World Poker Tour Announces Six Additional Season XVI Stops
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Art Papazyan captured the attention of the poker world with his wins at WPT Legends of Poker and WPT Maryland, and more events are soon to unfold at the additional tournaments.
World Poker Tour travels to Europe
The first tournament on the updated schedule belongs to Germany and the SpielBank Berlin venue. The WPT European Championship opens the 2018 World Poker Tour calendar with a televised event. The €3,300 event runs from January 10-15 and is among the largest buy-in events available in the region.
Busy Winter months
From there, the WPT heads to Florida for the first of two Season XVI stops. Following multiple years of hosting the World Poker Tour for the Lucky Hearts Open, Seminole Hard Rock in Hollywood, FL resumes their January event after a brief hiatus. The $3,500 Lucky Hearts Open Main Event starts on January 19. The last time the WPT Lucky Hearts Open ran was in Season XIII and Brian Altman defeated a field of 1,027 to claim $723,000 out of a prize pool that topped $3.2 million.
Next on the list of events is a trip to familiar territory in Atlantic City, New Jersey, and The Borgata. The WPT Winter Poker Open kicks off on January 28 with high expectations to beat last season’s field. In January 2017, the $3,500 event drew a record crowd of 1,312 where Daniel Weinman emerged victoriously. Weinman parlayed that win into a victory in the season-ending WPT Tournament of Champions.
The last of the WPT events on the Eastern seaboard is in Canada. The World Poker Tour makes its annual trip to Niagara Falls and Fallsview Casino for the C$5,000 WPT Fallsview Poker Classic. The stop holds some history for the WPT.
In Season XIII, Anthony Zinno won his first of two titles that year on his way to becoming WPT Player of the Year. Last season, Darren Elias won his third career WPT title putting him in a class that includes only Zinno, Carlos Mortensen, Gus Hansen, and Chino Rheem.
Time to head West
The World Poker Tour then heads west for an abbreviated version of the California Swing. In past years, the WPT included the Bay 101 Shooting Star event during the latter stages of the season but that stop has not been formally added to the schedule as of yet.
The first of those trips is to the Commerce Casino in Los Angeles for the WPT L.A. Poker Classic. One of the last WPT stops that still has a $10,000 buy-in, the freezeout event will look to continue the trend of having a first place prize of over $1 million starting on February 24.
The L.A. Poker Classic wraps on March 1 and the very next day, the WPT Rolling Thunder event opens in Lincoln, CA. This is the fifth season of the WPT traveling to Northern California for the $3,500 event. Past winners include JC Tran and Harrison Gimbel.
Wrapping it all up
The final event listed by the World Poker Tour is the WPT Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown. The second trip to the Seminole Casino starts on April 13 for the $3,500 event.
Among the events not listed on the schedule is the WPT Tournament of Champions and formerly held $10,000 WPT Finale held at Seminole. With some time left on the calendar before 2018 hits, the World Poker Tour may be saving the release of the time and setting for these events until a later date.
The next stop on the World Poker Tour is in Jacksonville, FL for the $5,000 bestbet Bounty Scramble from October 21-25. It was this event in Season XV where Sam Panzica won the first of his two WPT titles in the season and perhaps another player will match the feat already set by Papazyan.