World Poker Tour

World Poker Tour

Current season, competition or edition: World Poker Tour season 19 results
File:World Poker Tour Logo.svg
Sport	Poker
Founded	May 27, 2002
CEO	Adam Pliska
Country	United States (Founded)
Most titles	Darren Elias (4)
TV partner(s)	Bally Sports, BT Sport (UK)
Official website	www.worldpokertour.com

The World Poker Tour (WPT) is an internationally televised gaming and entertainment brand. Since 2002, the World Poker Tour has operated a series of international poker tournaments and associated television series broadcasting playdown and the final table of each tournament.

The most prominent of World Poker Tour events belong to the WPT Main Tour. The WPT Main Tour focuses on the buy-in range of $3,500-$25,000, and winners of official WPT Main Tour events are awarded a membership to the WPT Champions Club. The WPT Champions Cup is the trophy awarded to all winners of WPT Main Tour events, and champions have their names engraved on the Cup.

Business

The World Poker Tour was started in 2002 in the United States by attorney/television producer Steven Lipscomb, who served as CEO of WPT Enterprises, Inc. (WPTE).

In November 2009, PartyGaming announced its acquisition of the World Poker Tour for $12.3 million. In 2011, PartyGaming merged with bwin to form bwin.Party Digital Entertainment.

In December 2014, World Poker Tour announced an alliance with Ourgame, agreeing to license products and services on an exclusive basis in more than a dozen countries across Asia. In addition, Ourgame received the rights to use the WPT logo and trademark exclusively in Bhutan, Cambodia, China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Laos, Korea, Nepal, Macau, Malaysia, Taiwan, Thailand, Philippines, and Vietnam and operate on pokermonster.com.

In June 2015, The World Poker Tour (WPT) announced that bwin.party sold the company to Ourgame International Holdings Ltd. for a price of $35 million in cash.

In 2021 the World Poker Tour was sold to Element Partners for $105 million.

Television

The year-round WPT television show has broadcast globally in more than 150 countries and territories, and is currently producing its 18th season, which airs on Fox Sports Regional Networks in the United States. In August 2016, the World Poker Tour and Fox Sports announced a five-year deal to see Fox Sports broadcast the WPT through Season 19.

The WPT television show currently features commentary and analysis by Tony Dunst and Vince Van Patten. Dunst joined the World Poker Tour as host of the WPT Raw Deal during Season 9 after winning the role through an open casting competition. Following the retirement of Mike Sexton from the WPT commentary booth after 15 years, Dunst was elevated into the role alongside Van Patten.

Joining Dunst and Van Patten for all WPT televised broadcasts is anchor Lynn Gilmartin. Gilmartin's role focuses on hosting and presenting the show, as well as offering intimate interviews and sideline reporting. Gilmartin assumed the anchor role for Season 12 and remains the current anchor.

Prior to Gilmartin, Shana Hiatt served as the show host and sideline reporter in its first three seasons. Courtney Friel took over the host role for the fourth season, and Sabina Gadecki for the fifth. Layla Kayleigh and Kimberly Lansing began serving as hostesses in Season VI. Poker player and reporter Amanda Leatherman was the host for Season VII while Lansing was on maternity leave. Lansing returned as the anchor for Season 9 through 11.

The first season aired on the Travel Channel on American cable television in the spring of 2003. The show made its network debut on February 1, 2004, on NBC with a special "Battle of Champions" tournament, which aired against CBS coverage of the Super Bowl XXXVIII pre-game show. The Travel Channel aired the first five seasons of the Tour. In April 2007, WPTE announced that the series would move to GSN for its sixth season in the spring of 2008. 'The first WPT tournament to air on GSN, the Mirage Poker Showdown, debuted on March 24, 2008. In July 2008, WPTE announced that the series would move to Fox Sports Regional Networks for its seventh season.

Following the November 2009 acquisition of the World Poker Tour by PartyGaming plc, the new owners added a second series of televised WPT events under their PartyPoker brand name. This series has, to date, focused on televising the European stops of the WPT. Mike Sexton continues to provide commentary, though he is partnered with Denmark-based American commentator Jesse May rather than Vince Van Patten. The role of female show host and sideline reporter has been served by a number of personalities, often from the country where the event is held. One exception is Canadian born poker player Kara Scott, who has served as host for a number of the PartyPoker branded telecasts of these European WPT events.

