[toc]The World Poker Tour is bringing its final event of the season back to Las Vegas, Nevada.
The WPT announced at the beginning of November that ARIA Resort & Casino in Las Vegas would play host to its final event of Season XVI, the flagship WPT Tournament of Champions.
The $15,000 buy-in WPT Tournament of Champions will run in May 2018. It will be filmed for broadcast as part of the WPT’s Season XVI television schedule on FOX Sports Regional Networks.
The WPT Tournament of Champions
The tournament is only open to Season XVI champions and previously minted WPT Champions Club members. Every one of this season’s winners is automatically entered into the WPT Tournament of Champions, with airfare and accommodations provided. The winner earns the World Poker Tour’s “champion of champions” title and a number of added sponsor prizes.
Farid Yachou won the inaugural Season XIV WPT Tournament of Champions title. He earned $381,600 and a 2016 Corvette. Daniel Weinman won it to end Season XV, earning $381,500 and an 2018 Audi S5 Coupe.
The World Poker Tour returns to ARIA
ARIA Resort & Casino boast hundreds of slot machines and table games, one of the most popular poker rooms in the city, and a race and sports book.
The MGM Resorts International property previously played host to the the WPT 500 event.
“Season XVI marks the fifth season that the World Poker Tour has partnered with ARIA Resort & Casino, and we are thrilled to take our relationship to new heights with ARIA to host the celebrated WPT Tournament of Champions,” the WPT’s VP of Global Tour Management Angelica Hael said in a press release.
“ARIA and WPT have generated more than 16,000 tournament entries and awarded more than $8.1 million in prize money in our events together over the past four seasons, and we look forward to building upon this success for a world-class poker festival at ARIA Resort & Casino that culminates in the season-ending WPT Tournament of Champions.”
WPT CEO Adam Pliska said moving the season finale to Las Vegas represents a homecoming for the tour.
“World Poker Tour is honored to have ARIA Resort & Casino as host of the Season XVI WPT Tournament of Champions and to return to Las Vegas, the global home of poker and the city where it all began for the WPT. Season XVI of the World Poker Tour has been truly historic, with the tour awarding its one-billionth prize dollar and traveling to new regions of the world with events in Beijing, India, and South America. We are proud to cap it off with the prestigious WPT Tournament of Champions at the extraordinary ARIA Resort & Casino.”
One more WPT Main Tour stop
The Season XVI WPT Tournament of Champions festival will also include the final WPT Main Tour event of the season. This will give players one last shot at getting in the WPT Tournament of Champions.
Players can win their way into that and other tour stops through the subscription-based online poker site ClubWPT.com. Members play for more than $100,000 in cash and prizes on the site every month. This includes seats to WPT events.
The WPT has been around since 2002. The tour has broadcast globally in more than 150 countries and territories.
