In light of the recent actions by the U.S. Department of Justice against the founders of Full Tilt Poker, Absolute Poker, and PokerStars, the World Team Poker Championship Event scheduled for May 24th to 26th in Las Vegas has been postponed.
As far as when the tournament could play out, a press release issued by World Team Poker this week revealed that its newest event “will be rescheduled for later this summer.”
The tournament was scheduled to originate from the South Point Casino in sunny Las Vegas just prior to the start of the World Series of Poker (WSOP) on May 31st. Now, we’d expect the Championship Event to be pushed back until after the WSOP, whose Main Event plays down to its November Nine on July 19th.
Michael Christian, CEO of World Team Poker, explained in a press release that the U.S. Department of Justice seizures affected its player base immensely: “The recent developments in online poker have had a rippling effect throughout the poker industry. World Team Poker has decided that it is in the players’ and World Team Poker’s best interest to postpone the event until the end of the summer. This should allow the current situation with online poker to settle down and resolve itself.”
Take the U.S. team, for example, whose roster includes Full Tilt Poker pros Tom Dwan, Jennifer Harman, and Howard Lederer. Dwan revealed on Twitter that he does not hold an ownership stake in Full Tilt Poker, while Lederer and Harman have remained largely quiet since the indictments were unsealed on April 15th. All three likely had a substantial amount of money on the site.
Also on the U.S. team are Todd Brunson and Doyle Brunson, who serve as faces of the Yatahay Network online poker site DoylesRoom, which has continued to take U.S. action. The Brunson clan has not made many friends in the online poker world due to a series of Tweets in the last week calling for the online poker world to come play live.
The younger Brunson posted a picture on Twitter with the comment, “All the online degens are crawling out from under their rocks,” while the family’s patriarch Tweeted shortly after news of the indictments broke, “Now maybe we will see if these online ‘superstars’ can play real poker. Ante up suckers!” Doyle later clarified his statement, saying, “Good God, I represent an online site. I just made a point about playing live.”
The U.S. team also boasts 11-time WSOP bracelet winner Phil Hellmuth and “Celebrity Apprentice” runner-up Annie Duke. Both were staples of UB.com until December, when they parted ways with the site.
Teams were slated to come in from around the world for World Team Poker’s Championship Event. Among the countries represented were Armenia, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Costa Rica, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, England, Germany, Greece, India, Iran, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Korea, Lebanon, Mexico, Norway, Pakistan, the Philippines, Russia, Spain, Sweden, Turkey, the Ukraine, Vietnam, and Wales.
Whether the field will remain the same for the rescheduled Championship Event is rescheduled is not clear. With so many players traveling from around the world, lining up all of the facets of the event is likely a logistical nightmare.
Team China took down the inaugural World Team Poker event. The squad consisted of back-to-back WSOP Main Event champion Johnny Chan, World Poker Tour Championship winner David Chiu, Derek Cheung, cash game specialist Chau Giang, UB.com pro Maria Ho, Winfred Yu, and Rich Zhu.
