The festivities continue today at the WPT festival at the Wynn, as the ClubWPT Gold $5 Million Freeroll plays down to the final table, WPT Prime Championship crowns its champion, and the WPT Championship event itself kicks-off.
The $10,400 Championship event, which is the main attraction of the festival, started in the early hours of the day, and attracted over 600 hopefuls over the first couple of levels, with plenty more set to join as the day moves on.
The WPT Championship will feature a total of three starting days, each giving players plenty of opportunity to play one-hour levels and build up a chip stack for the deeper stages.
While plenty of exciting WPT events are still on the schedule for the coming days, the WPT Championship is set to remain the main focus of poker fans for the foreseeable future, being the most prestigious and rewarding event of the entire festival.
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The Championship Is Back in Full Glory
For the third year running, the WPT Championship returns to the luxurious Wynn, one of the most beautiful properties on the Las Vegas Strip, to host the most elite echelons of the poker world.
A year ago, WPT hosted the largest guaranteed poker tournament ever, and despite failing to reach the $40 million guarantee, made it one of the most historic tournaments in the history of the game.
American Dan Sepiol, who has since demonstrated his poker prowess time and time again, walked away with the $5.28 million first-place prize, beating Greek players Georgios Sotiropoulos in the heads-up battle for the trophy.
A total of 3,835 players showed up to play that time, and while the numbers may not be quite as impressive this year, WPT still expects numbers that would put most other tournament series to shame.
So far, just over 600 players have already taken their seats, including quite a few familiar faces who the fans of the game will be happy to see.
Big Names Out In Force for the Early Levels
Big-field tournaments with a re-entry option like the WPT World Championship tend to bring out the biggest names in the later levels of the starting days.
However, quite a few notables decided to take advantage of playing those early levels of the WPT World Championship this time around, with the likes of Joe Serock, Ankit Ahuja, and Martin Jacobson all in the running.
Ukrainian Eugene Katchalov, who had taken a break from poker for some years was also spotted among the early runners on Saturday morning, along with former WSOP Main Event champion Ryan Reiss.
A few familiar faces already left the tournament area, presumably to seek a re-entry, including one of the most famous poker vloggers Mariano Grandoli.
Day 1A of the World Championship will go on into the evening hours, with hundreds of players still expected to join the field, with notables like Phil Ivey, Dan Cates, and others who have been spotted around the Wynn in previous days.
WPT Prime and ClubWPT Gold Freeroll in Final Stages
As the WPT World Championship kicks off, a number of other key events of the festival are entering their final stages.
The WPT Prime Championship, which attracted nearly 10,000 players, is now down to just six, who will be playing for a prestigious title and over $1,000,000 in cash today.
New Yorker Kevin Calenzo enters that final table of nine as the chip leader, with the likes of James Casement, Colin Hong, and Joseph Ozimok looking to topple him.
Among the final nine is also Justin Joung, former WPT Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown champion and famous high-stakes cash game player.
The $5 Million ClubWPT Gold Freeroll, on the other hand, saw 50 players come back for Day 2 action, with the field quickly dwindling down to a final table of nine, who will come back to battle it out for the million dollar prize and valuable final table mystery bounties.
With these two tournaments, WPT will make at least two new millionaires over the next two days, with plenty more to come before the WPT World Championship caravan leaves Las Vegas.
