The WPT Prime Liechtenstein Festival

The WPT Prime Liechtenstein will feature 12 events, including some of the most popular modalities: Mystery Bounty, Ladies, Seniors, Pot-Limit Omaha, High Roller and of course Prime Main Event, which will begin on September 6 and will have six starting flights. Those who wish to qualify for the Main Event for a lower investment will be able to take advantage of one of the nine qualifying satellites.

Below is a chart with details of the 12 festival events:

You can see the full schedule at this link.

The WPT Prime Liechtenstein Main Event

The most important tournament of the festival will begin on September 6 and, as mentioned, players will have six initial days to try to make it through to Day 2. The entry will be CHF 1,100 and will have a guaranteed prize pool of CHF 1,000,000.

The tournament structure will be as follows:

• Buy-In: CHF 1,100
• Re-entry: Unlimited re-entry is allowed until the start of Level 7, when registration ends.
• Guaranteed prize pool: CHF 1,000,000
• Starting stack: 30,000
• Blind Levels: 40 minutes on Day 1 and 60 minutes on Days 2 and 3
• Ante Format: Big Blind Ante
• Late Registration: Registration closes at the start of Level 7
• Action Clock: Will be put in place at the start of Day 2 and will be used until the completion of the tournament
• Payouts: 12.5% of the field

Exciting news! Thrilled to share I'll be heading to WPT Prime Liechtenstein fest in just 2 weeks! With CHF $1 Million GTD for the Main Event, it's bound to be unforgettable. Don't miss out: more info @WPT or https://t.co/hqH7ljo6m4 pic.twitter.com/ysQmTdgjwx

— Ivy Teves (@IvyTeves) August 17, 2023

The Venue: Grand Casino Liechtenstein

The festival will be played at the Grand Casino, which aims to become one of the best poker destinations in Europe. Its poker room has 17 cash game tables and for tournaments they have space for 70 tables.

Those planning to attend WPT Prime Liechtenstein will be able to take advantage of 25% discounts at any of six hotels using the promo code “wpt2023” starting on August 29. You can see the different promotions in this link.

The City: Vaduz, Liechtenstein

Liechtenstein is a Central European country located between Switzerland and Austria. Its territory is the result of the union of two enclaves: Vaduz and Schellenberg, made up of a total of 11 communities. The capital is Vaduz and the most populous city is Schaan. It is known for being the fourth smallest country in the world behind the Vatican, Monaco and San Marino.

The principality is known to be considered a tax haven. Although it is not a member of the European Union, since December 2011 it has been part of the European area of free movement. Liechtenstein is one of the six micro-states in Europe. It is also, together with Uzbekistan, one of the only two countries in the world that is doubly isolated from the sea, that is, from Liechtenstein you have to cross at least two borders to reach the sea.

The main attractions of the country are:

• Vaduz Castle
• National Museum of Art and History
• Hiking and mountain biking in Malbun
• St. Peter’s Cathedral
• Liechtenstein National Park
• The Postal Museum
• Taste country’s traditional cuisine like fondue, ribel, Käsknöpfle and local wine

With WPT Prime Liechtenstein you can visit a small country, but win big and be the next one to claim the WPT Prime Perpetual Trophy!

The 2023 WPT Choctaw Main Event was played from May 5-8 and had 612 $5,000 unique entries, distributing a total of $2.1 million in prizes. Jaffee was the last one standing, managing to weave his way through the field and gather all the chips, as well as the second biggest prize of his career: $400K. When asked what the victory meant to him he told us: “WPT is as prestigious a tour as there is in poker, so winning two main events on their tour is a special accomplishment.”

While Jaffee has 34 cashes and 6 final tables on the World Poker Tour, the recent win in Choctaw is his best memory from all his years playing on the tour: “Obviously winning makes it special to begin with, but I also had tons of friends there cheering me on as well as my parents. Having my parents there to see it firsthand and seeing them as happy as they were definitely made it extra special.”

With his first place finish, he also won a seat in the 2023 WPT World Championship and rose to third place in the WPT Player of the Year rankings. Bin Weng is currently leading the rankings and we asked Jared if he has aspirations of sitting atop the leaderboard: “I doubt I will be able to catch Bin because his lead is so huge. I may only play one or two more events this season and it would likely take another win at least. Anything is possible, but I consider it highly unlikely and it isn’t really something I’m thinking about.”

Jaffee’s first World Poker Tour win came almost a decade ago, back in November 2013 at the WPT bestbet Jacksonville Fall Poker Scramble, which had 358 entries pay the $3,500 buy-in. For his first place finish, he took home a prize of $252K and got his name affixed to the (now-called) Mike Sexton Cup. Below is a clip of Jaffee’s interview with the WPT’s Tony Dunst after his victory:

When asked what advice he would give someone who is going to play their first WPT Main Event, Jaffee replied “I would just tell them that the structures are very forgiving. You don’t need to panic if you lose a few pots early on and you should still be in a position where you won’t need to force the issue. Try not to think to far ahead and just focus on the next hand. Also, just enjoy it: they are fun events to play with a great staff!”

We wondered if Jaffee was among those who actively utilize poker training sites, but he said that “To be honest I’m not much of a studier. For me it’s more about getting in reps and playing as much as possible. I’ll also talk hands occasionally with people I think are more studied than myself hoping to grab some extra insight the easy way.”

