Las Vegas, NV (Dec. 20, 2023) – Calvin Anderson endured to claim the top spot in the 2023 WPT® Prime Championship at Wynn Las Vegas. Anderson earned his first World Poker Tour® win and the first-place prize of $1,386,280, which includes a seat in the 2024 WPT World Championship.
The $1,100 buy-in tournament got its debut in 2022 when it drew a field of 5,430 entries. In year two, the field nearly doubled to 10,512, setting the WPT all-time entries record. The five-figure sum generated a prizepool of $10,196,640.
“The astounding increase in the WPT Prime Championship exceeded expectations, and further fortifies the event as a pillar of the WPT World Championship festival at Wynn Las Vegas” said WPT CEO Adam Pliska. “Congratulations to Calvin for his monumental win.”
A final table featuring the top six players was filmed for television. Aaron Pinson finished as the runner-up, earning $910,000, Jay Lu placed third for $675,000, Jon Glendinning placed fourth for $505,000, Bob Buckenmayer placed fifth for $380,000, and Valeriy Pak placed sixth for $290,000. Bubbling the TV final table was Season XII WPT Player of the Year Mukul Pahuja.
In total, 1,309 players among the historic field received a payout. Other notable players to cash were 2023 WSOP Main Event runner-up Steven Jones (10th place), 14-time gold ring winner Daniel Lowery (18th place), Next Gen Poker’s Frankie Cucchiara (52nd place), WPT Champions and Season XI WPT Player of the Year Matt Salsberg, and many more.
The WPT Prime Championship served as an exclamation point for the 2023 WPT Prime season. The mid-major tour greatly expanded this year after its debut season in 2022, reaching a total of twelve different countries – France, Australia, Cambodia, Netherlands, India, Slovakia, Vietnam, Italy, Taiwan, Liechtenstein, Spain, and the United States.
The 2024 WPT Prime season has already announced seven stops and will begin with the WPT Prime Aix-en-Provence festival beginning Jan. 26.
All photos from the 2023 WPT Prime Championship can be accessed via our Flickr Page.
For more information regarding this and all World Poker Tour events, visit WPT.com.
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