Last month, the World Poker Tour quietly launched a new real-money online poker room called WPT Global. It is oddly difficult to find if you are in the United States. Those of us in the country cannot play on the site, but many other online poker rooms have the same restriction and can at least be located so as to acquire more information, even if we can’t play. One of WPT Global’s hooks is the use of non-fungible token (NFT) avatars for those who wish to acquire one. And now, GAMAVRS, the studio that develops the avatars for integration into the poker room, has added a slew of celebrity Poker Heroes that will represent the actual, real life celebrities they (kind of, in a cartoony way) look like.
Included in this round of celebrity Poker Heroes are Steve Aoki, Tom Dwan, Phil Ivey, Patrik Antonius, Andrew “LuckyChewy” Lichtenberger, Vince Van Patten (it’s the WPT, right?), Mario Ho, Joseph Cheong, Lynn Gilmartin, Matt Savage, Maria Konnikova, and Brad Owen, among others.
“Players will immediately know if they are playing against the real Steve Aoki, based on his NFT profile, which has a different shape and size than common profiles inside the WPT Global platform,” said GAMAVRS general manager Meysam Moradpour.
There are a total of 9,999 non-celebrity Poker Heroes avatars available to the public. The next public minting – a batch of 2,000 – will be on Thursday, May 12. They are minted on Polygon and can be minted with any Ethereum-based crypto wallet. Poker Heroes avatars can be resold.
There are three rarity levels of Poker Heroes avatars: Humans, Cyborgs, and Gods. Humans make up 60% of the 9,999 available avatars, Cyborgs are 30%, and Gods are 10%. Each rarity tier comes with perks on WPT Global – they are not just for looks alone:
Human – entry into $100,000 freeroll tournaments, sponsored seats in Millionaire Maker events on WPT Global, and access to a private poker discord channel.
Cyborgs – everything that Humans get plus access to exclusive celebrity poker tables
Gods – all of the above plus access to live World Poker Tour VIP events
250 pre-minted avatars have already been sold. It is possible that WPT Global and GAMAVRS will mint more than the 9,999 Poker Heroes avatars if the demand is there.
“Our poker-themed NFTs are really Access NFTs, so we will initially launch with 9,999 avatars for poker enthusiasts around the globe and expand based on user demand. It’s not about scarcity for us, but more about access for holders,” said Moradpour.
Image credit: GAMAVRS Twitter