Here’s a list of the six WPT final tables that Jared has made:

Date	Event	Buy-In	Entries	Result	Prize
January 2010	Southern Poker Championship	$10,000	208	4th	$135,079
August 2010	Legends of Poker	$5,000	462	5th	$86,000
November 2013	Jacksonville Fall Poker Scramble	$3,500	358		$252,749
January 2014	Borgata Winter Poker Open	$3,500	1,229	4th	$258,590
October 2019	WPTDeepStacks Pittsburgh	$1,100	386	6th	$14,615
May 2023	Choctaw	$3,800	612		$400,740

The World Poker Tour’s final tables are 6-handed, but Jaffee notably also placed 7th at the 2014 WPT Five Diamond World Poker Classic for $167K, 7th at the 2015 WPT Choctaw for $112K, 8th at the 2016 WPT Seminole Hard Rock Poker Finale for $88K and 8th at the 2021 WPT Venetian for $93K.

His First Cash, Poker’s Triple Crown and December’s Tournaments

Jaffee’s first recorded cash according to HendonMob is a tournament at the 2009 EPT Deuville . When asked what he remembered from that event, he replied “Yeah, I won a seat to the EPT Deauville on PokerStars somewhat accidentally. I thought it was a satellite to something else and next thing I knew I was headed to France. It was a nice trip and a fun experience but honestly at that point I didn’t really know what was going on. I was awful at poker and had no idea what the big time tournament scene was like. I was definitely sort of a deer in headlights, but at the same time it helped solidify that this was something I wanted to pursue and be a part of. So it was a springboard for me.”

With both a WSOP bracelet and WPT titles, Jaffee is just missing an EPT Main Event title to achieve poker’s “Triple Crown”. Is it something he would like to achieve in his career? “I’ve been missing just an EPT title for the Triple Crown now for quite a while, but my EPT experience has been very limited. It would definitely be a very cool accomplishment and I hope to play some EPT’s in the future, but I realize that I’m not likely to play a ton of them so it will be pretty difficult to make it happen. But if I pulled it off, I would definitely find it to be pretty special” he said.

In December the WPT World Championship returns to the Wynn. Jaffee shared his thoughts on the 2022 edition and whether he thinks that this year the tournaments will be even bigger: “I think pretty much everything the Wynn does is top shelf. Last year’s event was tremendous and as soon as it was over, I knew it was there to stay and I was looking forward to playing it again. As far as the field size, I assume it would be similar depending on the exact timing of the WSOP Paradise in the Bahamas. I think having the two series compete is truly unfortunate and undesirable. With that said, I can’t see a time where I won’t support the Wynn and promote their events. I think it’s important to be vocal when venues do things right because sadly that isn’t the norm.”

To finish, Jaffee shared what he enjoyed most about live tournaments: “I think my favorite part of live tournaments is that every time you sit down you get a different experience. Not all of them are good, but never knowing who you are going to be playing with and what you may see definitely makes for an entertaining environment. I’m not a big fan of routine and when it comes to poker tournaments you never know what’s gonna happen from one minute to the next. It’s definitely more my speed.”

*All images courtesy WorldPokerTour.com

Check out some more great interviews here on Cardplayer Lifestyle:

• Scott Eskenazi, 2023 WPT Rolling Thunder champion
• Alex Gray, WPT presenter
• David Costabile, actor and player
• Hili Shakked, former head of 888poker
• Andre Akkari, poker legend from Brazil
• Tom Wheaton and Alec Rome, producers of the documentary “Dreamers”
• Erin Lydon, Poker Power Managing Director
• Kyna England, Poker Power Instructor & 2021 MSPT Player of the Year

WatchWPT is a way for WPT Enterprises to bring the World Poker Tour to poker fans at their convenience. Making it an app allows it to fit into the busiest of lifestyles, but its availability as a website (worldpokertour.tv) gives viewers even more options.

The new and improved #WatchWPT app is here — and IT'S FREE!

Dive into our extensive library of past livestreams, TV Final Tables, and more!

Check it out here – https://t.co/maW705XHTu
Also available in the App & Google Play Stores pic.twitter.com/lJgaCha9Zj

— World Poker Tour (@WPT) August 2, 2023

I’ll admit that I didn’t know the WPT had an app that needed to be improved. The “new and improved” WatchWPT has a new user interface and more content.

Reason for WatchWPT App Relaunch

According to the World Poker Tour, the relaunch of WatchWPT was to broaden its reach, taking it to the level of an app that poker fans can access from their mobile devices. At the same time, they launched the product for availability on Vizio and LG Smart TVs. Soon to follow will be Samsung and Philips TVs.

More than that, the relaunch is a part of the rebranding efforts that began last year for the World Poker Tour. With the Season XX changes, WatchWPT was slated for upgrades as well. It now has an improved interface and provides a more user-friendly experience.

What to Watch on WatchWPT

The vast library of World Poker Tour events is on the WatchWPT app and website. Check out everything from old Grand Prix de Paris and Legends of Poker final tables to Alpha8 and celebrity specials. There are also collections of the most memorable WPT final tables from the past as well final tables and livestreams from the 2022 WPT World Championship at Wynn Las Vegas.

Currently, the categories by season includes everything from Season 8 of the World Poker Tour through Season 18. All three seasons of Alpha8 high rollers are available as well.

