Throughout this summer, hundreds of tournaments will be held in the city of Las Vegas, but there are three in particular that stand out with some special World Poker Tour sparkle: the Alpha8 Trifecta that will be played at the Wynn Resort & Casino. The three WPT Alpha8 tournaments will feature a buy-in of $25,000, a fabulous structure, and will allow you to win tickets to play the 2024 WPT World Championship in December at the Wynn.
“Last year, WPT witnessed a major resurgence of the Alpha8 brand, beginning with a successful summer event at Wynn Las Vegas,” said WPT CEO Adam Pliska. “This time we’re going one step further by hosting three Alpha8 high rollers in this incredible venue”.
WPT Alpha8 Dates and Times
Alpha8 #1:
- Day 1: Tuesday, June 25 at 1 PM (15 levels of 40 minutes are played)
- Day 2: Friday, June 26 at 12 PM
Alpha8 #2:
- Day 1: Wednesday, July 3 at 1 PM (15 levels of 40 minutes are played)
- Day 2: Thursday, July 4 at 12 PM
Alpha8 #3:
- Day 1: Wednesday, July 10 at 1 PM (15 levels of 40 minutes are played)
- Day 2: Thursday, July 11 at 12 PM
“We are honored to include the WPT Alpha8 Trifecta as part of our Wynn Summer Classic”, said Ryan Beauregard, executive director of poker operations at Wynn Las Vegas. “The Alpha8 moniker has an impressive history of past champions, and I look forward to offering each and every player the full Wynn experience.”
WPT Alpha8 Tournament Structures
- Buy-In: $25,000
- Re-entry: Unlimited until the start of level 10
- Starting Stack: 200,000 (200 big blinds)
- Blind Levels: 40 minutes on Day 1 and 60 minutes on Day 2
- First Level: 500/1,000 with 1,000 Big Blind Ante
- Late Registration: 10 levels
- Players per table: Tables will play 8-handed. The final table will began 9-handed
- Payouts: 12.5%
You can see the complete blind level breakdown at this link.
WPT Alpha8 Trifecta Leaderboard
Participants in the WPT Alpha8 Trifecta tournaments will receive leaderboard points and the top 8 at the end of the three events will earn an $10K entry to the 2024 WPT World Championship, which will be also played at the Wynn, in December. Players who cash in each event will earn points and there will also be additional points for those who win prizes in two and three events.
Qualifying satellites
Those with more humble bankrolls who prefer not to pony up the full $25K entry fee will have the opportunity to qualify via three qualifying satellites that will have a $3K entry fee and will feature a Milestone format. They will take place at the Wynn Casino and will each have three seats guaranteed.
These will be the dates and times of the satellites:
Date | Time | Event | Buy-In | Stack | Levels | Guarantee |
June 24 | 6 PM | Milestone Satellite to Event #1 | $3,000 | 20K | 30 | 3 seats |
July 2 | 6 PM | Milestone Satellite to Event #2 | $3,000 | 20K | 30 | 3 seats |
| July 9 | 7 PM | Milestone Satellite to Event #3 | $3,000 | 20K | 30 | 3 seats |
History of WPT Alpha8 Tournaments
The first two WPT Alpha8 events were played in 2013 and were born with the idea of being an exclusive tournament with VIP treatment for its participants. The first two were won by the German Phillip Gruissem. After the 2015 edition, they stopped taking place and returned in a big way last year in Jeju first and then during the Grand Final of the World Poker Tour at Wynn Las Vegas.
Below you can see details from all previous editions of the Alpha8 tournaments:
| Year | Venue | Buy-In | Entries | Prize Pool | Champion | Top Prize |
| 2013 | Palm Beach Casino London | £100K | 20 | £1,960,000 | Philipp Gruissem | £862,400 |
| 2013 | St. Kitts Casino | $100K | 28 | $2,716,000 | Philipp Gruissem | $1,086,400 |
| 2014 | Emperors Palace Casino Johannesburg | $100K | 10 | $975,000 | Daniel Cates | $500,000 |
| 2014 | Palm Beach Casino London | £60K | 23 | £1,334,000 | Daniel Colman | £600,000 |
| 2014 | St. Kitts Casino | $100K | 15 | $1,455,000 | Jason Mercier | $727,500 |
| 2015 | Seminole Hard Rock Seminole | $100K | 6 | $585,000 | Noah Schwartz | $585,000 |
| 2023 | Landing Casino Jeju | $130K | 18 | $2,213,334 | Steve O’Dwyer | $1,006,537 |
| 2023 | Wynn Las Vegas | $110K | 45 | $4,612,500 | Jonathan Jaffe | $1,537,600 |
| 2023 | Wynn Las Vegas | $50K | 69 | $3,346,500 | Tony Lin | $1,045,781 |
Jonathan Jaffe with his WPT Alpha8 trophy / Photo credit: World Poker Tour
Who will join the exclusive club of WPT Alpha8 champions? We’ll see, soon!
