The World Poker Tour (WPT) had announced towards the end of 2015 that it would replace its popular WPT Championship with a new event called the Tournament of Champions and introduced a number of new terms and buy-in measures. The new changes did not go down well with the players who stated that they were not very keen to attend the Tournament of Champions.
The WPT has addressed these concerns by deciding to introduce a new Main Event that has a $10,000 buy-in and comes with $2 million in guaranteed prize money. The event is scheduled to take place at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino (SHR) in Hollywood, Florida during April 2016.
The 2016 WPT Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown will run from the 14th to the 20th of April and feature a $3,500 buy-in for the main event which will take place on the 17th of April. The $2 million main event finale will be the final event of the WPT season and award the final guaranteed entry into the rake-free WPT Tournament of Champions which starts on Apr. 22.
In a statement, Adam Pliska, WPT President and CEO said
The addition of the WPT Seminole Hard Rock Poker Finale creates extra value for every player who participates in our season-ending festival at Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino; offering them one last chance to clinch a massive prize and qualify for the historic WPT Tournament of Champions.
In the Tournament of Champions, winners from the current season, whose buy-in will be awarded as part of their prize, would play against champions from earlier seasons of WPT who would have to pay for the buy-in. The move to replace the final with an invitation-only event was not very well received as many felt that it would make the playing field very tough.
The season ending festival features four key events: a No-Limit Hold’em which comes with a $2 million guarantee and a buy-in for $3,500, the Finale No-Limit Hold’em with $10,000 buy-in, also with $2 million guarantee, a No-Limit Hold’em with a $1 million guarantee and a buy-in of $25,500, and finally the No-Limit Hold’em Tournament of Champions that comes with a buy-in of $15,000.
The $25,500 buy-in comes with a re-entry for the $1 million guarantee and is a high roller event that has also been recently introduced by the WPT. The final tables of these three mega tournaments will be spread out to ensure that players can participate in as many tournaments as they want. All the final tables will be live streamed and the Tournament of Champions final table will be filmed and later broadcast on Fox Sports Networks.
