December's WPT World Championship at Wynn Las Vegas is set to be a record-breaker in many ways, including the World Poker Tour's outreach to the women's poker community. Spearheaded by the World Championship's $200,000 guaranteed Ladies Championship, the women-focused initiatives put forth by the WPT mark a new high in the WPT's efforts to promote the upcoming festival into the global women's poker community.
The upcoming Ladies Championship is notable in that the $200,000 guarantee is the largest guarantee ever offered in poker history for a ladies-only event. (The WSOP's ladies event, by comparison, does not offer a guaranteed prize pool.) The WPT's Ladies Championship begins on December 16 and features an $1,100 entry for those who buy in directly, though the event has also been supported by large numbers of online satellite offerings. The Ladies Championship will also be filmed and aired via the WPT's broadcast partners.
Besides the huge event itself, the WPT will offer other ladies-focused events. A WPT Ladies Meet-Up Game (MUG) will run on December 17, with $1/$2 and $2/$5 no-limit hold’em cash-game tables on offer at the Wynn. Besides Kerstetter, WPT anchor Lynn Gilmartin, Xuan Liu, Ashley Sleeth, and other female poker celebrities will be on hand.
"We are so encouraged by the tremendous initial response to the World Championship Event," said the WPT's CEO, Adam Pliska. "Considering the immense efforts by our very own VP of Global Tour Management, Angelica Hael, it is only fitting to advocate for the progression of women in poker, including the many women who have been critical to the WPT story."
Hael, of course, is a recent enshrinee into the Women in Poker Hall of Fame, and she'll be honored at a separate WiPHoF ceremony in Las Vegas next month. Hael is also hosting, tonight, a Ladies Championship Passport qualifier online on the WPT's social-poker platform, ClubWPT, that will award packages including a Ladies Championship seat.
Hael said, "The WPT World Championship Festival is set to be a record-setting event and we wanted to ensure it also showcases our commitment to growing the presence of women in poker. We can’t wait to shine a spotlight on these amazing women in the Ladies Championship with a televised final table for our 20th-anniversary broadcasting schedule."
Featured image source: World Poker Tour
