PRNewswire/ — The L.A. Poker Classic Championship (LAPC) event at Commerce Casino smashed records for largest field and largest prize money ever for a $10,000-buy-in World Poker Tour (WPT) event and for a WPT event in the continental U.S. The 790 field of established pros and aspiring amateurs swelled the prize money to a whopping $7,593.600.

The winner will go home with $2,429,970 and a $25,000 seat in the WPT World Championship in April at Bellagio in Las Vegas. That is the largest first prize ever for a non-championship WPT event. The second place finisher will claim $1,177,010. Fifty four players will share in the prize pool.

Add the LAPC championship event’s $7.5+ million total prize money to the $9,270,883 awarded in the previous 29 events staged during the month-long tournament, and Commerce will have awarded $16,864,483 to players from January 25-March 1.

The LA Poker Classic is the largest WPT field ever at a land- based casino and the largest for a $10,000-buy-in event. Commerce Casino is world’s largest poker room.

The L.A. Poker Classic Championship drew top poker players in the world. Last year’s champion, Alan Goehring, went home with $2,391,550. In 2005, 24-year-old Michael “The Grinder” Mizrachi claimed $1,859,909, and 2004’s victor, another 24-year-old, Antonio Esfandiari, took home $1,399,135.

This entry was posted on Monday, February 26th, 2007 at 10:02 am and is filed under Land-Based Casino Poker, Poker Events, Poker Industry News, Poker Players, Poker Tournaments. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.