PokerStars is waving the green flag and will restart its long-shuttered North American Poker Tour this November, and its doing it with a roar as its return leads into the first-ever Formula 1 Las Vegas Grand Prix that will shake the hell out of the Strip a week later.
Here’s betting one of the Oracle Red Bull Racing cars — with the PokerStars branding — will be on display as the first NAPT starts since 2011.
The series will take place at Resorts World Nov. 4-12. The full schedule is still being fleshed out, but here’s what PokerStars dripped so far:
- Nov. 6-11, $1,650 Headliner
- Nov. 9-12, $550 PokerStars Cup
- Nov. 10-12, $5,300 High Roller
The Las Vegas Grand Prix, which will send race cars down the Strip for the first time, starts a week later on Nov. 18.
“We are delighted to announce the return of this iconic series and once again hold the NAPT for poker players in North America,” said Steve Preiss, VP for PokerStars North America, in a press release.”We’re working hard to ensure that this is a spectacular series and can’t wait to head to Las Vegas to get the show on the road.”
Leon Wheeler, Director of Poker Operations at Resorts World Las Vegas, was, of course, equally delighted and thrilled.
“We are thrilled to partner with PokerStars as we celebrate the return of the North American Poker Tour with the first stop at Resorts World Las Vegas. NAPT Las Vegas is sure to bring players in from all over the globe and we look forward to hosting them once again at our world-class property.”
More events will be announced as the year goes on.
Online satellites will most likely be run on PokerStars, just like the site did in Pennsylvania for it’s first U.S. Summer Series, which is currently being held at Rivers Casino in Philadelphia.
Last year, also in Pennsylvania, the site held satellites into a live event where a player won one of its Platinum Passes worth $30,000.
NAPT joins a big family
PokerStars’ NAPT completed one full season of seven events in 2010 and three events in 2011 before the U.S. Government nuked the online poker industry in America that year.
The NAPT joins a family of world-wide live poker events owned and organized by PokerStars. That includes the European Poker Tour (EPT), the Brazillian Series of Poker (BSOP), the Latin American Poker Tour (LAPT), the UK and Ireland Poker Tour (UKIPT, which features the Irish Open), Spain’s Estrellas Poker Tour (ESPT), the France Poker Series (FPS), as well as it’s Eureka series, which bounces around Eastern Europe like a hitchhiking poker burn-out trying for that one big bink.
The tournaments in Europe are so popular, extra days have to be added to tournaments as entry records fall, as was the case recently in Barcelona.
The company released a teaser video for the NAPT today, and while lacking details about upcoming events, its a time machine back to 2010, when Vanessa Selbts ruled.
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