The World Poker Tour and Gardens Casino plan to run a series of satellite tournaments in the lead up to the Main Event of the Gardens Poker Championship.
These events are a new style of mega satellite that combines the Milestone and Mystery Bounty concepts. The new format will award seats to the WPT Gardens Poker Championship Main Event, valued at $5,250. The Milestone aspect is simple, should a player accumulate 200,000 chips during the event, they win a seat. The Mystery Bounty aspect comes into play when only 20% of the field remains. From that point onwards, players that eliminate competitors will receive a bounty to redeem with tournament staff. Bounties can range from a $5,250 Main Event seat to nothing at all.
There are four of these satellites on the schedule between May 19th-21st, including a special edition on May 20th. The special edition satellite awards twenty seats and WPT Ambassadors Brad Owen and Andrew Neeme will both be in the field.
"The mega satellite is going to be a fun experience. I can't say I've ever played in a tournament merging the milestone and mystery bounty formats," said WPT Ambassador Andrew Neeme. "Hopefully I reach the chip milestone or get a bounty from knocking out Brad so I can pull a main event seat."
"I'm really looking forward to the WPT Gardens Poker Championship coming up in a few days," said WPT Ambassador Brad Owen. "We're hosting a Meet-Up Game on Friday, then playing the Myster Bounty Milestone Satellite on Saturday before the main event."
WPT Prime Slovakia crowns first-ever champion
In other WPT-related news, Sandor Mate, of Hungary, is the first-ever WPT Prime Slovakia champion. Mate outlasted the field of 552 entrants generated by the six starting flights to earn his first WPT title, along with €109,660. Included in the prize money is a €12,500 WPT Passport to the WPT World Championship at Wynn Las Vegas.
- Sandor Mate - €109,660
- Marco Niederdeppe - €64,700
- Dmitry Lineburg - €47,600
- Giovanni Ursoleo - €35,400
- Tal Herzog - €26,600
- Szymon Bujok - €20,300