The season-ending World Poker Tour Tournament of Champions will include a 30-second action clock and $200,000 in additional cash and prizes to the winner.
When the World Poker Tour (WPT) confirmed its intention to cull the WPT World Championships and replace it with a rather expensive Invitational, the string pullers knew they had to spice it up for the new dish to become palatable.
The first of the new ingredients are coming off the chopping board.
There are promises of more to come.
The WPT will add $100,000 in additional prize money to the rake free event. Also, the winner will receive the following prizes:
- A special Hublot watch
- An Aurae Solid Gold Mastercard
- A pair of gold Monster 24K Headphones
- A custom made poker table from BBO Poker Tables
- A seat in Tiger Woods charity poker night
- A round of golf at the Shadow Creek golf course with Matt Savage
“There is even more to come.” Said WPT Executive Tour Director Matt Savage.
19 players have secured their $15,000 seat into the Tournament of Champions:
– Aaron Mermelstein – WPT Maryland
– Asher Conniff – WPT World Championship
– Ben Cade – WPT Emperors Palace Poker Classic
– Chris Leong – WPT Borgata Winter Poker Open
– David Ormsby – partypoker WPT Fallsview Poker Classic
– David Paredes – WPT Borgata Poker Open
– Dietrich Fast – WPT L.A. Poker Classic
– Farid Yachou – WPT Amsterdam
– Harrison Gimbel – WPT Rolling Thunder
– Iaron Lightbourne – partypoker WPT UK
– Jared Mahoney – partypoker WPT Montreal
– Jason Brin – WPT Choctaw
– Javier Gomez – partypoker WPT Prague
– Kevin Eyster – WPT Five Diamond World Poker Classic
– Mike Shariati – WPT Legends of Poker
– Sheraz Nasir – partypoker WPT Canadian Spring Championship
– Stefan Schillhabel – WPT Bay 101 Shooting Star
– Tyler Patterson – WPT bestbet Bounty Scramble
– Vlad Darie – partypoker WPT Vienna
There are two more spots for the taking at the $2m Guaranteed $3,500 buy-in WPT Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown (April 15-20) and the $2m Guaranteed $10,000 WPT Seminole Hard Rock Poker Finale (April 17-21).
The Tournament of Champions will also play out at the Seminole Hard Rock (April 22). There will be a last chance live satellite carrying a $1,550 price tag on April 21.
Tommy Tanking
In Jan 2015, I spoke to Adam Pliska to gauge his opinion on a shot clock, and he loved the idea.
“It creates some production issues, but I think it only enhances the drama, and I would like to see it.” Pliska said at the time.
Well, the wait is over.
The Tournament of Champions will take place with a 30-second Action Clock courtesy of Protection Poker.
The clock will be dealer controlled. It will be activated once the last card is dealt and reset each time the action from each player is complete, and the clock can be paused if the dealer is asked to count a bet, raise or stack size.
.@WPT I’ll be adding another $10K to the prizpool by timing out every other hand. You’re welcome. 😉
— Marvin Rettenmaier (@MadMarvin) 23 March 2016
Don’t worry Mad Marvin.
Each player will receive five 30-second time extension buttons and to activate them they have to toss them onto the felt in a forward motion, and the dealer will press the time extension button. When the action reaches the final six, all unused extensions will be removed from play as everyone will start with four new ones.
Are all future WPT events going to go the same way?
I can’t see why not.