More episodes are being added, however, including that 20th season finale at Wynn last year and the livestreamed cash games from that event.

It appears that the team behind WatchWPT is still uploading additional episodes and footage. According to the WPT, this will continue through next year as the library becomes home to more classic content to complement new footage.

Free Registration

There is a registration feature, which simply requires a login name, password, and email. This allows viewers to use extras like the “continue watching” feature, so you can stop watching an episode or stream at any point and resume at that place when you return.

You can also “favorite” certain episodes to rewatch later. This is an especially helpful feature if you see poker hands that you want to watch again to improve your own poker game.

There was a downside to my experience with the app though, namely a lot of ads. Before watching a video, there are six ads, though some of them are very short.

The upside, however, is that the app and content is free. In a world where TV watchers now have to seemingly pay for every channel available, the World Poker Tour’s shows are free on apps like this. And its availability through an app makes it easier to watch on a mobile device and on the go.

WPT EveryOne for One Drop $10K

This event was played from July 9-14 at the Wynn Casino in Las Vegas and featured a buy-in of $10,500. A total of 1,676 entries created a prize pool of $16.2 million, far exceeding the $10 million guarantee.

Among the notable players who finished in the money were: Isaac Haxton (198th), Erik Seidel (197th), Joe McKeehen (192nd), Andrew Moreno (186th), Chris Moneymaker (141st), Ethan “Rampage” Yau (127th ), Dan Smith (115th), Jeremy Ausmus (79th), 2022 WPT World Championship champion Eliot Hudon (66th), Adrián Mateos (57th), WPT Prime Championship winner Stephen Song (39th), 4-time WPT champion Darren Elias (19th) and Stephen Chidwick (16th), among others.

The winner of the tournament was Bin Weng, who collected the biggest prize of his career: $2.2 million. Weng is in the midst of his best year ever, having already made two final tables in WPT Main Events — placing fourth at the WPT Choctaw for $143K and winning the WPT Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown for $1.1 million. With these results he leads the WPT Player of the Year rankings, and has passed the $7 million mark for career live tournament earnings.

Bin Weng Wins the WPT EveryOne for One Drop ($2,227,054)
Photo Credit : WPT#onedrop #wpt #wynnlasvegas #everyoneforonedrop #poker4water pic.twitter.com/BYMSrwPQTP

— All In For ONE DROP (@allinforonedrop) July 15, 2023

The final table consisted of a half dozen crushers, each of whom happily padded their bank accounts:

1. Bin Weng –  $2,227,054
2. Scott Baumstein  –  $1,503,988
3. Niko Koop  –  $1,872,438
4. Freddy Heller –  $956,000
5. Dominik Nitsche   –  $700,100
6. Tom Cannuli  –  $524,500

WPT Alpha 8 For One Drop $111K

After several years of absence, the exclusive Alpha 8-branded tournament returned and was played from July 14-16 at the Wynn Casino. With 45 entrants paying $111K each for seats at the tables, the total prize pool was $4.6 million, and it was split among the final seven players.

The lion’s share went to Jonathan Jaffe, who collected the biggest prize of his career: over $1.5 million. Jonathan is a regular player on the World Poker Tour, where he boasts 14 cashes, 4 final tables and 1 title (WPT Montreal in 2014). With his Alpha 8 win, he boosted his live tournament earnings to $9 million.

Here’s how the final table played out among those who made the money:

1. Jonathan Jaffe –  $1,537,600
2. Taylor von Kriegenbergh –  $1,042,100
3. Dan Smith –  $701,700
4. Aleksejs Ponakovs –  $485,200
5. Michael Lim –  $350,100
6. Iaron Lightbourne –  $273,200
7. Isaac Haxton –  $222,600

Congratulations Jonathan Jaffe, Winner of the $111,000 @WPT Alpha 8 For One Drop Event. Jonathan battled his way to victory through a star studded field, taking home $1,537,600! pic.twitter.com/BGVNylpKxX

— Wynn Poker Room (@WynnPoker) July 17, 2023

WPT Big One For One Drop $1M

The crown jewel of the WPT-One Drop Foundation trifecta will be the return of the “Big One For One Drop,” which will feature a whopping $1 million price tag to enter, and which will be played from December 18-20 as part of the 2023 WPT World Championship. It will be the fifth edition of this event after previous installments of the tournament held in 2012 (winner: Antonio Esfandiari – $18.3M), 2014 (winner: Dan Colman – $15.3M), 2016 (winner: Elton Tsang – $12.2M) and 2018 (winner: Justin Bonomo – $10M).

How many entries will the new edition have? Who is most likely to emerge atop as a newly-minted multi-millionare among millionaires? Learn more in this article.

It’s coming. #TheBigOne @onedrop @allinforonedrop @WynnLasVegas @WynnPoker pic.twitter.com/0dpunxnMBV

— World Poker Tour (@WPT) July 12, 2023

The full 2023 WPT World Championship schedule will soon be announced, with even higher numbers expected than last year, and the returning Big One For One Drop on top of it all. This will signal a perfect end to 2023, a year where live poker has broken numerous records, with more likely to fall at the Wynn in December.

If you would have told 21-year-old me that I’d someday get to be in the same room with those two legends, I’d be beside myself. Hell, 41-year-old me typing up these words still can’t believe I had that opportunity just a few short hours ago.

