However, that $40M guarantee on the prize pool is attractive, to say the least. Add on a $10K price tag, and that makes it tougher. Meeting a large guarantee in a December live poker tournament, one that is near the holidays with stiff competition in other parts of the world, is a tall order. When they take their seats, the players and their corresponding chip stacks will be: The minimum payout will be $290K and the top payout is $1,386,280, with $910K for second place. They will play their final table on December 19. And that brought players to the tables in record numbers…again.Īs of this week, the action played out until only six players remained. That success prompted the World Poker Tour to set the 2023 Prime Championship guarantee at $5M. And in the end, Stephen Song beat Lara Eisenberg for the title and $712,650 first-place prize.

As it turned out, there were 5,430 entries and a prize pool that exceeded $5.2M.

They hoped for big crowds for the $1K buy-in tournament and put a $2M guarantee on the prize pool. Its numbers have continued to rise since it became the new mid-major of the World Poker Tour, taking over where WPTDeepStacks left off.Īt the 2022 WPT World Championship, Prime held its year-end finale. The WPT Prime mid-majors tournament series may still be in its first few years, but it has certainly made a statement. Ultimately, most players found their way, and the WPT-Wynn festival did not suffer. But it did post record fields prior to the abrupt closure.) And many players either exclusively chose the WPT festivities over the WSOP or flew to the Bahamas first and jetted to Las Vegas to catch the WPT World Championship Main Event. (The APT actually had to shut down days early, though, due to conflicts with permits and authoritative bodies. Poker players had to make some choices, as there was also the ever-popular EPT Prague in Europe and the APT Hanoi Billions in Asia.Īs it turns out, the European Poker Tour posted record turnout for its largest events, as did the Asian Poker Tour. There were high guarantees, free entries and rooms for a number of players, and shiny gold WSOP bracelets.

The World Series of Poker – probably completely coincidentally – set its new live bracelet series for the first half of December.

The biggest challenge, however, was the introduction of the WSOP Paradise in the Bahamas.

Many poker rooms around Las Vegas introduced series that gave players tournament alternatives, sometimes with lower price points.

There were also some unique variables that could present challenges for the WPT World Championship in 2023.

Short deck starting hands