World Poker Tour Announces WPT500 Event at Aria with $1 Million Guaranteed
Season XII of the World Poker Tour ends this week in Atlantic City, but the tour has announced a new experience coming to Las Vegas this summer. From July 4-9*, the Aria poker room will host partypoker presents: WPT500 at Aria Resort & Casino, a new $565 buy-in no-limit hold'em tournament with a $1 million guaranteed prize pool. A top prize of at least $200,000 will be guaranteed to the winner.
*Date change announced on May 20
"We are extremely excited to announce partypoker presents: WPT500 at Aria Resort & Casino, WPT's newest tournament format," said WPT President Adam Pliska. "It's nice to be back in Las Vegas, hosting our first event at ARIA and partnering again with partypoker to bring poker players to this special $500 + $65 buy-in event."
The WPT500 event will feature five Day 1s from July 1-5, and the survivors will return for Day 2 on July 6 to play down to a champion. Each Day 1 flight starts at 12 p.m. with one re-entry per day permitted. Registration will be open daily until 4:30 p.m. Players who play multiple Day 1s will have the opportunity to carry their biggest stack forward to Day 2.
There will be several ways for players to win seats into this event for a fraction of the buy-in. Players in Las Vegas can qualify through live satellites at Aria, where at least 100 seats will be awarded. The WPT is also anticipating hundreds of online qualifiers through the bwin.party network of online poker sites such as partypoker, bwin.de, and ClubWPT.com. Online winners will receive either packages that include their tournament buy-in, hotel accommodation and travel expenses, or seat-only prizes that include only their tournament buy-in.
In addition, all players who advance to Day 4 of the WPT Championship will earn a free seat into the WPT500 event at Aria.
"We expect more online qualifiers to participate in this event than any other poker tournament in Las Vegas this summer," said Global Poker Director for partypoker Jeffrey Haas. "The dream of massive tournaments with accessible buy-ins remains alive, and they will come from all over the world to compete for the $200K first prize. Of course they will enjoy their time staying at ARIA — one of the biggest poker hotspots on The Strip."
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