The show's hosts, Tony Dunst and Vince Van Patten, sit at a booth near the final table, providing commentary and occasionally interacting with the players during the game. However, their specific comments about hole cards are recorded after the tournament takes place because gaming regulations prohibit them from observing a live feed of the "hole card cameras" while on the set. These cameras, built into the table, allow viewers to see the face-down hole cards dealt to each player.

In 2014, the World Poker Tour launched a high roller tournament series, WPT Alpha8, broadcasting on Fox Sports 1. The series originally featured commentary and analysis by Ali Nejad and Olivier Busquet, with Gilmartin serving as anchor. In later seasons, Vince Van Patten and Tony Dunst replaced Nejad and Busquet, while Lynn Gilmartin continued to serve as anchor.

The first three seasons of WPT are available on NTSC DVD.

In February 2019, WPT announced a deal with BT Sport to broadcast season XV of WPT. The deal expands WPT coverage to the UK and Ireland. During season XV, former WPT television commentator Mike Sexton won his first WPT event.

In March 2019, WPT announced a deal with TV Azteca to bring WPT assets to Latin America.

Professional Poker Tour

A series of spin-off tournaments, titled the Professional Poker Tour, began filming in 2004. Broadcast of the series was delayed, which was partly due to a dispute with the Travel Channel over rights. In the fall of 2005, WPTE announced that "a cable channel" (believed to be ESPN) had withdrawn from bidding for the PPT series, and that WPTE was negotiating with the Travel Channel to air the series. On January 30, 2006, WPTE and the Travel Channel announced that they had dismissed all open lawsuits. The series began regular broadcast July 5, 2006, but was suspended after one season as WPTE couldn't find a television home for a second season.

ClubWPT

In 2008, the WPT launched a new product called ClubWPT. It is a subscription-based club where members can pay a monthly fee to play in tournaments that award over $100,000 in cash and prizes each month.

PlayWPT

In 2016, WPT launched a new social casino platform called PlayWPT, offering poker and slots.

With PlayWPT Poker, players can participate in ring games, tournaments, and sit-n-gos, and players can represent themselves at the table with avatars animated emojis. PlayWPT is available on desktop and mobile.

Sherman Act lawsuit

In July 2006, seven poker professionals sued WPTE, alleging violations of the Sherman Antitrust Act, the California Cartwright Act, and intentional interference with contract. The professionals (Chris Ferguson, Andy Bloch, Annie Duke, Joe Hachem, Phil Gordon, Howard Lederer, and Greg Raymer) alleged that WPTE's standard release forms, required for participation in WPTE events, were anti-competitive and designed to interfere with their contractual obligations to other companies. The anti-competition claim was based on the fact that WPTE's contracts with the casinos that host its tournaments barred those casinos (and other casinos owned by the same parent companies) from hosting non-WPTE poker events. The claim of interference with contract was based on the releases' claim to perpetual rights to the players' likenesses for any use WPTE wished. The players claimed that this would put them in violation of other contracts (such as Ferguson's Activision Games contract or several players' contracts with online poker sites).

Hachem and Raymer dropped out of the lawsuit before its eventual settlement.

In April 2008, WPT Enterprises, Inc. settled with the five players remaining in the lawsuit. Chris Ferguson said about the settlement, "We are happy to have come to an agreement that is fair to all players, and to have put in place a new release that clears up ambiguities in how players' images may be used. We are especially happy that this new release will apply to all poker players who wish to participate in WPT tournaments and events."

WPT Player of the Year

While the winner of the season-ending WPT World Championship (simply the WPT Championship before season 9) is deemed that season's WPT Champion, the WPT also determines a Player of the Year to recognize the player who achieves consistent high finishes in WPT events throughout the entire season.

The Player of the Year is determined by a points system, with the player who earns the most points each season being named the WPT Player of the Year. The season-ending WPT World Championship is a points-earning event for the Player of the Year calculation.

Through the end of Season 9, no player has been named WPT Player of the Year and also captured the WPT Championship. The closest to date is Season 7 WPT Player of the Year Bertrand Grospellier, who finished 3rd in that season's WPT Championship.

In the first eight seasons of the World Poker Tour, only four players have finished in the money at least once. These players are Phil Hellmuth, Erik Seidel, Mark Seif, and Surinder Sunar.

