The WPT Championship vs the EPT Grand Final
It was revealed last week that two of the biggest events in poker will go head-to-head next year. Barry Carter looks at which event might come out on top.
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| WPT President Adam Pliska |
There are so many events on the poker circuit these days that the vast majority of event organisers choose to work with each other, instead of in competition. For example this month EPT London, the WSOPE and WPT Paris have clearly scheduled their events to take place back-to-back, rather than clashing. In other instances they work even more closely, like the EPT, WPT and GSOP have done previously for the Prague Poker Festival.
However last week it was revealed that the two biggest events outside of the WSOP would go head-to-head. The WPT World Championship at the Borgata was announced to take place between April 22 and 26, which clashes with the EPT Grand Final in Monte Carlo, which starts on April 26.
These are not just any old events, these are each tours' championship event. The marquee glamour stop at the end of a year-long season. If this was the LA Poker Classic clashing with EPT Barcelona it would probably go unnoticed, in fact plenty of WPT and EPT events do crossover, which has never been a problem because they are aimed at US and European audiences respectively. However these are two events that elite players want to attend; those who can afford both want to play both.
Deciding between the US or Europe
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| Reigning EPT Grand Final champion (And American) Stephen O'Dwyer |
This means that the top players are going to have to make a decision, and invariably those based in North America will play the WPT and those based in Europe (or are sponsored by PokerStars) will play the EPT.
WPT President Adam Pliska has suggested that it is possible for most players who don't go deep to play in both events with some well timed travel plans, but that is highly unlikely. Especially when you factor in that EPT San Remo (A short drive from Monte Carlo) takes place just before the Grand Final, it is unlikely anyone would want to go San Remo - Atlantic City - Monte Carlo - Vegas (For the WSOP).
Americans at EPTs and Europeans in the WPT Championship don't represent a huge part of either field, so in that respect it is only a small group of people that are going to be pissed off. Ultimately I don't think this is as much a battle about who can have the biggest tournament anyway, though I do think it is a big statement of intent from the WPT.
The last two EPT Grand Finals captured 665 and 531 runners respectively for their €10,000 Main Event. The WPT Championship boasted just 152 and 146 players for their $25,000 Main Event. In this respect, the WPT is always going to be trailing the EPT next year even if they did prevent some players from playing.
However there are some big changes afoot for the WPT. This year the Championship moves from the Bellagio in Las Vegas to the Borgata in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Not only that, the buy-in has been reduced from $25,000 to $15,000. New Jersey is also currently gearing itself for a return to online gambling next month. Although they are not comparable because the buy-in was $3,000, the most recent WPT events there got 1,313 and 1,046 runners. All of this suggests that this WPT Championship was always going to be bigger than its predecessors, even if it didn't clash with the EPT.
The battle of New Jersey
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| Former WPT Championship winner (And European) Marvin Rettenmaier |
Right now PokerStars along with the Resorts Casino are trying to establish themselves in New Jersey. The WPT, Borgata and bwin.party announced a partnership and look set to be one of the first operators there to offer online gambling.
It seems the reason for the deliberate clash of events is not to see who can bring the most runners and rake to their event on the day, it looks more like a battle to see who can reestablish themselves better in the US market.
Ultimately I don't see the EPT's numbers changing all that much next year, maybe 50 players less than however many would have played anyway. The WPT, however, is probably going to be significantly larger and might even match similar US based $10k events like the LA Poker Classic and get around 500 players.
It will be close, I think the EPT might just still edge it because of their online qualifiers and the fact that there will be a lot of players making their way from San Remo. But even if they get a hundred or two more, this will likely prove to be a much needed shot in the arm for the WPT.
Generally I prefer to see events work together to provide the customers with the best experience possible, but given that this only really negatively impacts a hundred or so players, I for one am quite excited to see a bit of competition taking place between the tours.
