The second season of the World
Poker Tour (WPT) culminates tonight, Friday, April 23 at the Bellagio
in Las Vegas when one winner will walk away with $2,728,356, the largest-ever
prize paid to the first place finisher in a televised poker tournament
or North American sporting event.
The WPT Championship attracted 343 players to Bellagio for a record-smashing
$8.6 million prize pool, the highest ever in tournament poker, with
the player finishing 50th earning $33,266. The buy-in for the tournament
was $25,300, the largest in the sport. Last year's WPT Championship
at Bellagio drew 111 players with victor Alan Goehring taking home
a $1,011,886 slice of the more than $2.6 million purse.
Last Saturday, a satellite tournament at Bellagio (leading up to the
WPT Championship) established an all-time record as poker's first
$1 million super-satellite tournament with 447 participants.
The 2004 first place prize money for the WPT Championship exceeds
the first place money paid to the winners of tennis' U.S. Open ($1
million), the PGA's Players Championship ($1.44 million), the LPGA
Championship ($1.6 million), Daytona 500 ($1.4 million) and the Indianapolis
500 ($1.35 million).
"We are proud of our partnership with the World Poker Tour
and what we've accomplished for poker and its players in just 15 months,"
said Doug Dalton, director of poker operations at Bellagio. "We
appreciate the contributions of everyone at the WPT and all of our
supporters to help pull off the most successful finale in the history
of poker. It is the highlight of the year for Bellagio, our poker
players and guests."
The WPT Championship caps a second season, 14-tournament tour that
saw the total prize money increase from $10 million in the first season
to an astonishing $30 million. The season-sending WPT Championship,
which began earlier today, concludes Friday with the filming of the
final table featuring the top six tournament chip leaders. The show
will air on The Travel Channel Wednesday, June 30. The World Poker
Tour airs every Wednesday evening from 9-11 PM (ET/PT), also on The
Travel Channel.