Season	Years	WPT Player of the Year	Wins
1	2002–2003	Howard Lederer	2
2	2003–2004	Erick Lindgren	2
3	2004–2005	Daniel Negreanu	2
4	2005–2006	Gavin Smith	1
5	2006–2007	J. C. Tran	1
6	2007–2008	Jonathan Little	1
7	2008–2009	Bertrand Grospellier	1
8	2009–2010	Faraz Jaka	0
9	2010–2011	Andy Frankenberger	1
10	2011–2012	Joe Serock	0
11	2012–2013	Matthew Salsberg	1
12	2013–2014	Mukul Pahuja	0
13	2014–2015	Anthony Zinno	2
14	2015–2016	Mike Shariati	1
15	2016–2017	Benjamin Zamani	0
16	2017–2018	Art Papazyan	2
17	2018–2019	Erkut Yilmaz	2
18	2019–2021	Brian Altman	1
19	2021–2022	Jake Ferro	1

Points system

During the first 8 seasons, only the 6 players at the final table in each Open event, plus the last (7th) player eliminated before the final table, earned points as follows:

• Winner: 1,000 points
• Runner-up: 700 points
• 3rd place: 600 points
• 4th place: 500 points
• 5th place: 400 points
• 6th place: 300 points
• 7th place: 200 points (television final table bubble)

Starting with season 9, the points system was adjusted to recognize the number of entries and the size of the prize pool for each event:

• Generally, 10% of the participants in each event will finish in the money (ITM), so the system now gives Player of the Year points to all ITM players.
• The maximum number of points awarded to the event winner are now scaled to the size of the prize pool, with 600 points to the winner of an event with a prize pool smaller than $500,000 and 1400 points to the winner of an event with a prize pool larger than $4,000,000. The season-ending WPT World Championship, no matter the prize pool, also starts at 1400 points to the winner.
• The system still operates on a descending scale, though the scale provides a minimum of 50 points to all the 'bottom' ITM players in any event.

WPT Main Event winners

	PokerStars Caribbean Adventure Main Event winner.
	Winner of poker's Triple Crown.

