World Poker Tour
The World Poker Tour is the second most important live tournament series in the world, though it is far more accessible given the number of locations that it holds events in and the fact it runs over a longer time period each year. While Player of the Year rankings may be influenced much more heavily by the World Series of Poker, it is very common for PoY contenders to have performed well in World Poker Tour events.
World Poker Tour Schedule
The World Poker Tour schedule sees events taking place in many locations and over several months. The majority of stops on the WPT schedule are in North American locales, but the WPT Venice and WPT Spanish Championships give European players more convenient options.
World Poker Tour Bellagio
The World Poker Tour Bellagio stops are often some of the most hotly contested, with the Bellagio Cup and WPT Championship both taking place at the Bellagio in Las Vegas. While unknowns frequently win the championship games at other stops in the World Poker Tour, the WPT Championships at the Bellagio are almost always won by well-known pro players these days.
World Poker Tour Championship
The World Poker Tour Championship certainly isn't as well regarded as the WSOP Main Event, but it is still a very challenging event to overcome. While WSOP bracelets might be the cake of poker achievement, World Poker Tour Championship bracelets are the icing. Buy-ins to the WPT Championship top $30,000 and this leads to a tournament filled with top poker pros.
What makes the World Poker Tour Championship so interesting is that it is scheduled for 8 days, yet the number of entrants is usually only around 300 to 600. This makes for some intense poker and an event that could very easily be considered a challenge to rival the biggest WSOP championship tournaments. The WPT has stuck around for a while now, and it should not surprise anyone if the World Poker Tour Championship eventually becomes the most prestigious event on the live tournament calendar.
World Poker Tour Champions
World Poker Tour Champions are generally poker pros, though they may not be well known before their big WPT win. David Williams was the 2010 World Poker Tour Champion, but the 2009 World Poker Tour Champion was the relatively little known Yevgeniy Timoshenko. The 2010 winner was always going to be a known quantity, however, as the final tables included Eric Baldwin, David Benyamine, and Billy Baxter.
World Poker Tour Chips
You have to hand it to the World Poker Tour for getting its branding right, as World Poker Tour chips are very popular. While they won't improve your rate of success, World Poker Tour chips can spice up your home game by giving it a more professional vibe. Of course, we don't see the need for our own sets of World Poker Tour chips, as we play poker online – it's a lot faster than waiting for an inexperienced friend to deal!
World Poker Tour Satellites
For the average player, direct buy-ins to World Poker Tour events won't really be an option. However, lots of online poker sites run World Poker Tour satellites offering seats and prize packages into WPT tournaments. If you would like to earn your way into an event through online World Poker Tour satellites, we recommend you begin by looking in the trusted poker rooms we feature in our review pages. Many of these online poker rooms also offer big bonuses on the first deposits of new players, and you can use that bonus money to buy your way into World Poker Tour satellites. A buy-in worth thousands at the WPT can cost you just a few dollars and a satellite tournament victory when you enter via World Poker Tour satellites.




