Celebrating the WPT's 20th Anniversary By Throwing a Cake Into Matt Savage's Face

During the first break, members of the World Poker Tour and Venetian Las Vegas came together to welcome players to WPT Venetian Las Vegas, and also to celebrate the WPT’s 20th anniversary.

From left to right:  WPT Royal Flush Crewmember Brenden Johnson, WPT Executive Tour Director Matt Savage, The Venetian Las Vegas Poker Tournament Director Tommy LaRosa, and WPT Global Events Manager Keta Ozolina.

A custom 20th Anniversary cake was brought out to honor the WPT’s 20th anniversary, and there were additional cakes to make sure any of the players who wanted to eat cake could get a piece.

Grammy Award-nominated musician Steve Aoki is now a WPT Ambassador, and one of Aoki’s trademarks at his concerts is to throw cake in somebody’s face. That tradition has followed him to the World Poker Tour.

A large piece of red velvet cake was set aside to throw in the face of WPT Executive Tour Director Matt Savage (right), and to avoid making a mess inside the casino, they stepped outside of the casino.

WPT Ambassador Andrew Neeme (left) had the honor of “throwing the cake,” though it feels like a missed opportunity to auction off the opportunity to players who might want to throw a cake at Savage’s face.

As you can see, Matt Savage lacks the showmanship of Steve Aoki (to be fair, Aoki is a hell of a showman), so instead of the cake being thrown, it was more like Savage leaned his face into a piece of cake.

Regardless, the end result is satisfying to see, and red velvet cake was an excellent choice.

Even though the cake-in-the-face happened outside, Savage left most of the cake on his face and returned to the tournament area so the players could get a laugh at Savage’s expense.

Happy 20th Anniversary to the World Poker Tour!