Season	Years	Date	Event	Location	Main Event winner	Prize
1	2002–2003	27 May–1 June 2002	Five Diamond World Poker Classic	Bellagio, Paradise	Gus Hansen	$556,460
		30–31 August 2002	Legends of Poker	Bicycle Casino, Los Angeles	Chris Karagulleyan	$258,000
		9 October 2002	Ultimate Poker Classic	Radisson Aruba Resort & Casino, Palm Beach	Juha Helppi	$50.000
		19 October 2002	Costa Rica Classic	Casinos Europa, San José	Jose Rosenkrantz	$108,730
		10–11 November 2002	Gold Rush	Lucky Chances Casino, Colma	Paul Darden	$146,000
		14–17 November 2002	World Poker Finals	Foxwoods Resort Casino, Mashantucket	Howard Lederer	$320,400
		28–31 January 2003	World Poker Open	Binion's Horseshoe, Tunica	Dave Ulliott	$589,175
		12–15 February 2003	Euro Finals of Poker	Aviation Club de France, Paris	Christer Johansson	$538,213 (€500,000)
		21–24 February 2003	L.A. Poker Classic	Commerce Casino, Los Angeles	Gus Hansen (2)	$532,490
		6 March 2003	Party Poker Million	?	Howard Lederer (2)	$289,150
		31 March–2 April 2003	World Poker Challenge	Reno Hilton, Reno	Ron Rose	$168,298
		14–18 April 2003	WPT Championship	Bellagio, Paradise	Alan Goehring	$1,011,886
2	2003–2004	10–13 July 2003	Grand Prix de Paris	Aviation Club de France, Paris	David Benyamine	$410,886 (€357,200)
		1–3 September 2003	Legends of Poker	Bicycle Casino, Los Angeles	Mel Judah	$579,375
		20–22 September 2003	Borgata Poker Open	Borgata, Atlantic City	Noli Francisco	$470,000
		18 October 2003	Ultimate Poker Classic	Radisson Aruba Resort & Casino, Palm Beach	Erick Lindgren	$500,000
		14–17 November 2003	World Poker Finals	Foxwoods Resort Casino, Mashantucket	Hoyt Corkins	$1,089,200
		15–18 December 2003	Five Diamond World Poker Classic	Bellagio, Paradise	Paul Phillips	$1,101,908
		25 January 2004	PokerStars Caribbean Adventure	Royal Caribbean Voyager of the Seas	Gus Hansen (3)	$455,780
		26–29 January 2004	World Poker Open	Horseshoe Casino & Hotel, Tunica	Barry Greenstein	$1,278,370
		21–24 February 2004	L.A. Poker Classic	Commerce Casino, Los Angeles	Antonio Esfandiari	$1,399,135
		3–5 March 2004	Bay 101 Shooting Star	Bay 101, San José	Phil Gordon	$360,000
		18 March 2004	Party Poker Million	?	Erick Lindgren (2)	$1,000,000
		30 March–1 April 2004	World Poker Challenge	Reno Hilton, Reno	Mike Kinney	$629,469
		19–23 April 2004	WPT Championship	Bellagio, Paradise	Martin de Knijff	$2,728,356
3	2004–2005	17-20 July 2004	Grand Prix De Paris	Aviation Club de France, Paris	Surinder Sunar	$828,956 (€679,860)
		29 July-1 August 2004	Mirage Poker Showdown	Mirage, Las Vegas	Eli Elezra	$1,024,574
		28-31 August 2004	Legends of Poker	Bicycle Casino, Las Vegas	Doyle Brunson	$1,198,260
		19-22 September 2004	Borgata Poker Open	Borgata, Atlantic City	Daniel Negreanu	$1,117,400
		26 September-1 October 2004	Aruba Poker Classic	Radisson Aruba Resort & Casino, Palm Beach	Eric Brenes	$1,000,000
		19-22 October 2004	Doyle Brunson North American Poker Championship	Bellagio, Paradise	Carlos Mortensen	$1,000,000
		13-17 November 2004	Foxwood World Poker Finals	Foxwoods Resort Casino, Mashantucket	Tuan Le	$1,549,588
		14-18 December 2004	Five Diamond Poker Classic	Bellagio, Paradise	Daniel Negreanu (2)	$1,770,218
		5-12 January 2005	PokerStars Caribbean Adventure	Atlantis Casino and Resort, Paradise Island	John Gale	$890,000
		24-27 January 2005	World Poker Open	Horseshoe Casino & Hotel, Tunica	Johnny Stolzmann	$1,491,444
		18-22 February 2005	L.A. Poker Classic	Commerce Casino, Los Angeles	Michael Mizrachi	$1,859,909
		7-11 March 2005	Bay 101 Shooting Star	Bay 101, San José	Alex Brenes	$100,000
		19-26 March 2005	Cruisin' Mexico with Party Poker Million		Danny Nguyen	$1,025,000
			Party Poker Million	?	Michael Gracz	$1,525,500
		29 March-1 April 2005	World Poker Challenge		Arnold Spee	$633,880
		18-24 April 2005	World Championship	Bellagio, Paradise	Tuan Le (2)	$2,856,150
4	2005–2006	23-26 May 2005	Mirage Poker Showdown	Mirage, Las Vegas	Gavin Smith	$1,153,778
		25-29 July 2005	Grand Prix De Paris	Aviation Club de France, Paris	Roland De Wolfe	$574,419 (€479,680)
		27-31 August 2005	The Bicycle Casino Legends of Poker	Bicycle Casino, Las Vegas	Alex Kahaner	$1,150,900
		19-22 September 2005	Borgata Poker Open	Borgata, Atlantic City	Al Ardebili	$1,498,650
		26 September-3 October 2005	Aruba Poker Classic	Radisson Aruba Resort & Casino, Palm Beach	Freddy Deeb	$1,000,000
		18-21 October 2005	Doyle Brunson North American Poker Championship	Bellagio, Paradise	Minh Ly	$1,060,050
