The most anticipated poker tournament of the year outside of the World Series of Poker Main Event is upon us. The WPT World Championship began Tuesday with the first of four Day 1 flights and after Day 1A, Jeff Hakim is the chip leader with 998,000 chips.
Two players are close behind: Adekunle Olonoh with 972,000 and high stakes cash game live stream star Alan Keating has 957,000. Nobody else has more than 800,000 chips.
All told, there were 609 entries on Day 1A and 202 players made it through to Day 2. Those who were eliminated can try again in subsequent flights, but anyone who did survive to Day 2 cannot try again and must go with the stack they bagged at the end of the night.
The WPT World Championship returned last year for the first time since 2017, when the buy-in was $25,000. It is now $10,400, but in 2022, the World Poker Tour took the bold step at guaranteeing a $15 million prize pool, the largest live tournament guarantee of all time.
The gamble paid off, as the event attracted 2,960 entries, nearly doubling the guarantee. Eliot Hudon won the 2022 WPT World Championship and $4,136,000.
Players raved about the event and how wonderful a job the Wynn Las Vegas did. So, riding the momentum of last year, the World Poker Tour and Wynn upped the ante and guaranteed a crazy $40 million for the 2023 WPT World Championship. After fees are taken out of the buy-in, that means that the tournament will need 4,082 entries to avoid an overlay.
With WSOP Paradise and EPT Prague going on at the same time, attracting that many players (and their multiple entries) will be a tall task, but it does seem that this is the tournament that players are the most excited about. The combination of the venue, prize money, and overall poker festival quality may very well compel enough players to make the trip to Las Vegas.
Day 1B of the WPT World Championship got started a little while ago and there will be one more opening flight on each of Thursday and Friday. From there, the tournament will play every day straight through the final table, which is scheduled for December 21.
2023 WPT World Championship – Day 1A Chip Leaders
- Jeff Hakim – 998,000
- Adekunle Olonoh – 972,000
- Alan Keating – 957,000
- Arden Cho – 798,000
- Jeremy Joseph – 773,000
- Jon Borenstein – 745,000
- John Myung – 712,000
- Patrick Leonard – 706,000
- Tjan Tepeh – 695,000
- George Tomescu – 676,000
