World Poker Tour Coming to Florida
August 9th, 2010
Something tells us that all of Florida’s pot will be mosnters.
It’s official: big-time tournament poker is making its way to the Sunshine State. The World Poker Tour has announced that it will be bringing its traveling tournament circuit to the Seminole Hard Rock casino in Hollywood, Fla., from April 27 to May 3, 2011. The big event on the schedule, a $10,000 buy-in tournament, should draw a very big crowd given the game’s explosive popularity throughout Florida.
The WPT’s deal with the Seminoles will see the tour run at least one tournament per year for five years, with the event hosted at either the Hollywood or Tampa Hard Rock location. Thanks to the unique situation in Florida, the new event could turn out to be one of the biggest on the WPT schedule; the Seminole tribe owns a number of casinos throughout the state and will be able to run cheap satellites for the WPT main event at all of its casino locations.
In just over a month, Florida has gone from having no big poker tournaments at all to locking up one-third of the WSOP Main Event final table, crowning a six-figure winner, and securing a five-year deal to host World Poker Tour events on its soil. That’s a lot of change in a short time, and there could be even more changes to come if the WPT event comes anywhere near the level of success that’s expected.
