World Poker Tour Releases Full Schedule for Season XV
The World Poker Tour has released its schedule for Season XV, featuring 20 Main Tour events and a reprisal of the Tournament of Champions to end the season. The venerable tour is also introducing a new way to qualify for its prestigious events, the WPT Passport.
Last season, the WPT featured 21 main festivals with over $50 million in prizes. Gone from the schedule are both the WPT Emperors Palace Poker Classic and WPT Vienna, but a new stop has been added with the WPT Caribbean taking place at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino Punta Cana in the Dominican Republic in November.
"Hard Rock is one of the most globally recognizable brands and is synonymous with delivering a first-class experience," VP of Global Tour Management for WPT Angelica Hael shared when WPT announced the schedule. "We are proud to partner with Hard Rock and partypoker to host partypoker WPT Caribbean, and to add this tropical destination to the Season XV WPT Main Tour schedule."
Additionally, WPT and partypoker have partnered to launch the WPT Passport, which provide additional flexibility to players looking to qualify into WPT Main Tour events via online qualifiers. Each day, the online poker room will be hosting WPT Passport super satellites that feed into a $530 WPT Passport satellite where at least one package valued at $5,000 is guaranteed. Winning players will then have up to 12 months to decide which WPT Main Tour event they wish to use the package for.
"With 12,000 entries in Season XIV, the World Poker Tour and its outstanding casino partners generated more than $50 million in combined prize pools," said Adam Pliska, President and CEO of the WPT. "Following the overwhelmingly positive response from members of the WPT Champions Club, we are delighted to announce the return of the WPT Tournament of Champions in Season XV, and launch new initiatives like the partypoker WPT Passport as we continue to enhance the WPT experience for both professionals and casual players around the globe."
| Event | Main Event Dates | Venue | Buy-In |
|---|---|---|---|
| partypoker.net Canadian Spring Championship | April 29 - May 5, 2016 | Playground Poker Club | CA$3,500 |
| WPT Amsterdam | May 10-14, 2016 | Holland Casino | €3,300 |
| WPT Choctaw | July 29 - Aug. 2, 2016 | Choctaw Casino Resort | $3,700 |
| WPT Legends of Poker | Aug. 27 - Sept. 1, 2016 | Bicycle Hotel & Casino | $4,000 |
| WPT Borgata Poker Open | Sept. 18-23, 2016 | Borgata | $3,500 |
| WPT Maryland Live! | Oct. 1-5, 2016 | Maryland Live! | $3,500 |
| WPT bestbet Bounty Scramble | Oct. 14-18, 2016 | bestbet Jacksonville | $5,000 |
| partypoker WPT UK* | Oct. 31 - Nov. 6, 2016 | Dusk Till Dawn | £2,200 |
| partypoker.net WPT Montreal* | Nov. 11-17, 2016 | Playground Poker Club | CA$3,850 |
| partypoker WPT Caribbean | Nov. 19-23, 2016 | Hard Rock Punta Cana | $5,000 |
| partypoker WPT Prague* | Dec. 3-7, 2016 | King's Casino | €3,300 |
| WPT Five Diamond World Poker Classic | Dec. 5-10, 2016 | Bellagio | $10,400 |
| WPT Borgata Winter Poker Open | Jan. 29 - Feb. 3, 2017 | Borgata | $3,500 |
| WPT Fallsview Poker Classic* | Feb. 22-24, 2017 | Fallsview Casino Resort | CA$5,000 |
| WPT L.A. Poker Classic | Feb. 27 - March 2, 2017 | Commerce Casino | $10,000 |
| WPT Bay 101 Shooting Star | March 6-10, 2017 | Bay 101 Casino | $7,500 |
| WPT Rolling Thunder | March 11-15, 2017 | Thunder Valley Casino Resort | $3,500 |
| Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown | March 31 - April 5, 2017 | Seminole Hard Rock | $3,500 |
| Seminole Hard Rock Poker Finale | April 2-6, 2017 | Seminole Hard Rock | $10,000 |
| WPT Tournament of Champions | April 7-9, 2017 | Seminole Hard Rock | $15,000 |
*Eligible for WPT Passport winners.
Season XV is already underway, with a pair of events in the books: partypoker.net Canadian Spring Championship and WPT Amsterdam, crowning Seth Davies and Andjelko Andrejevic, respectively, as the first WPT champs of the season. Read about Davies' win here and Andrejevic's win here.
Those two have earned seats into the season-ending WPT Tournament of Champions, which will be making its return after a successful debut to end Season XIV, where Farid Yachou completed a storybook ending to his Cinderella story. Once again, the Tournament of Champions will run at Seminole Hard Rock in Florida on the heels of a pair of WPT events, the $3,500 SHR Poker Showdown and the $10,000 SHR Poker Finale.
Other bedrocks of the tour making their return include the Five Diamond World Poker Classic in December at Bellagio, the L.A. Poker Classic starting in February 2017 at Commerce, and Bay 101 Shooter Star in March 2017 at Bay 101.
*Photo courtesy of the WPT.
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