An exciting time for the Asian live poker scene, regional and international brand tours are coming in full force, motivated by the outstanding results several festivals have recorded in the past year. Renowned World Poker Tour for one, is bringing back its Main Tour offering in the region since April 2017 in Beijing, China where it stands to hold the largest WPT prize pool in Asia at $1.38 million. This time around, the Mike Sexton WPT Champions Cup is set to make its first appearance in Southeast Asia at its Cambodian home, NagaWorld Integrated Resort.
The festivities scheduled from January 17-30, 2024, continues to set the bar high with the two week lineup headlined by a $1 Million guaranteed WPT Cambodia Championship Event. For a $3,500 buy-in and four days of action beginning on the 25th, players can expect nothing but a thrilling experience right on the felt. Other highlights on schedule include the Championship Event Warm Up, Mystery Bounty, and an 8-Max Championship, all of which are announced to run multiple starting flights. High rollers looking for juicier pots and smaller fields can also expect a number of tournaments with buy-ins reaching the highs of $10,000.
“NagaWorld has been an excellent partner for us in recent years, hosting record-breaking WPT Prime events in each of the last two seasons,” said WPT CEO Adam Pliska in the press release. “It is a venue well fit for our first-ever Main Tour festival in Southeast Asia and prepared to expand the legacy of the Mike Sexton WPT Champions Cup.”
The upcoming series marks WPT’s fourth return to the country, beginning with its 2019 WPTdeepstacks debut followed by a fresher WPT Prime rebrand three years later. The 2022 games which recorded over a thousand entries for its Main Event served as the country’s biggest live event in poker history at the time.
The global brand’s growth and reputation doesn’t stop there with this year’s WPT Prime festivities emerging as the brand’s richest festival in Asia after awarding close to $3.5 million in prizes. The crown jewel Main Event saw Reiji Kono reign as its newest champion after the Japanese runner bested the 1,011 entry field, collecting US$ 121,331 and a WPT World Championship package for his impressive performance.
Judging from WPT’s previous numbers alone, records suggest that the 2024 festivities will create a huge splash, keeping everyone’s poker calendars in check to start the year. Tune in to Somuchpoker as we bring you all the details and full schedule of events once available.
