On the 18th - 24th of April at the Bellagio in Las Vagas the WPT World Championship has reveled they are close to a prize pool of $12-15 million which would give a winner around $3.5 million.


It costs $25,500 to buy in to the Championship and you could be sitting with professionals like Phil 'The Unabomber ' Laak and Antonio 'The magican' Esfandiari.


The Director of Poker Operations for the Bellagio, Doug Dalton says'

'The pots are getting higher and the number of participants is growing with every tournament and Bellagio is proud to be a part of this phenomenon.'

Steve Lipscomb, Founder and CEO of WPT Enterprises said,

“The $25,000 buy-in insures that these players are among the world's best. However, what's fun is that this championship is still an open event and anyone with the heart, the courage and the skills can find themselves at the final table, cashing in for millions of dollars.”

You can still win you seat by playing online at PartyPoker or Pokerstars.

Steve Lipscomb is out of the WPT Invitational 2006.


Barry Greenstein raises to $50,000 preflop, and Steve Lipscomb min-raises to $100,000. Greenstein calls to see a flop of Kd-Ks-6h. Lipscomb moves all in for $300,000, and Greenstein calls with Kc-3c (trip kings). Lipscomb shows As-10h, and he's nearly drawing dead -- he needs running aces to stay alive. The turn card is the 10s, and Lipscomb is drawing dead. (The meaningless river card is the Ad, giving Lipscomb two pair.) Steve Lipscomb is eliminated in ninth place.




reported by B J Nemeth at Poker Pages

Audrey Kania has been eliminated at the WPT Invitational.


Audrey Kania was extremely short-stacked after the hand with Clonie Gowen, and she was just eliminated by Allen Kessler in 12th place. Kessler's A-J suited dominated Audrey's Q-J, and the board blanked out.


Audrey Kania is the Senior Vice President for the World Poker Tour, and she outlasted everyone else from the WPT -- except CEO Steve Lipscomb.


For the record, Allen Kessler has busted numerous people from this tournament, including a few celebrities and Mike Sexton.

An Lai Lu is all in preflop with Ah-9h suited, but she's up against Steve Lipscomb's pocket aces. Lu picks up a flush draw after the flop of Kh-Qs-Jh, but it never materializes as the board brings nothing but more paint -- Ks-Qc. An Lai Lu is eliminated in 14th place.