		13-18 Novemeber 2005	World Poker Finals	Foxwoods Resort Casino, Mashantucket	Nick Schulman	$2,167,500
		12-16 December 2005	Five Diamond Poker Classic	Bellagio, Paradise	Rehne Pedersen	$2,078,185
		5-10 January 2006	PokerStars Caribbean Adventure	Atlantis Casino and Resort, Paradise Island	Steve Paul-Ambrose	$1,388,600
		19-23 January 2006	World Poker Open	Horseshoe Casino & Hotel, Tunica	Scotty Nguyen	$969,421
		29 January-1 February 2006	Borgata Poker Classic	Borgata, Atlantic City	Michael Mizrachi (2)	$1,173,373
		16-21 February 2006	L.A. Poker Classic	Commerce Casino, Los Angeles	Alan Goehring (2)	$2,391,550
		22-24 February 2006	WPT Celebrity Invitational	Commerce Casino, Los Angeles	Barry Greenstein (2)	$100,000
		10-14 March 2006	Bay 101 Shooting Star	Bay 101, San José	Nam Le	$1,198,300
		27-30 March 2006	World Poker Challenge		Mike Simon	$1,052,890
		6-9 April 2006	Foxwoods Poker Classic	Foxwoods Resort Casino, Mashantucket	Victor Ramdin	$1,331,889
		18-24 April 2006	World Championship	Bellagio, Paradise	Joe Bartholdi Jr.	$3,760,165
5	2006–2007	14-17 May 2006	Mirage Poker Showdown	Mirage, Las Vegas	Stanley Weiss	$1,320,255
		4-8 June 2006	Mandalay Bay Poker Championship		Joseph Tehan	$1,033,440
		12-16 June 2006	Grand Prix De Paris	Aviation Club de France, Paris	Christian Grundtvig	$907,066 (€712,500)
		26-30 August 2006	Bicycle Casino Legends of Poker	Bicycle Casino, Los Angeles	Joe Pelton	$1,602,670
		15-19 September 2006	Borgata Poker Open	Borgata, Atlantic City	Mark Newhouse	$1,519,020
		16-20 October 2006	Festa Al Lago	Bellagio, Paradise	Andreas Walnum	$1,090,025
					Scott Clements	$222,524 (C$250,027)
		25-29 October 2006	North American Poker Championship		Soren Turkewitsch	$1,225,920 (C$1,380,378)
		12-16 November 2006	World Poker Finals		Nenad Medić	$1,717,194
					Joe Hachem	$2,207,575
			PokerStars Caribbean Adventure	Atlantis Casino and Resort, Paradise Island	Ryan Daut	$1,535,255
					Bryan Sumner	$913,986
					John Hennigan	$1,606,223
					Eric Hershler	$2,429,970
					Adam Weinraub	$125,000
					Ted Forrest	$1,100,000
					J. C. Tran	$683,473
					Raj Patel	$1,298,405
					Carlos Mortensen (2)	$3,970,415
6	2007–2008				Jonathan Little	$1,091,295
					Shawn Buchanan	$768,775
					Kevin Saul	$1,342,320
					Dan Harrington	$1,599,865
					Bill Edler	$747,615
					Roy Winston	$1,575,280
					Rhynie Campbell	$436,675
					Markus Lehmann	$789,592 (€537,000)
					Scott Clements (2)	$1,505,312 (C$1,456,585)
					Mike Vela	$1,704,986
					Eugene Katchalov	$2,482,605
					Brett Faustman	$892,413
					Gavin Griffin	$1,401,109
					Phil Ivey	$1,596,100
					Van Nguyen	$125,500
					Brandon Cantu	$1,000,000
					Lee Markholt	$493,815
					Erik Seidel	$992,890
					David Chiu	$3,389,140
7	2008–2009				Casper Hansen	$662,592 (€425,000)
					Mike Watson	$1,673,770
					John Phan	$1,116,428
					Vivek Rajkumar	$1,424,500
					Glen Witmer	$1,084,256 (C$1,250,352)
					Bertrand Grospellier	$1,411,015
					Jonathan Little (2)	$1,120,310
					David Rheem	$1,538,730
					Allen Carter	$1,025,500
					Cornel Andrew Cimpan	$1,686,760
					Freddy Deeb (2)	$100,000
					Steve Brecher	$1,025,500
					Vadim Trincher	$731,079
					Yevgeniy Timoshenko	$2,143,655
8	2009–2010				Sven-Ragnar Arstrom	$532,388
					Mark Flowers	$388,453
					Alexandre Gomes	$1,187,670
					Prahlad Friedman	$1,009,000
					Richard Toth	$148,756 (€104,000)
					Thomas Bichon	$579,165
					Olivier Busquet	$925,514
					Christophe Savary	$558,515 (€377,262)
					Tommy Vedes	$1,218,225
					Cornel Andrew Cimpan (2)	$910,058
					Daniel Alaei	$1,428,430
					Hoyt Corkins (2)	$739,486
					Leron Washington	$100,000
					Andras Koroknai	$1,788,001
					McLean Karr	$878,500
					Carlos Mortensen (3)	$391,212
					Guillaume Darcourt	$195,244 (€144,530)
					David Williams	$1,530,537
9	2010–2011				Theo Jørgensen	$
					Ali Tekintamgac	$
					Moritz Kranich	$
					Andy Frankenberger	$
					Jake Cody	$
					Dwyte Pilgrim	$
					Randal Flowers	$
					Jeff Forrest	$
					Sam El Sayed	$
					Sébastian Homann	$
					Antonio Esfandiari (2)	$
					Alexander Kuzmin	$
					Alessio Isaia	$
					Davidi Kitai	$
					Gregory Brooks	$
					Alan Sternberg	$
					Dmitry Gromov	$
					Roberto Romanello	$
					Mike Scarborough	$
					Taylor von Kriegenbergh	$
					Scott Seiver	$
10	2011–2012				Lukas Berglund	$
					Miha Travnik	$
					Will Failla	$
					Matthew Waxman	$
					Bobby Oboodi	$
