Year-end spectacular
The World Poker Tour (WPT) has announced the dates for its most anticipated and final event of the season, the WPT World Championship at Wynn Las Vegas. The entire festival will run December 2-22, while the WPT World Championship Event itself will be December 13-21.
The $10,400 buy-in title event will have three starting flights, one each day December 13-15. Day 2 on December 16 combines all the remaining players from the opening flights and from there, the tournament will proceed straight through December 19. It will skip a day on December 20 before finishing up with the televised final table on December 21.
“The WPT World Championship is a true celebration of poker, and Wynn Las Vegas has proven to be the ultimate stage,” said WPT CEO Adam Pliska in a press release. “This event has become one of the most anticipated events on the global poker calendar and we look forward to welcoming players from all over the world to compete for life changing sums of money and their chance to make history.”
WPT, WSOP going head-to-head
Like last year, there will be no guaranteed prize pool for the WPT World Championship. The World Poker Tour was bold in 2023 guaranteeing a then-record $40 million prize pool for the tournament. It missed the mark by $2.4 million, though, and ended up getting rid of the guarantee in 2024.
2023 was also the year that the World Series of Poker launched WSOP Paradise, scheduled to compete directly with the WPT World Championship. After the WPT’s big overlay, WSOP Paradise decided to show everyone that a massive guarantee could work, guaranteeing $50 million for the $25,000 Main Event. It also fell short, but only by about $550,000 (and the buy-in is 2.5 times as large as the WPT World Championship).
Undaunted, the WSOP upped the guaranteed prize pool for the 2025 WSOP Paradise Super Main Event yet again, pushing it to $60 million.
The full schedule for the entire WPT World Championship schedule is yet to come; the World Poker Tour promises “additional events, satellites, and special announcements” in the coming weeks.
