The week of the WPT Prime Championship is officially upon us. In the wake of a successful WPT Premier Meet-Up Game and several busy early prelims that have lived up to their guarantees and then some, the WPT Prime Championship kicks off the heart of the WPT World Championship festival with the loftiest of intentions.
One year ago, the $1,100 buy-in WPT Prime Championship carried a $2 million guarantee and smashed it to pieces. In total, 5,430 entrants pushed the prize pool to over $5.2 million, and by the third and final starting session demand for seats pushed Wynn Las Vegas’ capacity to its absolute limits.
The 2023 WPT Prime Championship will use the record book-worthy turnout from the 2022 event as its new baseline, carrying a guaranteed prize pool of $5 million. Kicking off on December 7, players will have four starting days to try to build up a stack on their own way to history.
Those fortunate enough to find a bag between December 7 and December 10 will return for Day 2 on Monday and, ideally, all the way to the end of Day 3 on Tuesday. The final six players will return one week later to battle it out for the title and the trophy.
They will all be following in the footsteps of Stephen Song, the inaugural champion. Song won a career-best $712,650 as the champion of the 2022 WPT Prime Championship, and he’ll be back this week to chase a repeat at Wynn Las Vegas.
“I’m definitely super excited,” said Song. “Initially, I wasn’t sure if I was gonna be able to make it. But now, I’m set, 100% and being able to try to defend my title, well, we’ll see how it goes.”
In addition to the financial windfall for Song, the delay in filming the final table of the WPT Prime Championship allowed Song to bring his family out to share in the win.
“That was definitely a really special moment, just because my mom also flew in to see it,” said Song.
The sheer scale of the tournament also shook the foundations in several different Player of the Year races in the final month of 2022. Based primarily on his success in this tournament, Song swooped in at the final moment to claim multiple trophies, which he collected in March of this year.
“I was able to win both the regular GPI Player of the Year and the GPI Mid-Major Player of the Year, which is a pretty cool feat, I think,” said Song, “And it makes that Prime win even more special, because that’s what swung literally both of those races.”
All indications are that the WPT Prime Championship field will be even larger this time around, especially with an extra starting session in play. Song also pointed out efforts from Wynn Las Vegas to ensure greater capacity, which will be put to the toughest test on Day 1D of the WPT Prime Championship, so that everyone can have their shot at beating him.
“I heard that they’re actually moving it to a different room, so they’re going to be able to house more players,” said Song. “I think last year, [demand] was so ridiculous that most people couldn’t even sit for hours in the last flight just because it was so packed. I think this next year, they’re going to make sure they can get everyone in.”
2023 WPT Prime Championship Schedule
Starting Sessions:
Day 1A: December 7, 11 a.m. (40 minute levels)
Day 1B: December 8, 11 a.m. (40 minute levels)
Day 1C: December 9, 11 a.m. (40 minute levels)
Day 1D: December 10, 11 a.m. (40 minute levels)
Day 2: December 11, 11 a.m. (60 minute levels)
Day 3: December 12, 12 p.m. (60 minute levels)
Final Table: December 19, 4 p.m. (60 minute levels)
Players will receive 40,000 chips to start. Registration will close at the start of Level 10 in each Day 1 session (approximately 6:45 p.m.). Day 1 sessions will play until 12.5% of the starting field remains. For additional information, click here.
Season 21 WPT Prime Champions Gallery
Let’s take a look back at all of the WPT Prime Champions from Season 21. All of these 2023 winners were awarded $10,400 seats to the WPT World Championship at Wynn.
WPT Prime Paris: Fabrice Bigot, $194,390
WPT Prime Gold Coast: Sheng Ye, $253,843
WPT Prime Cambodia: Reiji Kono, $131,731
WPT Prime Amsterdam: Philip Hollederer, $186,178
WPT Prime India: Prasit Chowdhury, $105,809
WPT Prime Slovakia: Sandor Mate, $118,964
WPT Prime Vietnam: Duy Thuc Nguyen, $177,764
WPT Prime San Remo: Simone Andrian, $157,973
WPT Prime Aix-En-Provence: Samy Boujmala, $102,938
WPT Prime Taiwan: Seonguk Huh, $197,741
WPT Prime Liechtenstein: David Kozma, $300,541
WPT Prime Madrid: Oscar Gironella, $73,840