- The Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown is scheduled to run from March 27 through April 16.
- The $5m guarantee for the main even was lowered from the announced $10m, but is still double the prize pool achieved last year.
- The expectations are still impressive as the buyin has been reduced from $5k to $3.5k.
- The ambitious $10m figure was prompted by the success of the 2013 Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open which achieved a remarkable $12m prize pool.
The Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown is scheduled to run from March 27 through April 16. The nearly three week Florida poker festival culminates with a $5 million guaranteed main event.
In October last year, the World Poker Tour (WPT) announced that the 2014 WPT Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown would carry a $10m guarantee.
The $10m figure was inspired by the success of the Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open held in August last year. The event in a re-entry format easily beat the guarantee providing almost $12m in prize money.
This year the $5m guarantee will still be impressive, as it is accompanied by a reduction in the buyin to $3,500. Last year’s WPT event at the casino carried a $2 million guarantee and managed a respectable $2.5m prize pool from a $5k buyin. It was won by Kevin Eyster who took a first prize of $660k.
Ray Stefanelli, Director of Poker Marketing for Seminole Gaming, told PokerNews. “While the August Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open championship event was extremely successful at a $5,300 buy-in, we wanted to provide a more accessible price-point in April and expose more customers to both the WPT and Seminole Hard Rock poker brands and the televised championship event.”
The main event dates have been set as April 10 – 16, 2014. The full WPT schedule for 2014 has been expanded by seven additional Main Tour events and nine additional WPT Regional and WPT National events.