					Matt Giannetti	$
					Daniel Santoro	$
					Adrien Allain	$
					Anthony Ruberto	$
					Mohamed Ali Houssam	$
					Andrey Pateychuk	$
					James Dempsey	$
					Edoardo Alescio	$
					David Shallow	$
					Rinat Bogdanov	$
					Matt Juttelstad	$
					Sean Jazayeri	$
					Moon Kim	$
					Morten Christensen	$
					Tommy Vedes (2)	$
					Shawn Cunix	$
					Marvin Rettenmaier	$
11	2012–2013				Marvin Rettenmaier (2)	$
					Anthony Gregg	$
					Josh Hale	$
					Matthew Salsberg	$
					Yorane Kerignard	$
					Ben Hamnett	$
					Dominik Nitsche	$
					Noah Schwartz	$
					Emil Olsson	$
					Jonathan Roy	$
					Giacomo Fundaro	$
					Marcin Wydrowski	$
					Ravi Raghavan	$
					Andy Hwang	$
					Matt Giannetti (2)	$
					Vladimir Bozinovic	$
					Paul Klann	$
					WeiKai Chang	$
					Rocco Palumbo	$
					Chanracy Khun	$
					Kevin Eyster	$
					Mike Linster	$
					Amir Babakhani	$
					David Rheem (2)	$
12	2013–2014				Alexey Rybin	$
					Jordan Cristos	$
					Anthony Zinno	$
					Mohsin Charania	$
					Daniel Brits	$
					Jared Jaffee	$
					Tony Dunst	$
					Derrick Rosenbarger	$
					Dan Smith	$
					Masato Yokosawa	$
					Julian Thomas	$
					Anthony Merulla	$
					James Calderaro	$
					Matthew Lapossie	$
					Chris Moorman	$
					James Carroll	$
					Andrea Dato	$
					J. C. Tran (2)	$
					Nabil Hirezi	$
					Eric Afriat	$
					Keven Stammen	$
13	2014–2015				Sean Yu	$
					Harry Arutyunyan	$
					Alexander Lakhov	$
					Darren Elias	$
					Darren Elias (2)	$
					Ryan Van Sanford	$
					Eleanor Gudger	$
					Dylan Wilkerson	$
					Matas Cimbolas	$
					Jonathan Jaffe	$
					Mohsin Charania (2)	$
					Aaron Mermelstein	$
					Brian Altman	$
					Anthony Zinno (2)	$
					Anthony Zinno (3)	$
					Taylor Paur	$
					Konstantinos Nanos	$
					Ravee Mathi Sundar	$
					Griffin Paul	$
					Asher Conniff	$
14	2015–2016				Sheraz Nasir	$
					Farid Yachou	$
					Jason Brin	$
					Mike Shariati	$
					David Paredes	$
					Aaron Mermelstein (2)	$
					Ben Cade	$
					Iaron Lightbourne	$
					Tyler Patterson	$
					Jared Mahoney	$
					Javier Gomez	$
					Kevin Eyster (2)	$
					Christopher Leong	$
					David Ormsby	$
					Dietrich Fast	$
					Stefan Schillhabel	$
					Harrison Gimbel	$
					Vlad Darie	$
					Justin Young	$
					David Rheem (3)	$
					Farid Yachou (2)	$
15	2016–2017				Seth Davies	$
					Andjelko Andrejevic	$
					James Mackey	$
					Pat Lyons	$
					Jesse Sylvia	$
					Zachary Smiley	$
					Sam Panzica	$
					Luis Rodriguez Cruz	$
					Mike Sexton	$
					Niall Farrell	$
					Oleg Vasylchenko	$
					James Romero	$
					Daniel Weinman	$
					Ema Zajmovic	$
					Darren Elias (3)	$
					Daniel Strelitz	$
					Sam Panzica (2)	$
					Mike Del Vecchio	$
					Tony Sinishtaj	$
					Ryan Riess	$
					Daniel Weinman (2)	$
16	2017–2018				Pete Chen	$
					Daniel Daniyar	$
					Jay Lee	$
					Art Papazyan	$
					Guo Liang Chen	$
					Art Papazyan (2)	$
					Paul Petraglia	$
					Maxime Heroux	$
					Ryan Tosoc	$
					Ole Schemion	$
					Darryll Fish	$
					Eric Afriat (2)	$
					Mike Leah	$
					Dennis Blieden	$
					David Larson	$
					Scott Margereson	$
					Rens Feenstra	$
					Larry Greenberg	$
					Darren Elias (4)	$
					Matthew Waxman (2)	$
17	2018–2019				Simon Lam	$
					Brady Holiman	$
					Erkut Yilmaz	$
					Tony Ruberto	$
					Tony Tran	$
					Patrick Serda	$
					Pavel Plesuv	$
					Dylan Linde	$
					Frank Stepuchin	$
					Denys Shafikov	$
					Vinicius Lima	$
					Demo Kiriopoulos	$
					David "ODB" Baker	$
					Erkut Yilmaz (2)	$
					Vitalijs Zavorotnijs	$
					Ben Palmer	$
					James Carroll (2)	$
					Craig Varnell	$
					Matthew Wantman	$
					Ole Schemion (2)	$
18	2019–2021				Roger Teska	$
					Aaron Van Blarcum	$
					Donald Maloney	$
					Nitis Udornpim	$
					Simon Brändström	$
					Josh Adkins	$
					Geoffrey Hum	$
					Milen Stefanov	$
					Alex Foxen	$
					Markus Gonsalves	$
					Brian Altman (2)	$
					Aleksey Badulin	$
					Veerab Zakarian	$
					Christopher Puetz	$
					Eric Afriat (3)	$
					Balakrishna Patur	$
					Tony Tran (2)	$
					Christian Jeppsson	$
					Gavin Cochrane	$
					Nick Petrangelo	$
					Daniel Smyth	$
					Andrey Kotelnikov	$
					Phillip Mighall	$
					Soheb Porbandarwala	$
					Jack Hardcastle	$
					Ilyas Muradi	$
					Maksim Sekretarev	$
					Qing Liu	$
					Brek Schutten	$
19	2021–2022				Christian Rudolph	$
					Brian Altman (3)	$
					Chad Eveslage	$
					Adedapo Ajayi	$
						$
						$
						$
						$
						$

