World Poker Tour Heads to Florida
Tuesday, August 10, 2010
by Sports Interaction
Florida is famous for many things – orange groves, beaches, Disney World and now, poker.
Yes, the World Poker Tour has announced that it will be bringing its famous poker tournament to the Seminole Hard Rock casino in Hollywood, Florida. Since Florida legislators approved uncapped poker in Florida, effective July 1, the first order of business for the Hard Rock was to get the WPT under their roof. The tournament will be held from April 27 to May 3, 2011, with the main event on the schedule being a $10,000 buy-in tournament.
“The Hard Rock poker people did some research as to what theyir players wanted most, and bringing in the WPT was at the top of the list,” said Seminole spokesman Gary Bitner. “So they’ve responded by making that happen.”
Since the state’s newly changed poker laws, Florida has seen huge poker tournaments over the last month, with the first big poker tournament held in Florida attracting a large crowd that included three of this year’s WSOP november nine.
“What’s exciting is that Florida will draw from not only the local area, but from across the world,” WPT CEO Steve Heller added. “This year you’ll see Florida boom as poker market.”
The deal struck between the WPT and the Seminoles is that the event will be hosted at the Hollywood or Tampa Hard Rock casinos with at least one tournament per year for five years. Since they own a majority of Florida casinos, the Seminole tribe will run satellites for the WPT main event at all of its casino locations.
Known for bringing poker to the masses, the World Poker Tour became a household name in 2003 with its use of cameras to reveal players’ hole cards. The Travel Channel then began airing tournaments and televised poker made poker celebrities of players whose face time was limited to the poker tables and the show made its network debut in 2004 on NBC with a special “Battle Of Champions” tournament.
The ninth season of the WPT starts airs in January and will air on Fox Sports Network. Syndicated internationally, the show is co-hosted by WSOP bracelet winner Mike Sexton, and actor Vince Van Patten.
Sports Interaction has WSOP November Nine prop bets available for any bettors who think they know who will have the edge at the Final Table at this year’s World Series of Poker. If you’re looking to make your mark on the live poker scene, qualify online for all the major live tournaments through the Sports Interaction poker room.
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