[toc]Last season (Season XIV), the World Poker Tour replaced its season-ending Championship event with an invite-only Tournament of Champions.

The inaugural TOC was successful enough that for the second consecutive year, the WPT will host a Tournament Of Champions. Once again there will be plenty of added value.

The upcoming TOC will take place after the season-ending Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown, capping off Season XV of the tour.

Why the WPT switched to the TOC

The change from the $15,000 Championship event to the TOC was spurred on by dwindling attendance numbers for the higher buy-in season finale. But even with the zeitgeist moving in that direction, the shift wasn’t without skeptics and criticism. This is because the Championship went from an open event to an invitation-only affair.

The numbers are in for the ‘Internation Tournament’ segment of the 2020 World Series of Poker $10,000 buy-in main event. A total of 674 entries were made across three starting flights. Want a slice of the action? Play poker and win a seat. to a televised World Poker Tour event from ClubWPT! Check out ClubWPT.com. for more info.Like us on Fa.

In the end 64 players participated in the inaugural event. This was in part due to the tournament being rake-free and the slew of additional prizes that WPT sponsors added, including a Corvette.

Who can play in the TOC?

By virtue of winning a WPT Season XV Championship event, the following 17 players have already punched their ticket to compete in the tournament.

So too will the winners of the Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown Main Event on March 31 and the Seminole Hard Rock Poker Finale on April 2:

• Seth Davies, partypoker WPT Canadian Spring Championship
• Andjelko Andrejevic, WPT Amsterdam
• James Mackey, WPT Choctaw
• Pat Lyons, WPT Legends of Poker
• Jesse Sylvia, WPT Borgata Poker Open
• Zachary Smiley, WPT Maryland Live!
• Sam Panzica, WPT bestbet Bounty Scramble
• Luis Rodriguez Cruz, partypoker WPT UK
• Mike Sexton, partypoker.net WPT Montreal
• Niall Farrell, partypoker WPT Caribbean
• Oleg Vasylchenko, partypoker WPT Prague
• James Romero, WPT Five Diamond World Poker Classic
• Daniel Weinman, WPT Borgata Winter Poker Open
• Ema Zajmovic, partypoker.net WPT Playground
• Darren Elias, WPT Fallsview Poker Classic
• Daniel Strelitz, WPT L.A. Poker Classic
• Mike Del Vecchio, WPT Rolling Thunder

In addition to the automatic qualifiers, all former WPT champions are welcome to enter the $15,000 buy-in tournament. And there are plenty of reasons for them to do so.

Plenty of added value for the TOC

Not only is the tournament rake-free, but it’s one of the few poker tournaments with value added to the prize pool. Players can thank the WPT’s generous sponsors for that.

Monster Headphones has added $100,000 to the prize pool. The winner of the 2016/2017 TOC will also receive:

• A pair of Rose Gold Wireless Over-Ear Element Headphones from Monster
• A Hublot® King Power Unico Carbon and Red watch
• A custom premium poker table from BBO Poker Tables
• A seat in Tiger’s Poker Night Presented by World Poker Tour
• A one-week stay with Wyndham® Extra Holidays
• 2018 Audi S5 Coupe courtesy of Monster

Said Adam Pliska, CEO of the World Poker Tour:

“It is the World Poker Tour’s honor to celebrate its winners with the season-ending Monster WPT Tournament of Champions. We are incredibly thankful to all of our great partners for their significant contributions to the Season XV Monster WPT Tournament of Champions prize pool, as they have allowed the WPT to create an impressive overlay of cash and prizes in this rake-free event.

The WPT Champions Club is composed of the game’s most prestigious champions, but only one will be crowned the champion of champions this April and drive off in a brand new Audi S5.”

In addition to the winner’s package, all participants in the Season XV Monster WPT Tournament of Champions will receive a custom-fitted pair of sunglasses from Maui Jim®. Each member of the six-handed, televised final table will also receive a Monster Superstar Ravebox.

Action Clock will return

Another interesting wrinkle from last year’s TOC will also return: the Action Clock, which limits all decisions to 30 seconds.

Per the WPT:

“The Monster WPT Tournament of Champions will once again be played with the Action Clock created by Protection Poker. Players will have a 30-second clock for each action to help ensure an efficient pace of play and increase the strategy element for the Monster WPT Tournament of Champions.

