Record-Breaking WPT Ladies Championship Reaches 445 Entries
The WPT Ladies Championship with a $1,100 buy-in at Wynn Las Vegas made waves not just with its atmosphere but its numbers. An impressive 445 entries signed up for the all-female event, creating a $429,425 prize pool and easily surpassing the $250,000 guarantee. This year's WPT Ladies Championship became the third-largest Ladies event in WPT history – last year holds the record with 485 entries.
The first day of the tournament concluded with the top 53 players advancing, led by Lily Lotfy. She delivered an impressive performance, turning her chip advantage into not just a seat at the final table, but into an overall victory.
Unstoppable Lotfy carried a massive chiplead to the final table and maintained her dominance. Although she didn't eliminate any opponents until the final three, she kept her comfortable lead, which she increased significantly when she ousted Mandy Baker in third place. The final table culminated in a USA vs. Japan duel as Lotfy, with 105 blinds, faced Seina Asagiri with a 38bb stack.
The concluding heads-up lasted just one hand, with everything turning on the turn: 4 s 3 d 2 d 3 s . In the showdown, Lotfy revealed A s 2 c while her opponent had 7 d 6 d, needing to hit one of her outs. The river 9 h was not one of them, sealing Seina Asagiri's position as runner-up with $55,284.
With this dominant run, Lily Lotfy captured her biggest victory, surpassing her 8th place at the $1,600 Wynn Summer Classic 2023 for $42,233 with the fresh win for $82,636. This brought her career tournament earnings close to the $400,000 mark.
Final Table Results of the WPT Ladies Championship:
| Place | Player | Country | Prize |
| 1 | Lily Lotfy | USA | $82,636 |
| 2 | Seina Asagiri | Japan | $55,284 |
| 3 | Mandy Baker | USA | $42,319 |
| 4 | Ayaka Muraishi | Japan | $33,150 |
| 5 | Esther Taylor | USA | $25,652 |
| 6 | Kultida Berman | USA | $19,525 |
| 7 | Tracy Rasinski | USA | $14,655 |
Day 1B of the WPT World Championship Adds Another 520 Entries
While the Ladies event crowned its champion, the main $10,400 WPT World Championship continued with flight 1B. It brought in another 520 entries, with 197 players advancing. Leading the pack was Sam Laskowitz with 880,000 in chips, followed closely by Bracher Vaughan (836,000).
Among those advancing to Day 2 were notable poker names like Jared Jaffee, Gus Hansen, Boris Kolev, Jeremy Becker, Justin Salba, Victoria Livschitz, Ian Matakis, and Alexander Yen.
After two starting days (1A+1B), the tournament has already reported a total of 1,097 entries, with the prize pool surpassing $10,000,000. The last third flight is scheduled for today (December 15), and then all qualifiers will meet at the tables for Day 2 on Tuesday. Thursday should see the fourth day form the lineup for the final table, which will compete for staggering prizes in the televised finale on Sunday, December 21.
Sources – WorldPokerTour, Flick, X
