The World Poker Tour and partypoker are on course to break the record for the most entries in a WPT Main Tour event after the first full week of the inaugural WPT Online Series.
Through one week of play and 27 events, the WPT Online Series has achieved more than 40,000 entries and more than $25m in collected prize pools.
The $3,200 buy-in, $5m guaranteed main event is on pace to break the record for most entries in a WPT Main Tour event, with the first starting flight drawing 808 entries, with three more starting flights to come and more than $2.4m already in the prize pool.
The current record is 1,795 in the Season XII WPT Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown in 2014. When finished, this will be the first time in WPT’s 18 year history that an online winner will be featured on the prestigious WPT Champions Cup.
“The WPT Online Series success thus far is a testament to the demand of poker at all buy-in levels and an incredibly creative collaboration with our friends at partypoker,” said World Poker Tour CEO Adam Pliska. “The WPT is committed to bringing all the prestige, energy and celebration to the WPT Online Series as we do our physical events.
“This marks a major milestone in bringing nearly two decades of legacy online and you can bet this will become a more important component of our tournament schedule in the future.”
WPT vice president of Europe Hermance Blum said: “partypoker and partypoker LIVE are raising the guarantees and the WPT is grateful to have a partner who puts the players first at every opportunity.
“We are all so excited to crown more winners as we move closer to the WPT Online Championship final table on May 20.”