Bodog Beat

Poker pro Bertrand 'elKy' Grospellier won last year's WPT Festa al Lago event. (Bodog Beat Image)

The World Poker Tour is back in Vegas again, this time for the popular WPT Festa al Lago event and its $15,000 buy-in. Due to the higher buy-in, this event usually sees a much smaller crowd but among that crowd is normally a wealth of poker talent and well-known poker pros.

To give a frame of reference, last year's event drew out 368 players and generated a prize pool of $5.35 million spread out over the 50 players who received payouts. The final table of that event featured pros Nam Le, Nenad Medic, Adam Levy and the eventual champion Bertand "elKy" Grospellier, who walked away with the $1,411,015 first-place prize.

Due to the EPT Warsaw event, Grospellier will not be returning to defend his title this year so we will be crowning a new champion. Who will that be? Therein lies the burning question. One player who made a deep run in last year's event and will be looking to improve his finish this year after bubbling the final table on a questionable hand (which became forum fodder for weeks/months to come) during his last trip is poker pro Joe Sebok.

He's off to a good start already, though, as according to his Twitter account he won a satellite into the event and will now be playing Festa al Lago "on the cheap."

Stay tuned for updates from the WPT Festa al Lago and if you want a chance to play in a major international poker tournament, then check out the Bodog Flight Club promotion and it's generous prize packages.