The fifth season of the World Poker Tour wraps this week with the $25k buy-in WPT World Championship at the Bellagio. About 600 players are expected for what would be (…doing math) a shitload of money.

The championship event had its official kick-off Thursday night at Light with the WPT Player Appreciation Party (watch as Rich Belsky enthusiastically asks everyone if they’re drunk here. He really wants to make sure people are drunk. Seriously, he’s into it.) All the big players showed. Free booze flowed. We spent the first part of the night screaming at the top of our lungs over the ridiculously loud Light music talking with the lovely Michele Lewis from Pokerati and her husband. Great party by WPT. Expect a bedlam ensuing trip report in the coming days. It’ll make the Bodog/TAO party from last year look like a four year-old girl’s stuffed animal tea party.

Some things to look out for at the WPT World Championship:

:: WPT POY Race. Last year, Gavin Smith won. This year, it’s all about the spectacularly breasted J.C. Tran, who is currently in front with 2,000 points. Only two men can catch him. One is WCP fave Joe Pelton. He has 1,600 points and would need to finish fifth for a tie or fourth or better to win. Daniel Negreanu has 1,300 points and would need to finish second to tie or first to win POY honors.

:: Live blogging from WCP faves. The WPT has signed on the aforementioned Pelton, plus Isaac Haxton and Paul Wasicka to post before, during, and on breaks while playing the championship event. And if anything crazy happens at their table during play, they’ll tell the WPT blogging team about it for an update. Check the blog regularly once the event starts here. One special request to the WPT…can you get Davidson Matthew involved in this?

:: The 100th Episode. Final note, the WPT World Championship will be the 100th broadcast episode (set to air for early August). For the top 100 WPT hands of all time, go here.

Tagged as: j.c. tran, joe pelton, live blogging, paul wasicka, wpt world championship

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