While its longtime counterpart is drawing a “colossus” amount of attention, the World Poker Tour is attempting to keeps its name in the lights. As the schedule of events plays out for the “other” major poker tour in Las Vegas, the WPT has announced a partial schedule of events for its National, DeepStacks, WPT500 and Main Tour that will carry the company through December 2015.
“During Season XIII, we celebrated the historic achievements of players like Darren Elias and Hublot WPT Player of the Year Anthony Zinno; crowned WPT Champions’ Club members in seven different countries; debuted the extremely successful partypoker presents: WPT500 series in both Las Vegas and the United Kingdom; and embarked on a brand new journey with the WPTDeepStacks Poker Tour,” said WPT President Adam Pliska during the announcement of the remainder of the year’s plans for the WPT. “With 40 events already scheduled in 19 different countries on four different continents, we look forward to continued growth and success in Season XIV, and we can’t wait to again host our loyal players and fans at their favorite venues around the world.”
In fact, the Season XIV schedule for the WPT has already begun. Two tournaments have already been conducted for the Main Tour schedule (think televised events) in Montreal, Canada and Amsterdam, the Netherlands, while four National tournaments and two DeepStacks events were also conducted (or will complete their action) in the month of May. For the remainder of the year, the WPT will be crossing the globe bringing its brand of poker to the world.
Next up for the WPT500 will be their second tournament held at Aria during competition at the WSOP in Las Vegas. Criticized in some corners for attempting to draw thunder from the WSOP, this year’s tournament will hold much the same timeframe as it did in 2014 in being conducted in ten different Day Ones between May 31 and July 6. The National tour is currently in action in both Kazakhstan and Cannes, France and has two more stops in Tbilisi, Georgia and San Remo, Italy at the start of June. The DeepStacks tour will have a bit of a break, waiting until July 11 for its tournament at the Bicycle Casino in Bell Gardens, CA.
With two tournaments under its belt, the Main Tour is in a bit of a slumber right now. That will all change on July 31, when the tour makes a stop at the Choctaw Casino Resort for the WPT Choctaw (naturally). The WPT will have two more familiar locations, the WPT Legends of Poker (at the Bike) and the WPT Borgata Poker Open in Atlantic City, come up in August and September before heading off to new locales for their brand of poker.
On September 25, the WPT will bring its trucks (and Mike Sexton, Vince Van Patten, Lynn Gilmartin and the Royal Flush Girls) to Hanover, MD, for the inaugural WPT Maryland Live! $3500 event at the namesake card room. The WPT Emperor’s Palace Poker Classic will take place in Johannesburg, South Africa in October before another new tournament on the Main Tour, the partypoker WPT United Kingdom, will take place from November 3-8 at the outstanding Dusk Till Dawn card room in Nottingham. Wrapping up the Season XIV schedule (at least until the end of December) will be traditional WPT stops in Jacksonville, FL (the WPT bestbet Bounty Scramble), Montreal, Canada (the partypoker.net WPT Montreal at the Playground Poker Club) and Las Vegas, NV (the WPT Five Diamond World Poker Classic at the Bellagio).
Strangely enough, there is one tournament schedule that is operated by the WPT that has exactly zero tournaments announced for it. After running four tournaments in each of its first two seasons, the WPT Alpha8 does not appear in the roster of events that will wrap up the calendar year for the WPT. This could be because the WPT has been as yet unable to nail down facilities for those tournaments but it could also indicate a bit of an issue with the High Roller tour, which has provided some very entertaining television coverage on Fox Sports 1 but hasn’t exactly drawn in the fields that the WPT might want.
As if poker weren’t exciting enough right now, the WPT is looking to continue that excitement throughout the remainder of 2015. For a full look at the tournaments remaining this year, visit the WPT’s website to learn more.
