The World Poker Tour is beginning the last stage of its massive promotional run-up to this month's WPT World Championship with a high profile meet-up game, or MUG, at which four WPT World Championship seat packages will be awarded to all-in hand winners during today's cash-game event featuring famed pros and WPT talent at Wynn Las Vegas.
The special MUG, called the "Premier Meet-Up Game: WPT Poker Icons Experience" runs at the Wynn today and officially launches the WPT's World Championship festival that runs through the next several weeks. The WPT has announced a dozen participants in the game, from which updates are expected to be shared via social media. The name-recognition factor is impressive, with these players taking part:
- Brad Owen
- Andrew Neeme
- Phil Ivey
- Doyle Brunson
- Phil Hellmuth
- Patrick Antonius
- Steve Aoki
- Lynn Gilmartin
- Tony Dunst
- Vince Van Patten
- Matt Savage
- Ashley Frank “PokerFace Ash”
The players will move into and out of the game at various times throughout the day. Hellmuth, for instance, with a long history of late arrivals at poker event, already announced he'll be showing up to play at 2:30 p.m. for a game that's just underway -- as this update goes to press -- at 10:00 a.m. (Pacific Time):
Savage, one of poker's leading tournament directors, will also emcee the event when not actually playing at the table.
Bonus WPT Championship seat packages announced
In a last-minute update, the WPT disclosed that four of the game's 12 participants will also win seat packages into this month's WPT World Championship main event. The hand must involve one of the nine Premier MUG participants who are either WPT ambassadors, talent, or Patrick Antonius, who was added to the list for this added bonus. Besides Antonius, that list includes Ivey, Brunson, Owen, Neeme, Aoki, Gilmartin, Van Patten, and Dunst. Hellmuth, Savage, and Frank may also win one of the $15K seat packages, but must do so in a hand involving one of the other nine players.
How it works is easy enough: The hand must involve an all-in and a call, and the bonus package then goes to the hand's winner. Given that hundreds of thousands of dollars could be in the pot in any given hand, the seat-package bonus might not turn a marginal hand into an auto-call, but the pot sweetener is likely to add spice to the action, especially early in the day.
Featured image source: World Poker Tour
