Season XVIII WPT Five Diamond World Poker Classic Closes Out 2019 at the Bellagio
Dec 11, 2019
Season XVIII continues on the World Poker Tour with the final stop of 2019 being the $10,400 WPT Five Diamond World Poker Classic taking center stage at the Bellagio Resort & Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada. Since the inaugural season in 2002, the Bellagio has played host to this event in December, and although there were a few alterations to the event name, there were only two years that didn’t see the World Poker Classic attached to it.
Previous winners of this event reads like a roll call for the greats that this game will one day induct into the Poker Hall of Fame. Opening the World Poker Tour in Season I saw Gus Hansen collect the first of his three WPT titles, while other winners since include Daniel Negreanu, Joe Hachem, Chino Rheem, Daniel Alaei, Antonio Esfandiari, Dan Smith, and Mohsin Charania. In Season XVII, a record-setting field of 1,001 entries would create a $9,709,700 prize pool which saw Dylan Linde (pictured below) top a final table that included Milos Skrbic, Andrew Lichtenberger, Ping Liu, Lisa Hamilton, and Barry Hutter for a $1,631,468 payout and his first WPT title.
With a WPT Five Diamond World Poker Classic being held at the Bellagio during every year of the World Poker Tour’s existence, it has awarded the most money of any event during the World Poker Tour. With 17 installments of this event, a total of $102,774,320 in prize money has been awarded to players, while $25,578,476 has been paid out to the eventual champions. There have been 14 millionaires made from winning this event, while three of them were crowned multi-millionaires during Season IV – XI as Rehne Pederson, Joe Hachem, and Eugene Katchalov winning over $2 million for their victory. A total of six players have finished runner-up in this event but also earned a seven-figure score with Patrik Antonios (Season IV), Jim Hanna (Season V), Ted Kearly (Season VI), Ryan Tosoc (Season XV), Alex Foxen (Season XVI), and Skrbic (Season XVII) all collecting at least $1 million for their second place finish.
Hublot WPT Player of the Year Standings for Season XVIII
Recently at the WPT Seminole Rock ‘N’ Roll Poker Open in Hollywood, Florida, WPT Borgata Poker Open champion Donald Maloney took the lead on the Hublot WPT Player of the Year leaderboard with a 41st place finish to now sit with 1,300 points. With WPT Legends of Poker champion Aaron Van Blarcum unable to finish in the money, he remained on 1,275 points while WPT Montreal champion Geoffrey Hum also finished in the money to separate himself from the pack to be on 1,250 points. Whoever is victorious at the WPT Five Diamond World Poker Classic will most likely (prize pool must be over $4 million) earn themselves 1,400 points.
With Season XVIII now well underway on the WPT Main Tour, great prizes are on offer for whoever can follow in the footsteps of defending WPT Player of the Year Erkut Yilmaz and other WPT legends before him.
Included in the World Poker Tour’s enhancements for Season XVIII are added Hublot WPT Player of the Year prizes. Not only will the Hublot WPT Player of the Year for Season XVIII win a custom Hublot timepiece and complimentary accommodation at select WPT Main Tour stops for Season XVIII, but he or she will earn $15,000 in WPT tournament buy-in credits. Prizes have been added for second- and third-place finishers in the race, as well. The runner-up receives $7,500 in WPT tournament buy-in credits and third place receives $2,500 in WPT tournament buy-in credits.
WPT tournament buy-in credits can be used in any global WPT event, including WPT Main Tour, WPTDeepStacks, WPT500, and WPT Special Events.
WPT Five Diamond World Poker Classic Structure and Schedule
The WPT Five Diamond World Poker Classic features a $10,400 buy-in. There are six days of total play and registration closes on Day 2 at the start of Level 12; approximately 5:15 p.m. (PT) on Tuesday, December 17. There are unlimited re-entries allowed.
As is the case with all Season XVII WPT Main Tour stops, it comes with the new World Poker Tour structure that includes the big blind ante format and 40,000 in starting chips. The first two levels will be 100-100 and 100-200 with no ante before the big blind ante kicks in for Level 3 and onward. Level 3 will be 100-200 with a 200 ante, and the big blind ante will be the same price as the big blind from there on out.
The WPT Five Diamond World Poker Classic schedule will see play start at 12 p.m. (PST). Day 1 will play eight 60-minute levels with a 15-minute break after every two levels and there will be no dinner break. From Day 2 onwards, levels will be 90-minutes in duration with five levels on each day. Day 5 will play down to the final table of six players. The WPT Five Diamond World Poker Classic will see levels return to 60-minutes in duration, and then 30-minutes when heads-up play is reached. The final table will also be live streamed on a 60-minute delay from the PokerGO Studio.
To view complete information on the WPT Five Diamond World Poker Classic structure and schedule, click here.
With that, the stage is now set for the start of the WPT Five Diamond World Poker Classic to begin at 12 p.m. (PT) from the Bellagio Resort & Casino. Stay tuned right here to WPT.com for the exclusive live coverage of the tournament from start to finish to see who becomes the WPT Five Diamond World Poker Classic champion, and wins his or her way to the season-ending WPT Tournament of Champions.
Photography by Joe Giron / PokerPhotoArchive
Looking to win your way to a World Poker Tour event for your shot at becoming a WPT champion? Play for your chance on ClubWPT.com, where eligible VIP Members can play for over $100,000 in cash and prizes each month, including seats to WPT events, no purchase necessary.
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