WPT Festa Al Lago Main Event Begins Later Today

Published on October 15th, 2010 11:10 am EST

The WPT (World Poker Tour) Festa Al Lago main event will kick off at 12 pm (local time) at the Bellagio later today.

The event, which features a buy-in of $10,000 + $300, will conclude on October 20th.

Last year's main event, which had a $15,000 + $400 buy-in, ended up attracting a total of 275 entrants, which created a total prize pool of a little over $4 million. The event was won by Tommy Vedes, who ended up collecting $1,218,225 and a $25k seat to the WPT Championship.

Some of poker's top names (such as Daniel Negreanu) are expected to participate in this year's main event, while others (including Tom Dwan) are still in Europe and are not expected to attend.

It should be interesting to see how many people turn out for this year's event, especially given the sizable decrease of the buy-in from last year.

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A number of notable names took down preliminary events at the Festa Al Lago Classic this year.

November Nine member Joseph "subiime" Cheong ended up taking down the $5k event yesterday after dispatching of Brock "t_soprano" Parker in heads-up play. The two players agreed to a money chop before heads-up play began, but there was still a $25k seat to the WPT Championship left to play for. The final hand saw Cheong's AK hold up over Parker's Ad-9d in an all-in pre-flop confrontation, and Cheong was awarded the $25k seat. Definitely a confidence-inspiring victory for Cheong ahead of the "November Nine" final table next month.

Some other recognizable names that took down preliminary events included:

John Cernuto - Event #2 (Omaha 8 or Better)
Matthew Jarvis - Event #3 (No Limit Hold'em w/ Rebuys)
James Van Alstyne - Event #6 (Pot Limit Hold'em w/ Rebuys)
John Phan - Event #8 (Limit Hold'em)
Scott Clements - Event #9 (No Limit Hold'em w/ Rebuys)

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Filed Under: Tournament Results