You might be asking yourself, “what was so special about that opportunity?”

There’s an old saying that you can tell a lot about a person by the company they keep. As much as the 2023 WPT Honors ceremony was about the honorees, in my eyes it was similarly about the group that assembled to pay tribute to said honorees.

A Ceremony Like No Other

A good deal of pomp and circumstance went into the ceremonial aspects of the event, with numerous individuals stepping up to the podium to “make the case” for each nominee’s worthiness of receiving the WPT Honors to the dutifully bespectacled and robed WPT President Adam Pliska. The World Poker Tour might be unrivaled in our industry when it comes to putting on special events like these, and to have had a seat at the ceremony was akin to witnessing a very special episode of poker’s greatest show.

After Angelica Hael officially nominated Vince Van Patten, a parade of World Poker Tour stalwarts including Matt Savage, Lynn Gilmartin, Tony Dunst, and company Founder Steve Lipscomb ascended to the mic to heap oodles of praise upon their longtime colleague and friend. Beyond their obvious outpouring of love and appreciation for the man, what stood out to me from the speeches about Vince was his colleagues’ admiration for his work ethic. Plainly speaking, the man showed up every single day and just put in the work. But Vince hasn’t just “clocked in” for 21 years; he’s done so with the same vim, vigor, and joie de vivre with which he showed up on his first day. A rare quality, to be sure.

Ever humble, Vince deflected the praise to in turn show appreciation for his World Poker Tour colleagues and the late Mike Sexton; the people who helped and supported him along the way. In response to the deluge of kind words spoken about him, he humorously quipped that “this is like attending your own funeral.”

I couldn’t help but draw direct lines of comparison to the reactions when Cal Ripken Jr. broke Major League Baseball’s consecutive games streak years ago; a veritable poker Iron Man was getting his due. How sublime for someone who has worked so hard for so long to enjoy such a special moment of public appreciation.

A similar cavalcade comprised of Jeffrey Haas, Hermance Blum, Lance Bradley, Israel Rosenthal, and Sven Stiel took to the stage one by one to express their gratitude and appreciation for Isai Scheinberg’s contributions specifically to their careers as well as to poker on the whole.

From my perspective, it was astounding to note the attendance of so many former PokerStars employees who had worked under Scheinberg until the then-privately owned company was sold in August 2014. It’s simply surreal to think that one man was ultimately responsible for putting together such an impressive array of talent. All of those people have since moved on to other successful endeavors and roles in the subsequent years, many still within the poker industry. But witnessing “the old PokerStars family” reunite under one roof felt like watching the Avengers assemble.

They spoke of Isai’s three simple, straightforward rules: never lie, never cheat, and always do the right thing. While simple, rules like those aren’t always easy to adhere to in an industry with billions of dollars at stake, as history has taught us.

Scheinberg has always been notorious for his preference of privacy. The entire poker world knows of his accomplishments, but the great man rarely, if ever, surfaced publicly. Being at the 2023 WPT Honors ceremony to see Isai accept his award felt like being transported to PokerStars’ headquarters prior to 2014; a place full of people who never lied, never cheated, and always did the right thing. No wonder it proved to be such a successful venture.

While fish may be surrounded by water, they still rise to the surface when it rains to welcome new droplets. So, too, the entire room full of luminaries could be seen leaning in to listen closely to the soft-spoken Scheinberg during the latter’s acceptance speech. It was a telling moment.

Reflections From Fellow Attendees

Reader can clearly identify my long-held esteem for both the World Poker Tour and PokerStars, but I’ve always been an outsider and independent media voice. So, in order to gain a greater understanding and appreciation for what I had borne witness to, I asked a few insiders who worked with Vince and for Isai, to share their thoughts and perspectives on the evening. Here’s what they had to say:

“There are two men in my life who have been incredible role models of what it means to be an honest entrepreneur. One of them was my late father; the other is Isai Scheinberg. I didn’t think that I was going to get into the world of gambling and learn more about honesty than I had learned before in my life as a journalist. Isai taught me that you can be a good businessman and you could be a good person at the same time. He was more generous with me than any other boss or company owner ever has been, and I think he is worthy of every honor he’s been given and more.”

Brad Willis, Editor-in-Chief of Poker.Org, formerly the Head of Blogging at PokerStars

“Both of these gentlemen have meant so much to me in my poker career. Isai doesn’t realize it, but of course being a part of the poker industry just would not have been the same without Isai Scheinberg. I want to thank him. He hasn’t received the accolades that he deserves; I think he should of course be in the Poker Hall of Fame.

And I think that Vince Van Patten deserves recognition for all that he’s done for the game. It’s not very often that you see someone who has been around in the game for as long as he has been. He’s become like family to me, so I speak from the heart: we’ve spent a lot of time together sharing our passion for poker. I really appreciate everything both of these guys have done.”

Matt Savage, Executive Tour Director of the World Poker Tour

“I’ve been in poker for just over seven years. It’s incredible to hear the historical stories and learn how our industry has evolved. We get into our positions these days and de facto only think about our current time and present roles. To go back and see the history is just incredible. There are so many stories from the people who came before us, and it’s important to appreciate them.”

