World Poker Tour (WPT)

WPT Main Tour

The WPT Main Tour, founded by attorney and television producer Steve Lipscomb and currently privately owned, is the crown jewel of the WPT’s offerings. It offers medium to large buy-in events around the world, with the majority taking place in the United States where the World Poker Tour got its start.

The tour began in May 2002 with the $10,000 buy-in Five Diamond World Poker Classic at the Bellagio Resort & Casino, where two legends played heads-up for the first official WPT title. Gus Hansen made history as the first WPT champion by navigating a tough field of 146 players, including the formidable John Juanda in the heads-up match. Hansen win a huge $556,460 top prize.

The WPT Main Tour operates mostly in the United States at prestigious venues like Wynn Las Vegas and Seminole Hard Rock Casino in Florida. It does leave America, too, such as for WPT Australia at The Star Gold Coast. All events have been live except during the 2020 pandemic, when the WPT partnered with partypoker (as WPT Global had yet to launch) to offer WPT online poker tournaments.

The tour has crowned hundreds of winners over the past two decades. Each WPT poker winner is rewarded with a huge top prize and Player of the Year points, and they earns the right to have their name engraved on the Champions Cup. The cup was renamed the Mike Sexton WPT Champions Cup in May 2020 after Champions Club member and long-time WPT commentator Mike Sexton retired. (The poker world would mourn his loss soon after when poker’s greatest ambassador passed away from prostate cancer in September 2020.)

WPT World Championship

Early History

The World Poker Tour started the concept of the WPT World Championship from Season 1. That year, the season ended in April with the finale at Bellagio, where Martin de Knijff won $2,728,356 to go with the championship title. Going forward, that event closed out each season at the Bellagio, with Carlos Mortensen winning the largest ever for nearly $4 million to close out the fifth season. This continued through Season 11, when David “Chino” Rheem won it for $1,150,279.

The next year, the WPT moved it to the Borgata in Atlantic City, New Jersey, but two years later, they switched to the Seminole Hard Rock in Hollywood, Florida. Aria Las Vegas hosted it for Seasons 16 and 17, but it fell from the schedule after that.

WPT World Championship Revival

The 20^th anniversary of the World Poker Tour brought many changes, including a revival of the WPT World Championship.

To celebrate Season 20 and close it out in style, the World Poker Tour created the WPT World Championship, a series of tournaments in December at Wynn Las Vegas. The three-week festival of tournaments boasted of many tournaments, including the WPT Prime Championship, WPT Ladies Championship, and the WPT World Championship Main Event. There were mixed games and bounty tournaments, a massive MUG (meet-up game), player party, and a tag team bomb pot event to close it out.

The Main Event was a $10,000 buy-in affair with an eye-popping $15 million guarantee on the prize pool. The buzz around the entire series – from customer service to Wynn poker cash games – brought pro players in from around the world, and satellite winners who won packages for free played a high buy-in event for the first time. When registration closed, it showed that there were 2,960 entries, which created an actual record prize pool of $29,008,000. The final table was livestreamed and filmed for a later broadcast.

When the tournament finished, Eliot Hudon defeated Benny Glaser for the first-place prize of $4,146,400.

WPT World Championship 2023

The WPT-Wynn partnership was a match made in poker heaven. Players raved about the series, and the 2022 event won the Global Poker Award Best Event of the Year honor. So, it was locked in for a follow-up series in 2023.

When the World Poker Tour announced the 2023 WPT World Championship at Wynn Casino in Las Vegas, it did so with a longer schedule – starting November 29 and finishing December 23 – and an even bigger Main Event. The team decided to take it to the next level and make poker history yet again. They put a jaw-dropping $40 million guarantee on the prize pool.

The 2023 WPT Prime Championship (December 7-12) offers a $5 million guarantee, the WPT Ladies Championship has a $250,000 guarantee, the Mystery Bounty $2 million, and a final NLHE event $3 million.