Each player will receive five, 30-second time extensions that they can use at any time leading up to the final table. At the televised final table, all six players will reset with four, 30-second extensions.”

Image credit: aureliefrance / Shutterstock.com

The final table is set in the ‘Domestic Tournament’ of the 2020 World Series of Poker $10,000 buy-in no-limit hold’em main event. The US-facing segment of the tournament drew a total of 704 entries, and after two full days of action, just nine players now remain. The final table will resume playing live and in-person at the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino on Dec. 28, with the title and the top prize of $1,553,256 on the line.

This year’s main event has utilized an unprecedented hybrid live-and-online format, with two separate tournaments beginning online and continuing until both final tables are set. The two winners determined at those final tables, which will be played live and in person, will then square off in a live heads-up showdown to determine which will win the championship WSOP gold bracelet and an added bonus prize of $1,000,000 on top of their winnings from the final table.

Day 2 of the ‘Domestic Tournament’ began with just 71 players remaining. It took around seven hours to narrow the field to the final nine players, with Louisiana’s Joseph Hebert ending the day as the clear chip leader. His 13,052,534 stack is nearly 2.5 times larger than the next-biggest stack at the table and represents just more than 30 percent of the total chips in play. Hebert has more than $600,000 in prior tournament earnings, including a runner-up finish in the 2013 WSOP Circuit Harrah’s New Orleans main event and a win in this year’s Million Dollar Heater main event held at the Beau Rivage Resort & Casino.

Shawn Stroke ended the day in second chip position with 5,252,000. The Lawrence, New York native’s largest prior score came when he finished second in the 2018 WSOP $365 buy-in online bracelet event for $94,265. 2019 WPTDeepStacks New York main event champion Ryan Hagerty sits in third place with 5,071,572.

The most accomplished player at the final table is three-time WSOP bracelet winner Upeshka De Silva. The poker pro from Katy, Texas has just shy of $3.1 million in prior tournament earnings, with all of his bracelet wins coming in no-limit hold’em events. He won his first hardware at the series in 2017, topping a field of 1,655 entries to win a $1,500 no-limit hold’em event for $424,577. Two years later he took down the $3,000 buy-in shootout event, besting a field of 369 to earn $229,923. In 2019 he won the $600 buy-in bounty event, outlasting 1,224 entries to earn $98,263.

Plenty of highly-successful tournament players made a deep run in this event, only to fall short of making the live final table. The last remaining WSOP main event champion with a chance to win the big dance a second time was 2013 world champion Ryan Riess. His run came to an end in 47th place ($22,334). Other big names knocked out on day 2 included three-time bracelet winner and Wolrd Poker Tour champion Nick Schulman (55th – $20,304), bracelet winner and PokerStars Caribbean Adventure main event winner Galen Hall (53rd – $22,334), two-time bracelet winner Shankar Pillai (51st – $22,334), four-time WPT main event winner Darren Elias (50th – $22,334), two-time bracelet winner Freddy Deeb (46th – $22,334), WPT champion Matthew Salsberg (41st – $25,718), and three-time bracelet winner and WPT champion Scott Seiver (39th – $25,718).

The notables that made the last four tables but were bounced before the final table included poker triple crown winner Mohsin Charania (35th – $29,779), bracelet winner and 2010 WSOP main event third-place finisher Joseph Cheong (33rd – $29,779), bracelet winner Jason Somerville (32nd – $29,779), bracelet winner Justin Liberto (26th – $35,194), Maria Ho (22nd – $35,194), Jared Griener (20th – $35,194), Clayton “NevarLucky” Maguire (13th – $62,266), Martin Zamani (12th – $62,266), bracelet winner Daniel Zack (11th – $77,832), and bracelet winner Anthony Spinella (10th – $77,832).

The final nine players are now all guaranteed to earn at least $98,813, with the top twp finishers to earn seven-figure paydays. The final table will play out on Dec. 28 at the Rio in Las Vegas. The eventual champion will face the winner of the ‘International Tournament’ in a heads-up battle for the bracelet and the $1,000,000 in added money on Dec. 30. The ‘International Tournament’ final table is taking place at King’s Casino in Rozvadov on Dec. 15.

World Poker Tour Tournament Of Champions

Here is a look at the final nine and their chip counts:

Here are the payouts up for grabs at the final table:

World Poker Tour Tournament Champions

World Poker Tour Tournament Championships