For the first time ever, the World Poker Tour is set to kick off its season-concluding, World Championship event right here at Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa. Over the past 11 seasons this illustrious event has been held at Bellagio in Las Vegas, Nevada, but with the return of partypoker in the Garden State of New Jersey, the WPT team opted to move the event across the country to Atlantic City.
Also, for the first time ever, this event features a $15,000 buy-in rather than a $25,000 buy-in.
This event always attracts the biggest and brightest stars in the game of poker, and we've already spotted Phil Hellmuth, Scotty Nguyen, Will Failla, Noah Schwartz, Ravi Raghavan, Keven Stammen, and Matt Giannetti floating around the property. We also expect to see 2013 WSOP Main Event champion Ryan Riess, 2012 champ Greg Merson, Season XI WPT Player of the Year leader Mukul Pahuja, and several if not all of the Season XII Champions Club members.
Since Season IV, this event has always been won by a professional player, and the final table has always been stacked. In Season XI, Chino Rheem defeated Erick Lindgren heads-up to earn $1,150,279 and the title. Here's a look at all of the players who have ever won this event:
WPT World Champions
Season
Player
Prize
I
Alan Goehring
$1,011,866
II
Martin De Knijff
$2,728,356
III
Tuan Le
$2,856,150
IV
Joe Bartholdi
$3,760,165
V
Carlos Mortensen
$3,970,415
VI
David Chiu
$3,389,140
VII
Yevgeniy Timoshenko
$2,149,960
VIII
David Williams
$1,530,537
IX
Scott Seiver
$1,618,344
X
Marvin Rettenmaier
$1,196,858
XI
Chino Rheem
$1,150,279
The cards will be in the air at 11 a.m. EST, and PokerNews will be bringing you live updates straight from the tournament floor. See you then as we kick off the flagship event of the WPT!
Woroch was among eight players who navigated through a sea of online qualifiers to reach the final table, and in the end he was the last player standing. His $1 million check included:
A seat in a $100,000 buy-in WPT Alpha8 Event
A seat in the WPT World Championship
Two entries to $3,500 WPT events held at Borgata
52 entries into the Sunday $50K
$8,000 in love tournament entries at Borgata
A balnce of $859,600
We will certainly follow Woroch's progress today, as he tries to parlay his victory in February into a seat in the WPT Champions Club.
Britain's own Chris Moorman just rocked up to the Signature Room at Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa for the WPT World Championship. Moorman booked his first major live victory earlier in Season XII, etching his name on the Champions Cup in the L.A. Poker Classic Main Event.
Moorman defeated Glenn Lafaye heads up to earn just over $1 million, including a seat in this event. Also reaching the official WPT final table were Michael Rocco and WSOP bracelet winner Adam Friedman.
We got to the table with 5,000 in the pot and Kevin Song facing a 10,000 check-raise of his original 3,000 bet from Barry Hutter on a turn. Song made the call and off to the river we went.
It was the and Hutter announced that he was all in, for approximately 16,000. Song called, not instantly as his hands seemed to stick to his cards, and when he turned over for the turned nuts to eliminate Hutter and his , Tony Cousineau joked "Kevin, next time turn that hand over a little quicker, that was kind of a slow roll."
Song is off to a good start with nearly 2.5 times the starting stack.
During the recent break Robert "Uncle Krunk" Panitch stopped by to inform us about the "worst beat I ever took in my life."
According to the man they call Krunk, he held in the hole and found a set on the flop.
Jean "Prince" Gaspard called a bet of 1,500 on the flop holding for a gutshot straight draw, which he filled when fourth street came .
Krunk says the money went soon went into the middle on the turn, and after the river failed to pair the board he was forced to ship about half his stack to the newly doubled Gaspard. Krunk was left with 20,000 or so after the bad beat, and within an orbit he was done and dusted, with poker's Prince beginning his descent.
Nick Schulman and Tony Gregg, nicknamed "The Takeover" and "The End Boss" respectively just strolled into the Signature Room at Borgata, and both players tout extremely impressive résumés.
Schulman, who has over $7.1 million in career live tournament earnings, is widely considered one the best - if not thee best - no-limit deuce-to-seven players in the world. The New York native won the WSOP 2-7 World Championship twice in four years (2009 and 2012), and finished fifth in 2011. Schulman's largest cash came on the World Poker Tour, when he took down the WPT World Poker Finals in 2005 for over $2.1 million.
Gregg is also a member of the WPT Champions Club, winning the WPT Parx Open last season for $416,127. His biggest victory came last summer at the WSOP, where he won the One Drop High Roller for $4,830,619. Gregg also finished runner-up in the 2009 PCA Main Event, earning $1.7 million.
As late registrants, there's a good chance these two players will be seated with one another, which could make for some awesome poker.
Whenever the WPT camera crews begin hovering around the table, we head over to take a look, usually with a major pot brewing to attract such attention.
Sure enough, Lily Kiletto was faced with a river raise which put her tournament life on the line if she chose to call. As the minutes passed during an extended tank by Kiletto, we assessed the situation to see that a pot of more than 35,000 was up for grabs. Kiletto had bet the 10,000 on the river (leaving herself 12,500 behind), only to see 2009 World Series of Poker bracelet winner Brian Lemke make it 30,000 to play.
With the cameras capturing her every move, Kiletto sat still as a stone and contemplated her options, the swimsuit model seemingly unfazed by the spotlight. While she tanked, three-time WSOP bracelet winner Jeff Madsen leaned over to fill us in on the details of "the most ridiculous hand ever."
According to Madsen - who just took down the Six-Max event here earlier in the week - the action started when Kiletto opened for a standard preflop raise and found two callers. She led out on the flop and again both opponents flatted, and on the turn Kiletto tried a 4,000 wager. The action was raised to 9,000 on fourth street, with Lemke cold calling and Kiletto coming along to generate the aforementioned 35,000 pot.
Finally, after Madsen had walked us through the scene of the crime, Kiletto surrendered the hand (and most of her stack), while Lemke calmly dragged in one of the biggest pots we've seen early on Day 1 of this WPT World Championship.
The PokerNews MyStack App is available for players here in the Season XII WPT World Championship, allowing players to directly update their chip count on the PokerNews Live Reporting page for their friends and family to see.
You can download the app for iPhone or Android now to get started. Then, create a new PokerNews account or update your current one to start updating your status immediately. Your followers can see all the live action that you're involved in.
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Joe Kuether is an experienced professional who has played in countless tournaments during his career, so hearing him call for the floor is enough to attract our attention.
When Kuether called the bet his opponent tossed his hand onto the muck, but Kuether kept his own hand face down and exercised his right to see the busted bluff before tabling the winner. His opponent did not believe he needed to reveal his holding, but the floor quickly determined that Kuether could indeed request to see the cards he had just beat.
After seeing the come off the top of the muck, Kuether rolled over his for to claim the pot, while beginning a conversation with his fellow pros about the rule and its enforcement.
![[user101598]](/img/avatars/avatar.svg){kind=avatar}
turn. Song made the call and off to the river we went.
and Hutter announced that he was all in, for approximately 16,000. Song called, not instantly as his hands seemed to stick to his cards, and when he turned over 
for the turned nuts to eliminate Hutter and his 
, Tony Cousineau joked "Kevin, next time turn that hand over a little quicker, that was kind of a slow roll."
flop.
for a gutshot straight draw, which he filled when fourth street came 
.
come off the top of the muck, Kuether rolled over his 
for to claim the pot, while beginning a conversation with his fellow pros about the rule and its enforcement.
