The WPT World Championship in December has become one of the biggest tournaments in live poker, and it’s not hard to see why. A huge event in the heart of Las Vegas, plenty of qualifiers - whether that’s via online routes such as WPT Global, or event winners throughout the year - and in Wynn Las Vegas a venue that many would agree knows how to throw a shindig of this size better than most.
And now we know exactly when this end-of-year bonanza will take place, as the full schedule for the marquee events of the 2024 festival has been announced. The wider series will run from December 3-23 at its Wynn Las Vegas home.
The $1,100 WPT Prime Championship will run December 8-14 and the $10,400 WPT World Championship will start on December 14 and run through until December 21.
Two other announcements were made today – the $1,100 Ladies Championship will run December 14-15 and the $1,100 Seniors Championship (50+) will run December 18-19.
No news yet on the guarantee
Last year there was another, headline-grabbing reason why the WPT World Championship could claim to be the biggest ever: the guaranteed prize pool.
The magic number last year was $40,000,000, and that wasn’t for the series or the festival; that was the guaranteed prize pool for the tournament – the single largest in poker history. At $10K per entry the numbers weren’t too hard to crunch: 4,000 players would be needed to meet the guarantee and avoid an overlay.
The WPT missed, but not by much, falling short by around 6% and footing the bill to the tune of $2.5M or so. The issue was complicated by competitor events taking place around the same time in different parts of the world. In Prague, the European Poker Tour was running its December series, which it has done for some years, while the first WSOP Paradise in the Bahamas was aggressively scheduled to run at the same time as the WPT World Championship. All three series will run in December again this year.
In making such a bold statement with last year’s guarantee, coming so close, and ultimately missing the mark but keeping its promises, the WPT likely gained many friends in the poker world.
Will a headline-grabbing guarantee be necessary this year to bring the crowds back to the Wynn once more? We expect to find out soon – stay tuned.
