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The final stop of Season IX on the World Poker Tour will kick off on Saturday with the $25,000 WPT World Poker Championship at Bellagio in Las Vegas. The tour’s flagship event begins at noon local time today and runs through Friday, May 20, where a final table of six players will commence at 4 p.m. Last year, Team PokerStars Pro David Williams outlasted a field of 195 players to earn $1,530,537 and his first WPT title.

Players will start with 100,000 chips with blinds starting at 100-200 on Saturday, with antes kicking in at the start of Level 2 (100-200-25). Levels will last 90 minutes throughout the tournament. Players can buy in through the first eight levels of the event; registration will close once the blinds reach 600-1200-200.

Williams defeated Eric “basebaldy” Baldwin heads up last year, in what was the smallest turnout for a WPT Championship since Season I in 2003. Baldwin, who was recently let go as part of Team UB, recently told Bernard Lee and ESPN’s Inside Deal panel that he expects more than 295 players to participate in this year’s WPT Championship. That would be a pleasant surprise considering the amount of money some players still have frozen in some online poker accounts.

Other former winners of the prestigious WPT Championship include Yevgeniy Timoshenko (2009), David Chiu (2008), Carlos Mortensen (2007), Joe Bartholdi (2006), Tuan Le (2005), Martin De Knijff (2004), and Alan Goehring (2003). Mortensen won the biggest payout ever in 2007, collecting $3,970,415 after besting 639 players. The score remains the largest in the history of the World Poker Tour.

The WPT and Bellagio this week agreed on a contract extension to keep the WPT World Championship and Doyle Brunson Five Diamond World Poker Classic at the Bellagio through the end of Season XI. The deal ensures Bellagio will continue to be the exclusive home of the $25,000 buy-in WPT World Championship until at least 2013.

â€œWPT and Bellagio have been together since day one,â€ said WPT president Adam Pliska. â€œIn 2002, Gus Hansen won the very first WPT title at the Five Diamond and weâ€™ve been making poker history at Bellagio ever since. We are proud to continue our association with one of the most elite gaming resorts in the world.â€

â€œBellagio and WPT have always had a strong alliance in the poker industry,â€ added Doug Dalton, Director of Poker Operations for Bellagio. â€œWe anticipate a competitive field for the 2011 WPT World Championship and look forward to a successful future.â€

The WPT also announced the addition of a $100,000 Super High Roller Event that will take place following the WPT Championship this month. The event, which will run on May 18 and 19, will be the largest buy-in televised tournament in U.S. history. High-Roller extraordinaire Erik Seidel has already announced his intentions to play in the tournament, as have Sam Trickett, Justin Smith, Dan Shak, and Tony G. Many more of the world’s top players are also expected to participate.

Stay tuned to Poker News Daily for updates from the WPT Championship and the Super High Roller from Bellagio.

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