The latest edition of the Los Angeles Poker Classic $10,000 main event was a cry for help, if I’ve ever seen one. The fact that one of the most historic tournaments in poker could draw 50 entries signaled that LAPC’s issues have hit critical levels.
Well, the World Poker Tour is riding in to save the day (hopefully). The WPT and the LAPC have rekindled their relationship, the WPT announced in a press release. After running in each of the past six years as an independent, unaffiliated $10,000 poker tournament, the LAPC will once again be part of the WPT in 2027.
Hopefully, this isn’t “Bennifer 2.0,” and we’re reading about the divorce paperwork in a few years. Because these two have natural synergy that makes them better together, and it would be a shame to see things continue down the way it appeared they were going.
LAPC Hasn’t Been the Same Without The WPT
It’s no secret that the LAPC has become a shell of its former self.
Just how bad has the event devolved from its glory days? Well, consider the following number: $4,727,550. That was the prize pool the last time the WPT and LAPC were affiliated in 2020.
Now, consider another number: $5,908,100. That’s the total amount of prize money the LAPC main event has doled out in the last five years — I’m omitting 2021, since the post-COVID haze was still in effect at that point. So, the last five years combined have paid out almost exactly 25% more prize money than the 2020 LAPC did by itself while under the WPT banner.
The WPT effect is very, very real. It’s natural to doubt it. I have. It doesn’t seem to make a whole lot of sense on the surface. They’re just running the exact same tournament, functionally, but it has different branding. If I were an L.A.-area resident, I wouldn’t treat the two events any differently.
But players care about the prestige of competing for a WPT title, clearly. To put one more number on the crisis, the LAPC drew an average of 513 entries in its last five years with the WPT. It has drawn 634 total in the five years since.
WPT Needs Events For Its Schedule, Too
Every healthy relationship is a two-way street, and the WPT has plenty of reason to reunite with its old flame, too.
This year, the WPT competed directly with the LAPC with an event at the Venetian in Las Vegas. Obviously, it hurt the LAPC more, but it likely took some business away on both sides.
And the WPT needs events for its own stateside schedule. By the time the calendar turns, WPT will have wound up hosting eight U.S. events at $3,500-plus, what the company used to call “main tour” events — it now lists everything under one schedule.
At least one of those events is probably going away. The January event at Seminole Hard Rock Hollywood in Florida, Lucky Hearts Poker Open, is conspicuously absent from the current schedule. My spies tell me there will only be one WPT at Seminole in the first half of the year, rather than two.
I think it’s great that the WPT is having success running events in places like Cambodia and Australia, but it needs plenty of North American presence as well.
The LAPC is a natural fit. It’s also a unique event because of its high buy-in and freezeout structure. Regarding that, the press release specifically used the word freezeout, so it does seem that the LAPC will return to its old one-and-done structure. This year, players could fire up to three times — once on each starting day, and once on Day 2. That puts even more dire framing around the 50-entry 2026 field.
Freezeouts are a bit of a tough sell these days. Both venues and traveling players prefer more entry opportunities, but the robust schedule of the LAPC festival at large at least provides the latter with secondary playing options.
Will Institutional Commitment To The LAPC Bear Fruit?
The LAPC and the WPT probably can’t just slap some extra branding on the event and expect everything to revert to the old days of million-dollar first-place prizes. Luckily, there are some signs that the powers that be are aware of this.
From the WPT’s press release, emphasis mine:
“To celebrate the momentous return of WPT to the LAPC, The Commerce Casino & Hotel is planning something special for the players. Through promotions, giveaways, and satellite tournaments, hundreds of seats will be awarded to the $10,000 buy-in WPT LAPC Championship.”
There are many ways for the WPT and Commerce to pump up the numbers. The key will undoubtedly be satellites. Run them often, and run them starting as soon as possible.
Extra avenues that haven’t existed in the past can send even more players to the 2027 LAPC. I’m thinking specifically of ClubWPT Gold, which has run into some regulatory snags of late, shrinking its player pool. Still, implementing some kind of steps system there could qualify dozens of players.
Commerce, for its part, can get players in with both live satellites and cash game promos. I just returned from a poker trip to MSPT Potawatomi in Milwaukee (don’t ask how it went). They had a sign in the poker room explaining that players could win promotional seats by playing a certain number of cash game hours. Something similar in the formerly bustling cash room at Commerce would be amazing.
Hundreds of seats are a strong promise. But even qualifying 200 players for the next LAPC would go a long way. The pros would surely see the value in showing up. Surpassing the pre-COVID 500-player norm seems very doable, and it would be great to see the LAPC back in force.
Mo Nuwwarah is a staff writer for Card Player and a highly successful tournament poker player. Not only has he covered the game since 2013, but he also racked up north of $1 million in career tournament earnings. He won a WSOP bracelet in 2024, taking down the $1,000 online pot-limit Omaha six-max event, and recently added a second MSPT trophy to his collection. He also owns two WSOP Circuit rings.
