After a three-year hiatus, the World Poker Tour (WPT) will return to the Aviation Club in Paris, France in May for the Grand Prix de Paris. In addition to the €10,000 Championship Event at the legendary French poker room, the WPT will also be taping a special €20,000 High Roller tournament that will be contested during the run of the Rendezvous a Paris tournament schedule.
The Aviation Club tournament was axed from the WPT schedule in 2007 after French lawmakers introduced tougher regulations regarding poker, in effect nationalizing the industry and driving many organizations out of the market. At the time of the announcement of the cancellation of the Grand Prix de Paris, WPT officials insisted that they would maintain contact with the Aviation Club. When the legal atmosphere cleared, the tournament would make its return. Recent legal activities in France have led to a change in stance by the WPT.
In April, the French parliament passed new laws that legalized and regulated the online gaming industry, effectively negating the state-owned monopoly. This has led to many of the top names in the online gaming industry, such as Party Gaming and Everest Poker, entering France. With the change in gaming laws, the WPT has also been able to reenter the French poker community.
The Rendezvous a Paris will begin on May 1st and consist of a multitude of satellite events that will enable players to earn their way into the WPT Grand Prix de Paris Championship Event for less than the €10,000 buy in. On May 8th, the Grand Prix de Paris will begin and crown a champion on May 15th. The special €20,000 High Roller Tournament, which has been hugely successful on the European Poker Tour (EPT) when offered, will be a three-day event that starts on May 14th and crowns a champion on May 16th.
The Rendezvous a Paris is one of the preeminent stops on the European poker circuit. Although no player announcements have been made, the stop at the Aviation Club is a prime opportunity for players to tune up for the World Series of Poker (WSOP), which begins at the end of May. The original run of the Grand Prix de Paris was one of the tournaments that put the “world” in World Poker Tour. Along with other original stops such as Aruba, the Bahamas, and on the high seas, the Paris event showed the glamour of high-stakes poker and perhaps inspired many to take up the game to be able to play in such a locale.
Such players as David Benyamine, Erick Lindgren, Surinder Sunar, Roland de Wolfe, and Antanas “Tony G” Guoga got their first notoriety from the tournament played at the Aviation Club, with Benyamine, Sunar, and de Wolfe earning the Grand Prix de Paris championship when they played.
As Season Eight is wrapping up with the WPT Championship this weekend, Season Nine has yet to be announced. On its website, the Aviation Club tournament is listed alongside the WPT Spanish Championship (which will play from May 19th to 23rd in Barcelona) and another French tournament, the WPT Amneville, which takes place in October and November.