Another big announcement was the return of the largest charity tournament in the world. The WPT Big One for One Drop, with proceeds benefiting the One Drop Foundation, returns after a years-long hiatus, and it will require a $1 million buy-in. Phil Ivey was the first to buy in for a million dollars, and others who followed months before the event included Daniel “Jungleman” Cates, Nick Petrangelo, Chris Brewer, Talal Shakerchi, David Einhorn, and Rick Salomon. More will buy in as the event nears.

The series will feature special events like the Premier MUG (Dec 1) with cash games open to play against names like DJ Steve Aoki and poker pro Patrik Antonius, a LearnWPT workshop (Dec 4-5), WPT Ladies Championship viewing party (Dec 7), WPT Ambassador Tag Team Challenge (Dec 9), and the Ultimate Players Party (Dec 11) at Area15. In addition, Phil Ivey will play heads-up poker (Dec 10) against two ClubWPT qualifiers for a Main Event seat.

See the full WPT schedule.

WPT Prime

WPT Prime is a new live tournament format with lower buy-in tournaments than the WPT Main Tour. It launched in 2022 and replaced the long-running WPTDeepStacks as the mid-major global series arm of the World Poker Tour. The lower buy-ins are designed to be accessible to more players around the world and establish the WPT in more markets.

As with the Main Tour tournaments, WPT Prime features shot clock play, WPT titles, and tournament coverage from the WPT Digital Content Team. The WPT Prime Main Events will also count towards the WPT Player of the Year leaderboard, which awards $30,000 worth of prizes at the end of each year.

WPT500

While the WPT attracts professional and recreational poker players alike, the WPT500 provides a more reasonable entry point for many amateur players with a buy-in of $500.

The WPT500 hosted a handful of events starting in 2014 and then went online at partypoker during the 2020-2021 season due to the COVID pandemic. In 2023, the WPT500 hosted the WPT Spring Festival online at WPT Global, a UK event at Dusk Till Dawn in Nottingham, and an event focused on the Mexican market.

WPT Global

WPT Global is the newest product from the World Poker Tour, which launched the online poker room that now operates in over 100 countries. The poker site went live in April 2022 and offers numerous tournament series and entries into WPT Main Tour and WPT Prime events.

WPT Global is a licensed partner of the World Poker Tour which has been around for nearly 20 years and it is one of the biggest and most valuable poker brands. The new online poker site offers cash games, tournaments and various different game formats such as No Limit Texas Hold’em, Short Deck and Pot Limit Omaha.

All WPT’s Online Offerings

For many years, the World Poker Tour was a live tour brand and did not venture online. However, WPT executives knew that it was a part of the company’s evolution, and the pandemic only solidified it. ClubWPT, PlayWPT, and LearnWPT were already a part of the brand, and WPT Global is the most recent addition.

• ClubWPT offers subscription-based online poker where players can win up to $100,000 in cash and prizes, including a seat into the WPT Main Event. Players can try the VIP subscription for free for up to two weeks. Monthly subscription fees range from $27.95 per month or $264.95 per year for a VIP membership and up to $149.95 per month for a Diamond membership.
• PlayWPT – is another online service, this one a WPT free poker app. This differs from ClubWPT as it is purely social gaming for those that enjoy poker without any financial risk. They can compete against other poker players around the world. It is a free-play site with lessons for beginners and tips for taking your game to the next level.
• LearnWPT – is a poker training site where you can learn both basic concepts and advanced concepts. The site includes a GTO training tool and is considered a bargain by many with a $29 per month price point. Those looking to learn can test drive LearnWPT for even cheaper than that with the first month costing just $5.
• WPT Global – is the real-money online poker product offered by the World Poker Tour and launched in 2022. The site is available in more than 100 countries around the world and in multiple languages, including English, Spanish, and Portuguese. New players can take advantage of various welcome packages. WPT Global offers an alternative online poker offering, as they can earn seats to upcoming WPT stops.