Right about now, players are getting settled in around the poker tables at the Bellagio in Las Vegas as WPT Doyle Brunson Five Diamond World Poker Classic kicked off at Noon PST today with the traditional “Shuffle and Deal” announced by Mike Sexton with defending champion James Dempsey and the WPT Royal Flush Girls in attendance.
These players will be looking to join the ranks of Gus Hansen, Daniel Negreanu, Joe Hachem, Eugene Katchalov, Chino Rheem, Daniel Alaei and Antonio Esfandiari as WPT Champions and WPT Five Diamond World Poker Classic winners. Many of these past WPT Champions are in attendance today and are all invited to Jasmine at the Bellagio tomorrow night for a WPT Champions Dinner, one of the perks of being a WPT Champions Club member.
The $10,000 buy-in Main Event will feature unlimited re-entry for the first eight levels of play, so players will have the chance to ante up another $10,000 to get back into the tournament if they bust within that time frame. The field has already surpassed the 240-entrant mark as Level 1 has come to a close, and players can enter until the end of Level 8 (along with the re-entries) so expect that number to keep heading up toward last year’s number of 413.
The WPT televised final table will crown a winner on Sunday, December 9, and the WPT Live Updates team will bring you live updates, chips counts, photos and videos throughout the event.
