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WPT brings out the largest gun
The World Poker Tour is a promotional juggernaut proper now with its upcoming mega-festival on the Wynn set to smash information because it hosts the event with the most important reside assure of all time. Regardless of a head-on collision with European Poker Tour (EPT) Prague, the WPT is promising a prize pool of $15m for the $10,400 Primary Occasion.
will bolster an already spectacular ambassador roster that features poker legend Doyle Brunson
A part of its promotional push has seen umpteen bundle giveaways and oodles of $530 on-line satellite tv for pc seat giveaways prior to now few weeks. however down the house stretch, the WPT is bringing out maybe the largest gun in its arsenal with the signing of poker legend Phil Ivey as an envoy. Some of the outstanding gamers in poker historical past, he’ll bolster an already spectacular ambassador roster that features poker legend Doyle Brunson, music icon Steve Aoki, and poker vloggers Brad Owen, Andrew Neeme and Jaman Burton.
Ivey has a embellished historical past with the WPT, having competed in lots of its main occasions. He has a complete of 9 closing desk appearances and in 2008, he received the L.A. Poker Basic, etching his identify on WPT Champions Cup, now named after the late, nice Mike Sexton.
Outdated and new
The World Poker Tour is an attention-grabbing combination of previous and new proper now. It is likely one of the oldest and most iconic manufacturers within the reside realm, exploding throughout the poker growth of the 2000s and really a lot on the forefront of televised poker. It additionally possesses a brand new, vibrant, and youthful power since merging with Asian big PokerKing. This has resulted within the creation of the poker web site WPTGlobal, the operator clearly setting its sights on domination by way of reside and on-line synergy.
deserving legacy as a real poker icon”
Celebrating its twentieth anniversary this yr with a collection of high-profile partnerships, WPT CEO Adam Pliska couldn’t have been extra excited by the information of Ivey’s signature, saying: “Phil is likely one of the biggest to ever have performed the sport of poker. His profession achievements and success as a frequent WPT closing tablist underscores his deserving legacy as a real poker icon.”
In response, Ivey was lavish in his reward for the WPT and set himself the purpose of serving to to develop the sport throughout the globe.
“WPT is likely one of the most revered manufacturers in poker, and I’m honored to develop into a WPT Ambassador,” Ivey mentioned. “My dedication and keenness in direction of poker has by no means been larger and I sit up for working with the WPT to showcase poker world wide, including to its continued growth.”
For his half, Pliska was equally lush in his admiration of the poker phenom, including: “We now have aligned the model with expertise and occasions that symbolize the perfect in private achievement. I can not consider anybody who higher represents that greater than Phil, and I do know gamers will recognize the prospect to work together with him at upcoming occasions.”
Countless poker success
Exterior of WPT success, Ivey has ten World Sequence of Poker bracelets, $38m in reside event earnings, and has been a daily within the nosebleed money video games each reside and on-line for the higher a part of 20 years. He was additionally a primary poll inductee to the Poker Corridor of Fame in 2017.
for a interval within the latter half of the 2010s, Ivey was a veritable ghost
Ivey has all the time been an enigmatic determine within the poker world. Digital camera-shy, he has demurred the highlight, hardly ever taking interviews and preferring to go about his enterprise as privately as doable. For a interval within the latter half of the 2010s, Ivey was a veritable ghost and plenty of puzzled if we’d see him compete in main tournaments once more.
In truth, it was WPT that seemingly coaxed him again in June 2021 when he agreed to a really entertaining Joe Ingram interview forward of the inaugural WPT $25,000 Heads Up Championship. Again when WPT and PokerKing have been of their courtship part, Ivey confirmed up in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico for the 32-player invitational event, a reside/on-line hybrid sport which introduced collectively a mixture of poker legends, high-stakes poker beasts, mainstream celebrities, esports stars, and two on-line qualifiers.
WPT $25,000 Heads Up Championship
After three days of fascinating poker motion, the WPT $25,000 Heads Up Championship boiled all the way down to eight combatants. Patrik Antonius, Phil Ivey, Sam Greenwood, Wictor Malinowski, Dan Smith, Stephen Chidwick, Chris Kruk, and Stefan Burakov all made the quarterfinals with only one extra victory incomes them a cool $100,000 money.
Ivey defeated Chidwick to advance whereas Kruk bested Malinowski. Within the different half of the draw, Antonius overcame Burakov whereas Greenwood beat Smith. Within the semifinals, Ivey was victorious over Kruk and Antonius defeated Greenwood to arrange a dreamy “Rail Heaven” conflict.
Within the closing, the format switched from best-of-three to best-of-five. Tuning in from each nook of the globe, the viewers buckled up for what they hoped can be a battle for the ages however, in the long run, Ivey made quick shrift of Antonius, closing out a 3-0 victory in about two hours. The title and the primary prize payout of $400,000 was his, whereas Antonius acquired $200,000 for his efforts.
An “off-the-felt” expertise with Phil Ivey?
One factor is for positive, Phil Ivey continues to be a poker pressure with which to be reckoned, undoubtedly one of many biggest exponents the sport has ever seen. A grasp of all codecs, he naturally intuits plenty of optimum traces whereas additionally possessing the power to make exploitative changes which have a spookily excessive success fee.
For the reason that WPT $25,000 Heads Up Championship, Ivey has been busy, notching $6.7m in reside event winnings together with 4 victories, all in Cyprus. He has additionally completed runner-up on three events, twice in Cyprus and as soon as in Las Vegas. He shall be equally busy within the coming months with the WPT World Championship Competition at Wynn Las Vegas in December, the place he’s anticipated to play a number of occasions.
The WPT has additionally introduced that Ivey shall be concerned in distinctive experiential fan engagements, together with an unique “off-the-felt expertise” on December 10. For now, the main points of that stay a thriller however suffice to say, it is going to be massive deal when it occurs.