Eric Lusch, Media Relations Manager with the World Poker Tour

“I have not been to a poker event since 2016. The only reason I came tonight was because of Isai Scheinberg. All the things that have been said about him; it wasn’t enough, about what this man taught me and what he taught everybody in the room. Not just about business and about poker, but about life and how to treat people the right way.

The emotion that I feel tonight is because of the sense of community that I’m feeling and don’t remember poker having had for a very long time. I miss it. The World Poker Tour was always the rival to the organization that I worked for… and I didn’t realize until tonight just how super cool the people who work for the World Poker Tour are, from the top down… and there’s no such thing as ‘down’ with them! Everybody’s got an important role to play in the World Poker Tour. I’m so impressed with the WPT, what they’ve done tonight, the sense of camaraderie they have, and the love they have for each other.

When we talk about playing poker, sitting around a table, and competing to take each other’s money… the game is about more than that. It’s about the friendships, and the love, and the trust, and the lessons you learn from one another. Even though I was here for just two hours tonight, I came away with a great sense of energy.”

Nolan Dalla, former Director of Communications at PokerStars

The Coolest-Ever Poker After-Party

Poker.org owner Eric Hollreiser, himself a former PokerStars employee, hosted a swanky afterparty in one of the Wynn ballrooms that featured an open bar, flowing chocolate fondue fountains, and the most succulent strawberries to delight our tastebuds as we mingled to mellifluous music. Designed to orchestrate a reunion of former PokerStars employees, many World Poker Tour personages could also be found among the attendees.

You can tell a lot about people by the folks they surround themselves with.

I hesitate to use the word “magic”, but there was something indescribably unique in the air throughout last night’s festivities.

I suppose that’s what happens when the spotlight shines on poker’s best. The entire room lights up.

WPT Vietnam was chosen because it was the debut Prime stop in 2022. This year’s WPT Prime Vietnam Main Event begins today, May 25th, and will have three starting flights. The buy-in will be $1,000 and the event will offer a guaranteed prize pool of $511,000.

After months of working with multiple designers and production companies, the WPT chose the “Ballerina” design because of the beautiful flow of its wings, and its uncanny resemblance to the Main Tour cup. The Main Tour Cup, renamed The Mike Sexton Champions Cup in July 2020, is a coveted and well-recognized trophy in the poker community. It was renamed in honor of Mike Sexton, longtime WPT Commentator. Every WPT champion has their name permanently inscribed on the cup along with the winning hand from each player’s victory.

Mike Sexton, of course, was inducted into the Poker Hall of Famer in 2009 and was the WPT Honors recipient in 2017. Sexton recorded $6,708,146 in live tournament earnings during his career. One of his biggest prizes was for the 2006 No Limit Hold’em tournament at the WSOP Tournament of Champions in Las Vegas for $1 million after nabbing first place. In 2009, Sexton along with Linda Johnson, Jan Fisher and Lisa Tenner, created PokerGives.org, a nonprofit organization that provides a way for poker players and the poker industry to give back to various charities.

The Prime Trophy may mirror the Mike Sexton Champions Cup but with one difference. Instead of every player being inscribed on the cup, the trophy will display a QR code at its center, which will link to a Prime Champions page on the World Poker Tour website. The WPT Prime perpetual trophy will travel to every Prime Tour stop, and a replica of that trophy will be awarded to each Prime main event winner to take home.

The WPT Prime Perpetual Trophy’s Evolution and Significance

While the trophy is new, the WPT had always wanted to create something special for their mid-major tour. When it was decided to revamp the entire Tour in 2021, introducing WPT Prime, it provided the perfect opportunity to execute this longtime goal. Cardplayer Lifestyle spoke with Adam Pliska, President and CEO of the WPT about the significance of the new trophy.

Why was the creation of this trophy important to the World Poker Tour?

Considering the significance and recognizability that the Mike Sexton WPT Champions Cup has embodied over the years, we have always dreamed of creating a similar, iconic piece. With the evolution of WPT in 2021, we saw the revamping of WPTDeepStacks into the WPT Prime as the perfect opportunity to implement another one-of-a-kind trophy to the tour.

Can you elaborate on the significance of the trophy design mirroring the Mike Sexton WPT Champions Cup but also having its own image?

I could not tell you how many design options we went through before landing on the perfect one. To be honest, we were not necessarily looking to create the Prime trophy in the image of the Champions Cup at first. However, when the ‘Ballerina’ concept was presented to us, we instantly saw the resemblance and knew our heart was set on that direction. The individuality of the design was of course important to distinguish the two tours and the most significant difference is the unique QR code capability that comes with the new Prime trophy.

What are your aspirations for this tour in the future?

The Prime Tour has only just begun. We aspire to continuously expand its reach to bring the WPT experience to all corners of the world. Along with that notion, we would like to foster longstanding partnerships that become staples of the tour, festivals that players look forward to year after year. WPT Prime is a great entry point for players that can lead them toward a deeper journey into their poker aspirations.

Thus, the WPT Prime Trophy will in essence be shared by all poker players, as it travels to each stop on the tour. The hope for many will now become to have their own version of the trophy to bring home.

The WPT Prime Slovakia Festival

The festival will be held at the Card Casino in the capital city of Bratislava, Slovakia. A total of 18 tournaments will be played, guaranteeing a total of €1,250,000 in prizes. There will also be satellites to the most important tournaments and to the 2023 WPT World Championship to be played in December in Las Vegas.

