Uk-Poker.co.uk

The North American Poker Tour (NAPT) was finally launched on Saturday after years of planning by PokerStars, who are no strangers to setting up land-based poker tours. Whilst PokerStars remains the largest provider of international and UK online poker, its numerous land-based tournaments provide an additional element of excitement for members. Kicking off in the Venetian Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, the NAPT attracted 872 players to the $5,000 no-limit Texas Hold’em tournament – a staggering number of entrants considering that the event coincided with the immensely popular WPT Invitational tournament at the Commerce Casino in Las Vegas. However, with a first place prize of $827,000 up for grabs, the tournament managed to attract some of the biggest names in professional poker.

Poker stars and legends such as Phil Hellmuth, David Benyamine, Theo Tran, Chino Rheem, Justin Bonomo, Shaun Deeb and Chad Brown were all in attendance on day 1 of the tournament; however, all were eliminated early on along with 390 other players. The bad beat would have especially displeased the vocal Phil Hellmuth after it was announced last week that the NAPT had secured a lucrative television deal with ESPN2. Nevertheless, not all top name poker stars failed to make it beyond day 1, with 2003 WSOP Champion Chris Moneymaker finishing in the top five.

Leading the way on day 1 of the NAPT Venetian was Andy Seth – a Las Vegas local with high ambitions to do well in the tournament. Finishing the day with an impressive stack of 245,600 chips, Seth was followed closely by Philip Collins and Mark Ketteringham. Thus far, the NAPT has further demonstrated how an online poker provider can do well on the crowded land-based scene, which is perhaps why a number of top UK online poker sites have adopted the same strategy with various UK poker tournaments.