World Poker Tour hits Beau in January

BILOXI -- Fifteen tournaments over 16 days will culminate with the World Poker Tour Main Event, Jan. 14-17 at Beau Rivage Casino.

It will be Christmas all over again for the winner, with the first prize anticipated to top $1 million, plus a bracelet and a $25,000 seat in the WPT World Championship at Bellagio in April. The final table action will be nationally televised, with some seats open on the set for the local audience.

The Southern Poker Championship begins Jan. 2; it will attract some of the biggest champions of poker.

"Beau Rivage is proud to bring back the biggest and only televised poker event on the Mississippi Gulf Coast," said Ken Lambert Jr., Beau Rivage director of poker operations. "The players have really responded to the combination of Southern charm and hospitality at Beau Rivage, as well as the Gulf Coast's mild winter temperatures." World Poker Tour Season VII will be broadcast on Fox Sports Net starting in January, part of the Sunday Night Sports Block.

Players will find their favorite games, be it Texas Hold'em, 7-Card Stud or Omaha High Low Split, and a high-stakes area for No-Limit Texas Hold'em and Pot-Limit Omaha.

The Omaha Pot Limit Championship played over the Jan. 11 weekend has a $5,000 buy-in, reportedly the largest in the country, and is one of the world's biggest Omaha Championships. This $5,000 Championship began in 2005 at MGM Mirage Gold Strike in Tunica; it is a major draw for the who's who of poker.

Another very popular event is the Ladies International Poker Series No-Limit Texas Hold'em Tournament, Jan. 10. The tournament has a $300 buy-in plus $40 entry fee and will bring women from across the country to play.

The tournament will also feature daily No-Limit Hold'em Tournaments, $500 buy-in plus $40 entry fee Mega Satellites for the championship event every afternoon, and $175 buy-in plus $25 entry fee second-chance tournaments each night.

"We have enjoyed a long-standing partnership with WPT," said George P. Corchis Jr., president of MGM Mirage's Mississippi Operations, which includes Beau Rivage in Biloxi and Gold Strike Casino Resort in Tunica. "This year our January WPT poker event will move to Beau Rivage and by all accounts, this Southern poker tradition will only get bigger and better."

Sun Herald

News Added: 15 December, 2008

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