Kicking off the WPT Prime Slovakia festival will be Event #1, the WPT Bratislava Championship, which will have a buy-in of €330 and a huge guaranteed prize pool of €250,000. Seven starting flights will be available for participants to seek their pass to Day 2.

Listed below are the WPT Prime Slovakia events that will have guaranteed prize pools:

You can see the complete schedule at this link.

The WPT Prime Slovakia Main Event

The highest profile tournament of the festival will be the WPT Prime Slovakia Main Event, which will feature a buy-in of €1,100 and a guaranteed prize pool of €500,000. Starting stacks will be 30,000 chips and the blinds will increase every 40 minutes.

This will be the schedule for WPT Prime Slovakia Main Event:

• Day 1A: Thursday, May 11 at 4 p.m.
• Day 1B: Friday, May 12 at 1 p.m.
• Day 1C: Friday, May 12 at 6 p.m.
• Day 1D: Saturday, May 13 at 1 p.m.
• Day 1E: Saturday, May 13 at 6 p.m.
• Day 2: Sunday, May 14 at 3 p.m.
• Day 3: Monday, May 15 at 2 p.m.

#WPTPrimeSlovakia is coming up next month at @cardcasino_svk featuring an €1,100 €500k GTD Main Event!

Festival Dates: May 3 – 15
Main Event Dates: May 11 – 15

More Info & Full Schedule: https://t.co/KbqaQzG5YR pic.twitter.com/a6ZV8veFaS

— World Poker Tour (@WPT) April 10, 2023

The WPT Prime Slovakia Venue

The Card Casino is the largest gaming establishment in Slovakia at 8,000 square meters. In addition to the traditional games of blackjack, slots, roulette and baccarat, the facility features a Cabaret and several restaurants. It is located right next to Bratislava airport and just 30 minutes from Vienna airport in neighboring Austria. If you’re further afield, it’s only two hours from Budapest, Hungary and three hours from Prague, Czech Republic.

The Poker Room awaiting players at Bratislava’s Card Casino

The Card Casino offers players three different packages that include transfers, hotel and tournament entry:

• WPT Silver €1,600: airport pick-up, 5 nights in Vienna House Hotel, free buffet and WPT Prime entry
• WPT Gold €1,900: airport pick-up, 5 nights in NH One Gate Hotel, free buffet and WPT Prime entry
• WPT Premium €4,900: airport pick-up, 5 nights in NH One Gate Hotel, free buffet, WPT Prime entryand WPT High Roller €3K entry

The City of Bratislava, Slovakia

Bratislava is the seat of the Slovak parliament and government and offers a wide range of artistic, cultural, and educational offerings. The southern territories of Slovakia, including Bratislava, were part of the Kingdom of Hungary from the arrival of the Hungarians in 895 until the end of World War I in 1918.

What is there to see in Bratislava? There is a wide variety of options, from touring the historic center, passing under St. Michael’s Gate, visiting Bratislava Castle, learning about the country’s past at the Bratislava History Museum, and admiring St. Martin’s Cathedral. You can also climb the tower of the Old Town Hall, photograph St. Elizabeth’s Church, explore nature around the city, stand in front of the Savlin, and admire the facade of Grassalkovich Palace. Other alternatives include looking for Bratislava statues, climbing the Most SNP or Bratislava UFO, taking a trip to Devin Castle and enjoying the city’s nightlife.

WPT Prime tournaments have been very successful around the world so far in 2023. The Paris leg registered 1,071 entries in January and that number was surpassed in Australia with 1,224 entries on the Gold Coast. Can WPT Prime Slovakia surpass it? We will see in a few days!

ClubWPT will stage 14 satellites (two per month) from April 16 until the end of October. Each satellite will have 20 guaranteed entries to the WPT World Championship Challenge, which will be played on November 5. The top 10 placed players in that event will win a WPT World Championship Passport valued at $12,500 to play in the WPT Season 2023 Grand Final in Las Vegas.

“ClubWPT is an essential branch of the World Poker Tour landscape, and as such, we sought to link the site and its members to our biggest event of the year,” said WPT CEO Adam Pliska. “We are proud to offer a chance to win a seat to the WPT World Championship at Wynn Las Vegas to all members of the WPT community.”

PRESS RELEASE@ClubWPT will run a 300-player #WPTWorldChampionship Challenge finale on November 5, giving away $150,000 in prizes!

Read more: https://t.co/2s2DwvYKPr

— World Poker Tour (@WPT) April 20, 2023

Here are the details of the next satellite to be played this Sunday:

• Date & Time: Sunday, Apr 23 @ 5:30 PM ET (Diamond eligible)
• Lobby Name: $150K WPT WC Passport Challenge – Satellite
• Game: No-Limit Texas Hold’em
• Top twenty (20) finishers of each satellite will win a seat into the $150,000 WPT World Championship Passport Challenge qualifier on Sunday, November 5, 2023.

In addition to the two monthly satellites, there will be one last chance to qualify with the Last Chance Invitational to be played at the end of October. ClubWPT members who were unable to qualify via the previous satellites will be able to participate and will also have the chance to claim 20 entries for the WPT World Championship Challenge.

