It was announced earlier this week that the PokerStars North American Poker Tour (NAPT) has added a new stop to its Season One schedule, heading to sunny Bell Gardens, California (a suburb of Los Angeles) and the legendary Bicycle Casino.
Scheduled to run from November 12th to 17th, NAPT Los Angeles is looking to build on the overwhelming success of the first few stops on the burgeoning poker tour. The buy-in for the tournament at the Bicycle Casino will be $5,000, the same as for its other two stops in the United States in Las Vegas at the Venetian and in Connecticut at Mohegan Sun. If it performs as well as previous stops, NAPT Los Angeles may well be the largest championship event ever held in the city.
Several of the top players from the PokerStars stable are expected to take part in the November tournament. “I’ve played at The Bike in the past and there is a strong local presence in Los Angeles,” Team PokerStars Pro member Daniel Negreanu stated during the announcement of the tournament. “It’s always really important for a tournament’s success to have a strong core of local players as it gives even more incentive to travel to the events when you know there will be big money on the line. I’m looking forward to playing.” Other Team PokerStars pros who are tentatively slated to be a part of the tournament include Vanessa Rousso, Barry Greenstein, Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier, 2004 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event winner Greg Raymer, and reigning WSOP Main Event champ Joe Cada.
The managing partner of the Bicycle Casino, Haig Kelegian, was just as excited about the new stop on the NAPT as Negreanu: “We are very enthusiastic to secure the West Coast Tour stop. We clearly recognize the NAPT as the next major happening in the evolution of poker, and we have no doubt that the NAPT will entice and attract players from all over the world.”
At this time, the only announced tournament on the schedule is the NAPT Main Event. The NAPT website states that “there will also be a great selection of side events to choose from,” but they have not been announced at this time. While a High Roller tournament has been a part of the two stops in Las Vegas and Connecticut, it is unknown as to whether one will be a part of the NAPT Los Angeles schedule.
Something else that has not been announced by the NAPT is whether the event will be televised. The previous two stops in the United States were covered heavily by cable sport giant ESPN, with both the High Roller tournaments and Main Events receiving extensive coverage and frequent replays. Rumors in the industry have quietly said that the NAPT Los Angeles stop will not be receiving any television coverage.
The NAPT got off to a rollicking start in January when the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure was scheduled to be its inaugural event. One of the largest fields in tournament poker outside of Las Vegas convened at the Atlantis in the Bahamas, with an astounding 1,529 players competing in the $10,000 buy in tournament. Taking down the $2.2 million top prize was Harrison Gimbel.
In February, the NAPT made its first stop on U.S. soil at the Venetian in Las Vegas and the overwhelming outpouring of players for that event solidified the NAPT as an up and coming tournament series. Taking home the title over the 872 player field – and its $827,648 first place check – was Tom Marchese. Then, Vanessa Selbst cracked the NAPT ceiling when she became the first woman to win an event on the newly minted tournament schedule by taking down the NAPT Mohegan Sun stop against 716 opponents in April.
Since that point, however, the NAPT has been derailed from action by the “gray area” that online gaming has in the United States as well as the currently running WSOP. Nevada officials haven’t permanently barred the NAPT from action in the state, according to Pokerati – with debate raging about the old “dotcom/dotnet” issue that has raised its head since the passage of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) – but it is believed that the NAPT will not be returning to Las Vegas due to the ongoing discussion.
Future tournaments on the NAPT schedule have not been announced as of yet. Rumor in the industry says that riverboat casinos of Mississippi are willing to welcome a NAPT event. Further developments on that front could well occur after the New Year comes in and when the NAPT is looking to start its second season.
