WPT Adds Charity Event to Upcoming Online Series
Nearly two months ago, the World Poker Tour announced its latest and largest online poker series with PartyPoker. The partners announced the inaugural WPT World Online Championships, a massive series set to run from July through August and into September, would guarantee $100 million in prize pools.
The initial announcement transformed by the time the more detailed schedule appeared in mid-June. The number of WPT-branded events changed, as did the Main Event and other details. What the WPT and PartyPoker revealed just a few weeks ago was a schedule of 12 WPT-branded events, out of which five will produce new Champions Club members and award seats to the WPT Tournament of Champions.
The $100 million WPT World Online Championships was then set to begin on July 17 and run through September 8. Most of the WPT events will offer three buy-in levels with different guarantees, providing tournaments with buy-ins as low as $33.
PartyPoker will be inserting many more tournaments to surround the WPT highlights, all with the goal of giving players many options and a total of $100 million in guarantees.
The latest message from the WPT and PartyPoker adds a fun and noble element to the series in the form of a poker industry invitational event and a two-day charity tournament.
WPT and @partypoker Partner for $500,000 Shooting Stars for Charity Event during #WPTWOC on July 29!
🌠https://t.co/QPSH0sVsBi pic.twitter.com/dFEPFtOeNj
— World Poker Tour (@WPT) July 2, 2020
Shooting Stars for Charity
This week, the World Poker Tour announced that it and PartyPoker added another tournament to the WPT World Online Championships.
The $1,100 buy-in Shooting Stars for Charity will not award an official WPT champion’s title, but it will guarantee $500K for the prize pool. And it will offer bounties and a good cause.
The Shooting Stars for Charity NLHE tournament is set to run July 29-30, and there will be a livestream on PartyPoker’s Twitch and social media channels.
Celebrities and well-known poker pros will play with $500 bounties on each of their heads. Some of those pros will be Ryan Riess, Sam Trickett, Igor Kurganov, and Steffen Sontheimer. (Kurganov has already dedicated 100% of his winnings in the tournament to the charity. And rapper Alejandro Lococo, better known as Papo MC, will headline the list of celebrities. More will be announced at a later date.
The WPT Foundation is teaming up for this event to raise money for 1 Day Sooner, an organization dedicated to further the research for a Covid-19 vaccine via human challenge trials. The organization has already recruited more than 30,000 volunteers for vaccine trials in 140 countries. This tournament will donate $100 of every buy-in to 1 Day Sooner.
The 29th and 30th of July, @WPT and @partypoker are raising money for @1daysooner . Their goal is to speed up the process of finding a vaccine for Covid-19.
$1100 is the buy-in
$100 in rake going to charity
$500 bounty on my head as a shooting star. I intend to win so bring it! pic.twitter.com/S8kWBRYqMc— Jaime Staples (@jaimestaples) July 3, 2020
Poker Industry Invited
On July 17, the WPT and PartyPoker will host the Poker Industry Invitational, a $320 buy-in tournament with a $30K guarantee. The top three finishers in that event will win seats to the Shooting Stars for Charity tournament.
Apparently, those located in countries allowed on GGPoker will receive invitations.
How to Qualify for WPT Series
Speaking of July 17, the WPT World Online Championship will kick off on July 17. However, PartyPoker is already offering qualifiers for the Main Event. Players can begin the journey to a free ticket for as little as $2.20, or they can buy in to the $109 direct satellites each evening at 8pm ET.
Other satellites will begin soon to feed directly into the WPT World Championship events. They will run each week of the series for the upcoming events that weekend.
Players may also take advantage of Ticket Drops. The promotion is already underway for players on PartyPoker. By playing in tournaments with “WPT Seat Added” next to its name in the lobby, the winners of those events will also each win a ticket to a WPT World Online Championship event.
The WPT provides more information on all of the opportunities on this page.