$150,000 WPT World Championship Challenge

On Sunday November 5, the WPT World Championship Challenge will be held with the 300 people who won their entries via the 15 satellites. The top 10 finishers will win a passport package valued at $12,500 which includes the following prizes:

• $10,400 WPT World Championship Main Event seat.
• Hotel stay at the luxurious Wynn Las Vegas.
• $1,000 cash (self-arranged flight and incidentals).
• Dedicated ClubWPT VIP host.
• Official ClubWPT branded merchandise.
• Meet & greet with WPT talent.

In addition, a total of $25,000 in cash prizes will be awarded to those finishing in 11th-100th place in the final:

• 11th-13th: $1,000
• 14th-15th: $750
• 16th-20th: $500
• 21st-40th: $350
• 41st-60th: $250
• 61st-80th: $200
• 81st-100th: $100

With a full third — 100 of the 300 participants — receiving some sort of prize, just getting to play in the WPT World Championship Challenge is a lucrative opportunity.

About ClubWPT

ClubWPT is the official subscription online poker game of the World Poker Tour. VIP and Diamond users pay a monthly subscription fee for exclusive access to member benefits including full episodes from every past season of the WPT television show, valuable savings and coupons, invites to official World Poker Tour live events and much more. Each month, members can play poker to win a share of more than $100,000 in cash and prizes, including seats to live WPT events.

WPT World Championship 2022

The 2022 WPT World Championship was an absolute success and broke numerous World Poker Tour records. The series’ Main Event featured the largest guaranteed prize pool in history at $15 million, which came very close to being doubled with over $29 million in prize money being awarded.

Last year, ClubWPT sent nearly 30 members to the WPT World Championship at Wynn Las Vegas to play in the $10,400 event and aims to top that mark this season. Along with an extraordinary poker experience, Passport winners were granted access to an exclusive VIP lounge and unique promotions.

Eliot Hudon

Last year, three of the series’ most prestigious events were won by Eliot Hudon, Stephen Song, and Lina Niu.

The return of the World Poker Tour’s highly anticipated festival is scheduled for November 29 to December 23. The full schedule of events has not yet been announced, but we already know that the 2023 WPT World Championship Main Event will be played from December 12-18.

New and additional ways to qualify for the 2023 WPT World Championship will surely continue to be announced, so keep your eyes peeled and check back with us here at Cardplayer Lifestyle for the news!

Enjoy the Amstel Canal

The Amstel Canal is one of the most popular attractions in Amsterdam, and you can enjoy it in many ways.

It would be criminal not to visit the Amstel Canal as you travel through Amsterdam, which for the last half a millennia has been host to arguably Europe’s most beautiful canal route. By day, a stroll up and down the Amstel will provide you with a magical mystery tour of sights, such as bookshops filled with rare treasures (I once found a Roald Dahl first edition on sale a quick hop from the canal’s edge).

When evening descends, taking a planned canal cruise is a really popular activity. A few drinks and the well-lit waterways are transformed into the perfect way to get around his historic city. Food is not something that the Dutch are famed for, but this is perhaps an outdated opinion, with some excellent places to eat dotted along the route of the canal.

One of the most popular ways to see the canal is the All-Inclusive Canal Tour which is presented by ‘Captain Jack’ – a tribute to Johnny Depp from the Pirates of the Caribbean movies. You’d be ‘Arrrd pushed to find a better way to spend the day.

The Keukenhof Gardens

Amsterdam, like the Netherlands in general – is well known for its flowers. From the humble tulip to less recognised botanical wonders, there’s no better place to take it all in than the Keukenhof Gardens. You can get a superb, guided tour for less than €100 that lasts a full nine hours with cheese tasting at the windmill village in the Zaanse Schans and a wooden shoe demonstration in the wooden shoe factory.

It’s not only the Dutch national flower that is evident around the grounds, which are visited by 800,000 people every year. Around the 15 kilometers of footpaths and 32 hectares of gardens, millions of bulbs are planted every 12 months. From the tulip to the daffodil and everything in between, the gardens feature regular themed displays and have an English landscape garden and a Japanese country garden along with the historical garden that provides the centerpiece of the attraction.

Bike Around Beauty

If you’ve ever been to Amsterdam before, then you’ll know that bicycles are the dominant vehicle for travel in the city. So much so in fact, that the phrase if you can’t beat them, join them springs to mind. Driving through Amsterdam is — like chasing a runner runner straight — akin to insanity, but biking around the city is something to cherish and it’s much easier to go with the flow.

Booking yourself onto a bike tour of the city is cheap at around €40 for a great one lasting three hours. This will take you around the ring of canals that have been in place since the 17th Century in the capital of the Netherlands, with areas of interest dotted around the route. There are a number of parks and attractions along the route, with a stop near the Royal Dutch Concert Hall digging deeper into the fascinating past of one of Europe’s most historic locations.

The Van Gogh Museum

Masters of many artistic genres are present in the city, such as Rembrandt, and our favorite place to drink in artwork is the Van Gogh Museum. With the largest collection of Van Gogh’s artwork in the world, there are over 200 paintings in place, as well as exclusive drawings and letters from the irrepressible Dutch master’s life.

Van Gogh’s inspiring story will delight any art lovers and this is the second most visited museum in Amsterdam every year. His most popular creation, Sunflowers, is by far the most popular of his paintings on display, but the whole exhibition is exquisite and will provide you with a very different pace to a day off between WPT Prime events.

