One of the largest poker tournaments series in the United States will be returning to the Baltimore area later this month as the World Poker Tour (WPT) visits the Maryland Live! Casino for an eleven-event extravaganza that is set to hand out more than $2 million in cash.

The second annual WPT Maryland Live! festival will take place from September 24 to October 5 inside the Hanover casino’s 52-table poker room and kick off with a $350 buy-in no-limit hold‘em tournament promising a minimum prize pool of $100,000.

“We are proud to be the only casino in Maryland to host the WPT this season,” said Mike Smith, Poker Operations Director for Maryland Live! Casino. “Last year’s festival and main event were a huge success. With the size of our poker room, number of tables and this year’s guarantees, we expect a strong showing of players and pros from around the country.”

The 13-day WPT Maryland Live! series will additionally feature a $7,500 high-roller event alongside a knockout bounty turbo tournament while its five-day main event with a $1.5 million guarantee is scheduled to get underway from October 1 with players able to earn their seats by qualifying through nine satellite competitions.

As a further incentive, the WPT revealed that the winners of the initial seven WPT Maryland Live! events will be entered into the Festival Championship where they will compete for a complimentary seat into the first day of the $3,500 buy-in main event on September 30.

Last year’s inaugural running of the Maryland casino’s WPT tournament series drew a field of 337 entries and featured a seven-figure prize pool. For its main event, Aaron Mermelstein defeated a stacked final table that included opponents Andjelko Andrejevic and Maryland native Greg Merson along with rising star Cate Hall to take his second WPT title along with the $250,222 first-place prize.