World Poker Tour is introducing a new event this summery, scheduled to directly overlap with several tournaments of the World Series of Poker, including the first days of the Main Event.
WPT has announced a brand new event to be held from 1 to 6 July this summer at the Aria Resort & Casino, dubbed “partypoker presents: WPT500 at ARIA”. The buy-in is a moderate $500 + $65 and the prize pool is a guaranteed $1 million with at least $200,000 for the winner. Five Day 1s will be launched and Day 2 will already feature the Final Table on 6 July. Those who enter multiple Day 1s will be granted the largest stack they can accumulate on Day 2.
As PokerFuse.com reports, there are a number of unorthodox features of the event: first of all, it is unusual for bwin.party to name a festival as “partypoker presents,” even though the brands are normally operating separately. Second, the WPT500 is apparently purposefully scheduled to compete with a number of tournaments of the WSOP, including the $1,111 Little One for One Drop, the $1,500 10-Game Mix Six-Handed, the $1,500 NLHE, the $10,000 PLO as well as the first two Day 1s if the Main Event itself.
Organisers expect a wide range of online satellites to run at partypoker sites all around the world and tickets will also be available through a Club WPT prize draw, as well as for free to players who make it to Day 4 in the ongoing WPT World Championship. Additionally, the Aria is running $125 super satellites, where there will be 100 seats up for grabs.
“We expect more online qualifiers to participate in this event than any other poker tournament in Las Vegas this summer. The dream of massive tournaments with accessible buy-ins remains alive, and they will come from all over the world to compete for the $200K first prize,” said partypoker Global Poker Director Jeffrey Haas.
“The event is a wonderful start to our company’s renewed partnership with the WPT. This is yet another opportunity to provide our loyal guests as well as new poker customers the chance to play tournament poker at ARIA,” casino Director of Poker Operations Adam Altwies added.
