The turnout for the ongoing series keeps pushing the purse higher
The World Poker Tour (WPT) Prime Championship, which commenced on December 7 at Wynn Las Vegas, had a $5 million guaranteed prize pool, much bigger than the usual $1,100 buy-in tournament. However, that number was only the beginning, as registration closed after Day 1d with a record 10,512 entries, the most ever outside the World Series of Poker (WSOP).
The numbers become even more impressive, starting with the prize pool hitting $10,196,640, twice that of the 2022 inaugural WPT Prime Championship at Wynn, with $5,267,100 in the pool and 5,430 players.
What makes the 2023 numbers even more remarkable is there were fewer competing December tournaments last year, like European Poker Tour (EPT) Prague and WSOP Paradise. Despite this year’s competition, the Encore Ballroom was jam-packed for Day 1’s four starting flights.
Day 2 of the WPT Prime Championship will start on Monday, with about 12% of the initial entrants left, a field of 1,309 players. More players will be eliminated on Day 2 before those remaining will play down to the final table, which kicks off on Tuesday, December 19.
The tournament winner will take home $1,386,280, a remarkably higher amount than Stephen Song’s $712,650 payday from last year’s WPT Prime Championship when he took down Lara Eisenberg in heads-up play.
The end of the four Day 1 starting flights saw everyone trailing the 1,706,000 chips held by Adam Thaggard on Day 1a. David Goodman came close on Day 1c, bagging 1,309,000 in chips. Day 2 will see a total of 11 players enter play with a seven-figure chip stack.
Emma Rodriguez is the Proofreader at the Big Blind, with seven years of experience and five years in online gambling. She plays a crucial role in maintaining content quality by ensuring error-free, reader-friendly information about the gambling industry.