Honor Anne Frank’s Memory

Anne Frank House is the home of the Anne Frank Museum, which hails the life of the prodigious journalist to be who died aged just 15.

If there’s one thing you should do when you take time away from the poker felt to explore Amsterdam, it’s visit Anne Frank’s house. Now converted into a museum, it is a poignant and tragic location which continues to inspire and comfort millions of visitors every year.

Anne Frank’s diary, which was written in the house before she was taken and killed in a concentration camp at the age of just 15, is one of the world’s most important books and the museum honors that tome with a stunning collection of her life that has been converted into a museum.

Having lived in hiding for over two years during the Second World War before her capture, Anne Frank’s plight is bound to the area and it is a touching tribute that the aspiring journalist’s words have since made her famous as a writer posthumously.

If you’re playing in the 2023 WPT Prime Amsterdam events, then you can read all about what’s happening in on the World Poker Tour next week in Amsterdam here. Split your efforts at the felt with some adventures in Amsterdam and the perfect European poker trip will be yours. Good luck!

What can they find in this far-flung location? It would be easier to describe what delights aren’t on offer.

A Market City of History and Beauty

If you’re after action and adventure, Phnom Penh is the city for you. The heart of Cambodia, the city has been the capital of the country ever since 1434 and was re-established as the capital once more in 1865; since then it has been Cambodia’s thriving heartbeat.

Sitting neatly between the Mekong and Tonlé Sap rivers, it is worth exploring Phnom Penh or its stunning river walks, and the city is packed with parks, restaurants and bars that all offer something different.

Indeed, a whole tour guide could be written on each of these aspects alone, but we would point you in the direction of the city’s globally renowned art deco Central Market above any other attractions. If Cambodia is known as the ‘Pearl of Asia’, then the market is the glittering centerpoint of such beauty, with over 2 million people in Phnom Penh alone regularly flooding from their homes to buy anything from food to furniture amid the thousands of stalls.

Such is the vibrancy of the market center, that several offshoots of the main hub are worth dedicating serious time to on their own. The Central Market is where most tourists gravitate towards, but the Night Market (or Phsar Reatrey) is very popular with younger revellers, while there is a thriving Russian Market that has a permanent residency, too.

The Royal Palace is a stunning piece of architecture with pavilions of huge importance to the country surrounding the royal seat.

The Royal Palace

Cambodia has 14 million citizens, and it is often said that if someone hasn’t been to the Royal Palace, then they have not really been to Cambodia at all. The complex of royal buildings is the palatial home of the King of Cambodia, and monarchs have taken their seat at the Royal Palace between the 1860s and the present day, with the structure built on top of an ancient citadel.

Having been demolished and rebuilt by previous monarchs, the palace is now a source of peace and tranquillity, with a stunning gilt-edge throne room that makes the grandest castle seat in Game of Thrones look like it was constructed from Play Doh. The statue of His Majesty King Sisowath holding the Royal Sword sits at the south end of the throne room, with the nine-level classical Khmer-style throne itself one of the most ornate pieces of furniture in the known world.

As well as the Royal Palace itself, there is a Napoleon Pavilion, Moonlight Pavilion, Phochani (Banquet) Pavilion and a stunning Silver Pagoda, which holds many of the complex’s sacred Buddhas. The best of these might be the Maitreya Buddha, which is encrusted with a total of 9,584 diamonds and is dressed in royal regalia just to complete the effect. Warning: It might make that side event trophy you win seem slightly inferior after your visit.

The National Museum

Cambodia’s National Museum houses the country’s largest collection of historical and archaeological artefacts, with Khmer art, sculptures, bronzes and ethnographic objects packed throughout its dense corridors. Over 100 years old, the National Museum of Cambodia is no dusty hall of relics, however, with clean, open interiors that feel more modern than you might expect from the outside of the building.

The National Museum of Cambodia is one of everyone’s must-see places while heading to the country on the World Poker Tour.

Many religious artefacts are inside, with Vishnu and Ganesha models among them. Some of the objects are immaculately kept and date back well into the 17th century, so this is a fascinating place to glimpse Cambodia’s rich and complex history in the form of beauty that was left behind for the generations to come.

Temple Run

No, not the highly addictive escape game on cell phones. Rather we’re talking about Wat Phnom, which roughly translated means ‘Hill Temple’. The most impressive temple in the city has a fascinating story behind it, with the legend going that a widow named Lady Penh saved a tree from the nearby river and wanted to build a house form its wood. Inside the tree trunk, however, she found four statues of Buddha and therefore ordered a shrine to be built and the statues to be revered by future generations.

The Wat Phnom Temple is one of the capital city’s most popular tourist attractions.

Setting aside the obvious GTO questions any poker player might have for Lady Penh, namely why she didn’t instead order her servants to track down the location of these mysterious buddha-filled trees instead, the wealthy lady’s wish has led to a place of humility and peace being in place since 1373, when the site was confirmed as a holy place.

Quite what Lady Penh would have made of the temple’s gardens being used as a site for rock concerts, street festivals and the yearly centerpiece for the New Year celebrations in Cambodia is debatable, but you’ve got to see this stunning location of beauty before getting back to the poker tables and putting yourself in the ‘Prime’ position to leave Cambodia with a trophy of your own.