The Commerce Casino is hosting the L.A. Poker Classic between January 24 and February 21, followed directly by the WPT Invitational from February 22nd until February 24th. Both tournaments will be filmed for World Poker Tour's Season IV which will start airing on the Travel Channel in March.
L.A. Poker Classic Championship - Commerce Casino
The Commerce Casino, the largest poker room in the world with over 200 poker tables, is hosting the L.A. Poker Classic between January 24 and February 21.
The main event, the No Limit Holdem Championship, will last six days and starts February 16th. The final table will be filmed for the World Poker Tour Season IV on February 21st. The event has a buy-in of $10,000 with a guaranteed $2 million dollar first prize. The total prize pool is expected to exceed $6 million dollars, depending on how many players will register for the tourney. You don't have to pay $10,000 to enter the event though, because you can win a ticket in one of the $1,020 buy-in satellites on "Super Satellite Day" scheduled for February 15th, just one day before the main event.
The L.A. Poker Classic is one of the larger WPT tournaments. Last year the main event was won by 24-year-old Michael "The Grinder" Mizrachi, and in 2004 the tourney was won by Antonio "The Magician" Esfandiari.
WPT Invitational - Commerce Casino
The World Poker Tour stops by at the Commerce Casino two times in February this year. The WPT Invitational is a celebrity-only event which starts the day after finishing the L.A. Poker Classic, on February 22nd. The final table will be filmed for World Poker Tour Season IV on February 24th.
The WPT Invitational has a guaranteed prize pool of $200,000. The tourney has no buy-in but can only be entered into by fifty selected celebrities. In previous years celebs like James Woods, Ben Affleck, Jennifer Tilly and Lou Diamond Phillips have participated in the event.