after the late Poker Hall of Fame member and WPT host.
The Mike Sexton WPT Champions Cup
The WPT recently released a press statement showing that it expects over 500 players to qualify for the event through in-person and online satellites. WPT Global, WPT live casino partners from different countries, and ClubWPT™ have awarded $12,000 WPT World Championship passports.
Players can get extra information about how they can qualify for the tournament on the official WPT website. It will be the last event in this season's WPT tour. Seven WPT main events have ended so far with almost 8,500 entries and awarded $30.1 million in prize money.
They have an average turnout of more than 1,200 entries per tournament, each of them awarding about $4.3 million. Two extra WPT main events will take place before the season's final winner is crowned.
Bellagio Hotel Casino will host the first event, WPT Five Diamond, in late October, and Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Hollywood will host the second tournament, WPT Rock 'N' Roll Poker Open in November.
The WPT World Championship at Las Vegas has an unprecedented guarantee. But it won't be Wynn's first time to run an eight-figure guaranteed tournament since it started operating in 2005.
The resort has hosted the $10 million guaranteed Wynn Millions main event twice, the first one being last year. Verifiable reports show that it will raise its stakes alongside WPT.
Ryan Beauregard, Wynn Las Vegas Executive Director of Poker Operations, stated that they strive to offer players memorable poker experiences, world-class amenities, and services. He added that their collaboration with WPT will create a unique festival for new and old players.
The tournament will partly form the WPT World Championship at Wynn Las Vegas series scheduled to take place from December 1 to December 20. It will have $22 million guaranteed prize money and 23 tournaments.
Other tentpole tournaments like the $200,000 guaranteed $1,100 WPT Ladies Championship, the $2 million guaranteed $1,600 Wynn Mystery Bounty, and the $2 million guaranteed $1,100 WPT Prime Championship no-limit hold 'em event. The mystery bounty event will award players cash prizes and bounties of up to $100,000.
