Five Star World Poker Classic 2009 and World Poker Tour Championship at Bellagio

April 17th, 2009 | 5:17 pm

Five Star World Poker Classic is already in full swing at the Bellagio; the series is played from March 31 thru April 25. The Five Star is highlighted by the $25K buy-in World Poker Tour Championship starting on April 18. The Season VII champion will be crowned seven days later on Saturday, April 25th with the action aired on Fox Sports Net.

Five Star World Poker Classic is already in full swing at the Bellagio, Las Vegas. The series is played from March 31 thru April 25. While the Bellagio poker festival might take a hit from the recent economical downturn, good number of players have been successful with the Five Star Classic so far; Cody Slaubaugh with one win and one runner-up for a total of $118K, World Series of Poker $50,000 HORSE champ Scotty Nguyen cashing three times for $78K. Double cashers include Michael Binger for $22,990, Liv Boeree for $22,720, and Praz Bansi for $40,025. Other notables include Jonathan Little, Lee Markholt, Ferce Serce, Ralph Thomas and Blake Buffington.

World Poker Tour Championship $25,500 buy-in Schedule:

Sat. Apr. 18, 2009 WPT NLH Championship Day 1–A 12pm local time
Sun.Apr. 19, 2009 WPT NLH Championship Day 1–B 12pm
Mon. Apr. 20, 2009 WPT NLH Championship Day 2 12pm
Tue. Apr. 21, 2009 WPT NLH Championship Day 3 12pm
Wed. Apr. 22, 2009 WPT NLH Championship Day 4 12pm
Thu .Apr. 23, 2009 WPT NLH Championship Day 5 12pm
Fri. Apr. 24, 2009 WPT NLH Championship Day 6 12pm
Sat. Apr. 25, 2009 WPT NLH Championship TV Final Table on Fox Sports Net

The $25,000 buy-in event is the richest of any WPT tournament. All event winners during the regular season takes home an entry. Also each Five-Star event with a prize pool of at least $300,000 will award the winner with a $25,500 buy-in to the 2009 WPT Championship. Last year David Chiu turned out victorious out of 545 entrants. He brought home $3.4 million after outplaying the notorious Dane Gus Hansen, still one of the largest paydays in the history of WPT. The Season I WPT Championship was played in 2003 with Alan Goehring defeating Kirill Gerasimov. Goehring cashed in for $1,011,000 for the win over a seasoned final table that featured Phil Ivey, Doyle Brunson and Ted Forrest. This year's event with final table action will air on Fox Sports Net, which also holds the rights to broadcast Season VIII of the tournament series.