Well, that didn't take long. Before the players went on their first break in the $3,500 buy-in World Poker Tour (WPT) Main Tour event at Seminole Hard Rock Tampa, the $1 million guarantee had surpassed.
Defending champion Brian Altman, who won this event in June 2021 for $613,225, the first ever WPT event hosted at the Central Florida card room, was off to an unsurprisingly strong start.
Altman, one of the rare three-time WPT champions, is an absolute crusher in the state of Florida. The former World Poker Tour Player of the Year is the only player to have won three WPT events in the same state. He also took down Lucky Hearts Poker Open in Hollywood, Florida in 2015 and 2020.
On Thursday afternoon, the Massachusetts native jumped out of the gates early, turning his 50,000-chip starting stack into 80,000 in a matter of moments thanks in large part to a sizable pot he won with a jack-high flush against fellow WPT Champions Club member Mark Davis.
Altman is attempting to become just the second four-time World Poker Tour champion. Darren Elias, who also entered the Day 1a session, holds the record (along with most WPT records).
That Didn't Take Long
With 313 entries, about 90 minutes into the first of two Day 1 starting flights, WPT Executive Tour Director Matt Savage announced to the crowd that the $1 million guarantee had been reached. Less than an hour later and another 50 players had registered.
So, just how big will the prize pool get? At the current pace, there's a strong chance it could hit $3 million, and maybe even surpass it. In 2021, Altman won the largest chunk of the $3,728,000 prize pool. Registration remains open in the WPT Seminole Hard Rock Tampa Main Event until the start of Level 9 on Friday.
Savage told PokerNews he expects the field to crack 1,000 players, which would put the prize pool over $3.2 million. The tournament began Thursday less than one day following the conclusion of the successful WPT Legends of Poker at the Parkwest Bicycle Casino in Los Angeles, won by Joshua Pollock for $573,350.
Some players who competed in the Legends of Poker event, which had 642 entrants, are likely just now heading to Florida for the Seminole Hard Rock event. With registration on pace to have 500 or so players on Day 1a, it appears Savage might be on point with his prediction. At the time of publishing, there were already over 380 players in the field.
The tournament is scheduled to conclude September 7 with the six-player final table. Celebrating its 20th season, the World Poker Tour has some major events in store the remainder of the year, which includes the historic WPT Wynn World Championship in December, the first ever $15 million guaranteed tournament in live poker history.
Photos courtesy of Drew Amato/WPT