Records

Information correct as of ...?

Titles

Rank	Name	Titles
1	Darren Elias	4
2	Eric Afriat	3
	Brian Altman
	Gus Hansen
	Carlos Mortensen
	David Rheem
	Anthony Zinno

Final tables

Rank	Name	Final tables
1	Darren Elias	12
2	Phil Ivey	9
3	Scotty Nguyen	8
4	Eric Afriat	7
	Gus Hansen
	Michael Mizrachi
	Daniel Negreanu
	David Pham
	J.C. Tran
	Anthony Zinno

Money finishes

Rank	Name	Money finishes
1	Darren Elias	41
2	Anthony Zinno	32
3	Mohsin Charania	31
4	Jared Jaffee	28
	Jonathan Little
	Lee Markholt

Record winnings

The largest win in a WPT event is the $3,970,415 paid to Carlos Mortensen for winning the season-ending WPT Championship for season 5.

Progression of largest winnings

The progression of the "highest payout" through the history of the WPT, starting with the win by Gus Hansen in Event 1 of WPT Season 1. Entries have declined since the poker boom ended, with no increase in "highest payout" for a number of years – the highest has not increased since an event in 2007.

Season	Event	Winner	Prize
1	#1 – Five Diamond World Poker Classic 2002	Gus Hansen	$556,480
1	#6 – World Poker Open 2003	Dave Ulliott	$589,175
2	#5 – World Poker Finals 2003	Hoyt Corkins	$1,089,200
2	#6 – Five Diamond World Poker Classic 2003	Paul Phillips	$1,101,980
2	#8 – World Poker Open 2004	Barry Greenstein	$1,278,370
2	#9 – LA Poker Classic 2004	Antonio Esfandiari	$1,399,135
3	#7 – World Poker Finals 2004	Tuan Le	$1,549,588
3	#8 – Five Diamond World Poker Classic 2004	Daniel Negreanu	$1,759,218
3	#11 – LA Poker Classic 2005	Michael Mizrachi	$1,859,909
4	#7 – World Poker Finals 2005	Nick Schulman	$2,142,000
4	#12 – LA Poker Classic 2006	Alan Goehring	$2,391,550
5	#14 – LA Poker Classic 2007	Eric Hershler	$2,429,970
6	#11 – Doyle Brunson Classic 2007	Eugene Katchalov	$2,482,605