$5m GTD WPT World Championship Mini-Main Event satellites start today 🧐 43 x $1,050 seats guaranteed a week from $22 Daily Phases into a Weekly Monday Final or $109 buy-in direct satellites to win $1,050 seats nightly. @WPT #WPTWOC ➡️ https://t.co/tn1wEtrBrc ⬅️ pic.twitter.com/3I9Pg87ynD
— PartyPoker (@partypoker) June 30, 2020
Schedule Reminder
As the start date for the series approaches, here’s a schedule reminder:
–Event 1 / July 18-21
$33 WPT Micro World Championship PLO Hi-Lo (2 flights, 1 reentry, $50K GTD)
$320 WPT Mini World Championship PLO Hi-Lo (2 flights, 1 reentry, $150K GTD)
$3,200 WPT World Championship PLO Hi-Lo (2 flights, 1 reentry, $500K GTD)
–Event 2 / July 25-28
$33 WPT Micro World Championship PLO (2 flights, 1 reentry, $100K GTD)
$320 WPT Mini World Championship PLO (2 flights, 1 reentry, $300K GTD)
$3,200 WPT World Championship PLO (2 flights, 1 reentry, $1M GTD)
–Event 3 / August 1-4
$33 WPT Micro World Championship NLHE 8-Max (2 flights, 1 reentry, $300K GTD)
$320 WPT Mini World Championship NLHE 8-Max (2 flights, 1 reentry, $1M GTD)
$3,200 WPT World Championship NLHE 8-Max (2 flights, 1 reentry, $3M GTD)
–Event 4 / August 8-11
$33 WPT Micro World Championship NLHE Knockout (2 flights, 1 reentry, $300K GTD)
$320 WPT Mini World Championship NLHE Knockout (2 flights, 1 reentry, $1M GTD)
$3,200 WPT World Championship NLHE Knockout (2 flights, 1 reentry, $3M GTD)
–Event 5 / August 15-18
$33 WPT Micro World Championship NLHE 6-Max (2 flights, 1 reentry, $300K GTD)
$320 WPT Mini World Championship NLHE 6-Max (2 flights, 1 reentry, $1M GTD)
$3,200 WPT World Championship NLHE 6-Max (2 flights, 1 reentry, $3M GTD)
–Event 6 / August 22-26
$109 WPT Micro World Championship NLHE Main Event (2 flights, 1 reentry, $1M GTD)
$1,100 WPT Mini World Championship NLHE Main Event (2 flights, 1 reentry, $5M GTD)
–Event 7 / August 29-September 2
$10,300 WPT World Championship NLHE Main Event (2 flights, 1 reentry, $10M GTD)
–Event 8 / September 2-3
$33 WPT Micro World Championship NLHE Heads-Up (1 flight, no reentry, $20K GTD)
$320 WPT Mini World Championship NLHE Heads-Up (1 flight, no reentry, $100K GTD)
$3,200 WPT World Championship NLHE Heads-Up (1 flight, no reentry, $500K GTD)
–Event 9 / September 5-8
$33 WPT Micro World Championship NLHE Mix-Max (2 flights, 1 reentry, $300K GTD)
$320 WPT Mini World Championship NLHE Mix-Max (2 flights, 1 reentry, $1M GTD)
$3,200 WPT World Championship NLHE Mix-Max (2 flights, 1 reentry, $3M GTD)
–Event 10 / September 5-8
$25,500 WPT World Championship NLHE High Roller (2 flights, 1 reentry, $10M GTD)
–Event 11 / September 7-8
$102,000 WPT World Championship NLHE Super High Roller (2 flights, 1 reentry, $5M GTD)
–Event 12 / September 8
$33 WPT Micro World Championship NLHE Turbo (1 flight, 1 reentry, $100K GTD)
$320 WPT Mini World Championship NLHE Turbo (1 flight, 1 reentry, $300K GTD)
$3,200 WPT World Championship NLHE Turbo (1 flight, 1 reentry, $1M GTD)