The World Poker Tour (WPT) announced that seven more stops will be added to their schedule of events before the WPT Championship in May. The tournament in Baden, Austria has wrapped up and the L A. Poker Classic has already started at the Commerce Casino in California.
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Out of the seven events, two of these are official WPT championship events whilst the remaining five fall under the regional and national event categories. The five events are “unofficial” WPT events since they do not award points for the players towards the WPT Player of the Year or the WPT Champions Cup. However, this will give the players a chance to warm up before the WPT reaches their Season XI finale at The Bellagio in Las Vegas in May.
The WPT Best Bet Open, which will be held in April 26-30 will again be hosted in Jacksonville, Florida. The buy in amount has been reduced to $500 for the main event, having a $3,500 prize. Last year’s prize was for $5,000, which attracted 320 players. It included poker superstars like Daniel Buzgon, Will Failla, Tony Dunst and defending champion Shawn Cunix. WPT officials are expecting that the reduction in the buy-in will attract more players and break the 500 player mark.
After the festivities in Jacksonville, WPT will move towards “north of the Border” and meet up in Montreal. From May 3-9, the PartyPoker.net WPT Canadian Spring Championship will be held at the Playground Poker Club. With a buy-in of $3300 Canadian dollars, WPT officials are expecting a huge crowd in Montreal. Last year’s event was a tremendous success having 1,173 entrants which, marked the biggest tournament ever in Canadian history. Pascal Lefrancois, Gavin Smith, Jeff Gross and Jonathan Roy met at the final table with Roy coming out as the champion of the tournament. All of these same notable personalities are expected to be present again this year.
All of these tournaments will tour three continents. In the United States, stops are at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Tampa, FL, for the WPT Regional Florida Spring Tampa Bay Open from March 7-10 and at the IP Casino Resort Spa in Biloxi for the WPT Regional Mississippi IP Spring Classic from April 5-8
Two Regional and National Events were added to the WPT National London as well as a stop in Marbella, Spain. The events will take place between March 15-19 at the Aspers Casino in London with £1650 (£150 juice), which features two Day Ones and re-entry that are available to players reaching level 6 on both Day One. The WPT Marbella will be help at Casino Marbella in Southern Spain from April 11-15 where players will battle for €1650 (€150 juice). This event also features two Day Ones as well as a single re-entry on both days.
The third continent to be visited is in Johannesburg, South Africa. The WPT National Johannesburg will be held at the Emperors Palace Hotel and Casino. The buy in will be for 14,300 ZAR (South African Rand). The high cost is due to the popularity of last year’s tournament that drew a total of 230 players.
