As part of his fan tour around the United States, Scotty Nguyen has announced that he will be making stops at two Heartland Poker Tour (HPT) events in November. The “Prince of Poker” will take part in the festivities at the Meskwaki Bingo Casino Hotel in Tama, Iowa from November 1st to 7th, followed by the HPT Championship at the Soaring Eagle Casino and Resort in Michigan from November 12th to 21st.
Nguyen skipped the World Series of Poker (WSOP) Europe completely in order to begin his own tour around the States, allowing fans to play with one of the world’s top players while shelling out a reasonable buy-in. Nguyen began his excursion by participating in the inaugural T.J. Cloutier Classic Main Event in Durant, Oklahoma in September. The event attracted 191 players and was won by Sudhakara Kattamuri for $73,127. Nguyen was eliminated early from the tournament.
At Meskwaki Bingo Casino Hotel, Nguyen will host a media-only tournament and play cash games in addition to the televised Main Event. Tami Wallace, Director of Sales and Marketing at Meskwaki, has already noticed a boost in interest for the upcoming event. “It’s a once-in-a-lifetime chance to play against this poker great,” Wallace said. “Meskwaki is honored to host such an event.”
At the year-end Championship Open at Soaring Eagle Casino Resort in Mount Pleasant, Michigan, Nguyen will take part in all of the festivities, including a charity tournament to benefit Disabled American Veterans and a private reception for 2010 HPT champions. Nguyen will join guest celebrity players Tiffany Michelle and Maria Ho of “The Amazing Race” fame for the charity event before taking his seat at the $1,500 HPT Championship.
“We’re looking forward to introducing our players to a poker legend,” HPT Commentator Fred Bevill said of Nguyen. “Scotty has been entertaining us all on TV for years.”
Also attending the Championship Open in November will be Poker News Daily Guest Columnist Bernard Lee. A highly regarded personality in poker media, Lee attended the event last year, but fell short of the money. “I enjoyed myself last time from the champions’ dinner all the way to the Main Event,” Lee said. “Hopefully, I can get a little deeper (in the Main Event) than I did last year.”
Both November stops will be produced into pairs of hour-long episodes and broadcast on a syndicated network. HPT is available in over 100 million U.S. households and throughout Europe and the Caribbean, airing 52 weeks each year. Schedules and structures for all upcoming events are available at HeartlandPokerTour.com.
Attracting well-known pros will be a new experience for the HPT. With the mission statement “Real People, Unreal Money,” the HPT aims to get casual players out of their home games for an opportunity to play for “life-changing money” on national TV. Said Tour President Todd Anderson, “Our events are even more exciting for the players when they get the chance to play with the celebrities they see on TV, and all players have a shot at playing on TV themselves.”
