It’s award-winning. It’s global. And it just broke the record for the largest event in its history.

And now the WPT Prime brand rolls on to Cyprus and the Chamada Prestige Hotel & Spa for a $2.5 million GTD festival in the Mediterranean.

To learn more about the brand and why poker players should consider a WPT Prime festival as their next poker stop, we spoke with World Poker Tour Executive Tour Director Matt Savage.

WPT Prime and the Mid-Major Market

Savage is a familiar face to fans of the World Poker Tour, and he’s passionate about everything he’s involved with on the tour. That’s why he’s in Cyprus at one of the newest destinations on the WPT Prime, offering a $1 million guaranteed tournament for a $1,100 buy-in — a price point that Savage says is hugely important in modern poker.

“The mid-major market isn’t just a big market for the World Poker Tour, it’s a big market for poker,” says Savage. “There’s a lot of excitement about tournaments with that size buy-in, so much so you can pretty much find a $1,000 buy-in tournament anywhere in the world at any time!

“But to have a brand like Prime with the World Poker Tour behind it is important for us. That works really well for us. A lot of the other 1k events are regional, whereas we feel like WPT Prime is more global — it’s the World Poker Tour after all!”

Choosing the Right Venue

For many years, the World Poker Tour focused on its hugely popular televised Main Events, but Savage says that as the poker environment has changed, the WPT has had to adapt. Nowadays, more events are streamed than televised, and that is reflected in the WPT Prime Cyprus festival.

“We’re not just streaming the final table, but Day 2 as well. That’s something we don’t normally do. But we’re proud, when we come to events like WPT Prime Cyprus at Chamada, we’re proud to bring the WPT experience with us.

“There’s obviously the stream and the updates, but we’ve also got videographers and photographers. The wonderful Vanessa Dove from our Royal Flush Crew, along with WPT staff and tour management. Other tours don’t put all of that attention into every stop.”

A lot of the work behind the scenes, Savage says, is down to Head of WPT Prime Cathy Zhao. Earlier this year, she accepted the 2023 Global Poker Award for Best Mid-Major Tour alongside WPT President and CEO Adam Pliska.

“She really focuses on making sure that we’re not just licensing out the WPT Prime name, but we’re making it as much a part of our tour as we do for our Main Tour stops.”

Recommending WPT Prime to Others

While Savage works to put the World in World Poker Tour, he says that poker is a great way for players to see more of the world through the destinations they visit.

“Poker is great for getting people to go to places that they’re never going to go to in their lifetime if it wasn’t for poker. WPT Prime presents a lot of opportunities for that.

“Take Chamada, for example. It’s an amazing property and they’re really excited about poker. Our number of entrants on Day 1a is fantastic and we’re excited to potentially crack the $1m guarantee, and then much more.

“You need to look at Prime not just as for locals but also for the global market. If you want to travel and see the world, Prime’s a great way to do it.”

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Based in the United Kingdom, Will started working for PokerNews as a freelance live reporter in 2015 and joined the full-time staff in 2019. He now works as Managing Editor. He graduated from the University of Kent in 2017 with a B.A. in German. He also holds an NCTJ Diploma in Sports Journalism.

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