WPT World Championship ($25,000 buy-in)

Each WPT season culminates with the $25,000 buy-in WPT World Championship (simply the WPT Championship before season 9). As with regular events, the prize pool has declined since the poker boom ended: participants dropped from a peak of 639 in 2007, to 146 in 2013. The WPT organizers reacted by dropping the buy-in to $15,000 from 2014 onwards, limiting participation to winners of WPT events since the start of the series, and changing the name again, to WPT Tournament of Champions. There has been no increase in "highest payout" since the $3,970,415 at the 2005 World Championship, and the top prize has consistently been under $500,000 since the 2016 World Championship.

Season	Event	Winner	Prize
1	WPT Championship – Season I	Alan Goehring	$1,011,866
2	WPT Championship – Season II	Martin de Knijff	$2,728,356
3	WPT Championship – Season III	Tuan Le	$2,856,150
4	WPT Championship – Season IV	Joe Bartholdi Jr.	$3,760,165
5	WPT Championship – Season V	Carlos Mortensen	$3,970,415
6	WPT Championship – Season VI	David Chiu	$3,389,140
7	WPT Championship – Season VII	Yevgeniy Timoshenko	$2,149,960
8	WPT Championship – Season VIII	David Williams	$1,530,537
9	WPT World Championship – Season IX	Scott Seiver	$1,618,344
10	WPT World Championship – Season X	Marvin Rettenmaier	$1,196,858
11	WPT World Championship – Season XI	David Rheem	$1,150,279
12	WPT World Championship – Season XII	Keven Stammen	$1,350,000
13	WPT World Championship – Season XIII	Asher Conniff	$973,683
14	WPT Tournament of Champions – Season XIV	Farid Yachou	$381,600
15	WPT Tournament of Champions – Season XV	Daniel Weinman	$381,500
16	WPT Tournament of Champions – Season XVI	Matthew Waxman	$463,375
17	WPT Tournament of Champions – Season XVII	Ole Schemion	$440,395

WPT Ladies

In January 2008, the WPT announced a set of tournaments for women, known as WPT Ladies. The first season had five events, with buy-ins ranging from $300 to $1,500. Nancy Todd finished first in the Ladies Championship with Vanessa Selbst finishing second. There are currently no WPT Ladies events scheduled.

WPT Walk of Fame

See also: Poker Hall of Fame

The World Poker Tour Walk of Fame was designed to honor those poker players who have played the game well at the highest levels as well as those who have promoted the spread of it through film, television, and literature.

The first inductees were poker legends Doyle Brunson and Gus Hansen, as well as actor James Garner.

In February 2004, the World Poker Tour Walk of Fame inducted its second members at the Commerce Casino in a ceremony before top pros and celebrities in town for the World Poker Tour Invitational Poker Tournament. The induction ceremony was staged on the doorstep of Commerce Casino.

No new players have been inducted since 2004.

WPT Honors Award

The WPT Honors Award launched in early 2017, with Ms. Linda Johnson named as the first recipient. Later that year, 15-year WPT commentator Mike Sexton and gaming industry icon Bruno Fitoussi became the second and third honorees. In 2018, Steve Lipscomb and Lyle Berman each received the fourth and fifth honors.

The WPT Honors Award is the WPT's highest honor, awarded to members of the poker industry in celebration and appreciation of exceptional contributions made to the World Poker Tour and the poker community as a whole. Presented as determined by WPT CEO Adam Pliska and the World Poker Tour, the WPT Honors Award is given in recognition to those who distinguish themselves by excellence and dedication beyond expectations.

WPT Honors Award Recipients

• 2017: Bruno Fitoussi, Linda Johnson, Mike Sexton
• 2018: Lyle Berman, Steve Lipscomb
• 2019: Deb Giardina, Matt Savage

Deal

A fictional WPT championship match is the setting for the 2007 feature film Deal. Sexton, Van Patten, and Friel play themselves and a number of other poker professionals and poker-playing celebrities are reportedly in the cast. The WPT set was shipped to New Orleans for filming following the season 4 championship.

External links

• Official site