WPT Alpha8 Announces First Two Stops for Season 2

On Thursday, July 17, the World Poker Tour announced Palm Beach Casino in London and Bellagio in Las Vegas as the first two stops for Season 2 of the WPT Alpha8^TM tour.

Taking place October 6-7, 2015, Palm Beach Casino in Mayfair will host its second WPT Alpha8 event — a £60,000 buy-in non-televised tournament. Last October, the venue hosted the second stop of Season 1 of the tour, but that event featured a larger £100,000 buy-in. The winner, two-time WPT Alpha8 champion Philipp Gruissem, collected £862,400.

The second stop of the season will see the WPT Alpha8 head to Bellagio in Las Vegas, Nevada for a $100,000 buy-in event to be held December 18-20. Bellagio has not previously held a WPT Alpha8 event, but this event will coincide with the WPT Five Diamond World Poker Classic to make the casino the first to host both a televised WPT Alpha8 event and a televised WPT Main Event at the same time.

"We are truly honored to announce WPT Alpha8 London and WPT Alpha8 Las Vegas as our first events of WPT Alpha8 Season 2," said WPT President Adam Pliska. "Not only are we returning to one of the most prestigious locations in the world at the Palm Beach Casino in Mayfair, but we are also bringing WPT Alpha8 to the home of high-stakes poker at Bellagio in Las Vegas, where we are already expecting to draw one of the largest fields in WPT Alpha8 history."

The record for the largest WPT Alpha8 field is 28 entries (23 unique players, with five reentries) coming from the WPT Alpha8 St. Kitts event in Season 1. That event was also won by Gruissem, pocketing $1,086,400.

Picking up right where they left off in Season 1, Lynn Gilmartin‎, Ali Nejad, and Olivier Busquet will handle all hosting and commentating duties, and season two episodes will continue to air on Mondays on Fox Sports 1.