You’ve very likely already heard: the award-winning WPT World Championship at Wynn Las Vegas is returning this December. But here’s the real headline – the 2023 edition is coming with a staggering $40,000,000 guarantee.
Forty. Million. Dollars.
World Poker Tour and Wynn are pushing the envelope once again, setting a new record for a live guarantee with promises of life-changing paydays to those who make it to the end. As WPT CEO Adam Pliska has said, the event is “poised to reach new heights” but in reality, it’s going to smash WPT records across the board. And, for players, it’s not only the chance for a poker experience like none other, as well as for a lucky few, the opportunity at a life-changing score.
“The astonishing support and excitement we’ve seen from the poker community after just one year is nothing like I’ve seen before,” said Ryan Beauregard, Executive Director of Poker Operations at Wynn Las Vegas.
Last year, when the televised $10,400 WPT World Championship was announced with its $15 million guarantee there was some debate at the time about whether or not it would even be reached. Well, players turned out en masse – 2,960 entries to be exact – and pushed that prize pool to just over $29 million.
Some might say $40 million is simply a matter of “if you build it, they will come” but this year it’s going to take 4,081 (roughly) entries just to hit the lofty $40 million number. And, that’s not a slam dunk by any means. So it’s going to take work. Work that both WPT and Wynn are up for and have already begun through an abundance of ways to help players qualify. Here are just a few WPT World Championship qualifiers you should note:
- ClubWPT has already awarded 10 seats and promises no fewer than three more satellite opportunities as well as $150,000 WPT World Championship Challenge that will award 10 additional $12,500 WPT WC Passports.
- The Wynn’s popular Milestone Satellites will be running throughout December with at least nine 25-seat guarantees and an impressive, must-play 75-seat guarantee on December 11.
- For those who live in countries where WPTGlobal is available, qualifying couldn’t be more accessible with super satellites starting for as little as $5 and direct qualifiers offered every Sunday leading up to the World Championship.
In short, the bigger the event, the more qualifiers are needed. And that means ample opportunity for casual players to get into the mix for far less than bringing $10K to the cage.
You’ve got to be in it, in order to win it. And while it’s impossible to know exactly what first-place will bring, we can take a look at last year and extrapolate. Canada’s Eliot Hudon outlasted the UK’s Benny Glaser heads-up to take home his first WPT title and the $4,136,000 first-place prize. Assuming that the base percentage of first-place will be nearly identical, roughly 14-15%, the winner of the 2023 WPT World Championship could see a payday of right around $5.5-5.7 million if the guarantee is just made. Anything north of $40 million in the prize pool, and $6 million is definitely within reach. Wherever first-place lands, the payday is set to be the richest in World Poker Tour history.
Of course, the increase in prize pool and entries should ripple throughout the payout structure. In 2022, the final six players (which for WPT is the official final table) each locked up more than $1 million with sixth-place finisher Colton Blomberg walking with $1,001,050, nearly $300,000 more than seventh-place finisher Lucas Foster. While not promised, it’s very likely that seven-figure paydays could stretch to the actual final table of nine. There will be, after all, no less than an additional $10 million in this year’s prize pool.
The $40 million guarantee is great for players monetarily, of course, but it’s also an extension of a promise that this entire WPT World Championship festival is going to be bigger and better headed into Year Two. That applies to a healthy prelim schedule of more than 30 events that includes a $600 Opening Event with a $1 million guarantee, the return of the $1 million buy-in The Big One for One Drop, and this year’s WPT Prime Championship which also has an improved guarantee in 2023 of $5 million.
No matter how you look at it: everyone can expect more from the 2023 WPT World Championship.
Click here for the full schedule of WPT World Championship at Wynn Las Vegas events.
Ensure your jurisdiction allows play on WPT Global. VOID WHERE PROHIBITED.