PokerStars has announced the return of the North American Poker Tour for the first time in 12 years, with the first stop set for Las Vegas, Nevada this November.
The event will take place at Resorts World Las Vegas, with the $1,650 buy-in main event set to commence on November 6-11th, with six starting flights. There will also be a $5,300 high roller tournament from November 10-12th, and a $550 PokerStars Cup from November 9-12th. Details of satellite tournaments and qualifying are yet to be announced.
The NAPT was initially started in 2010, and included a television series on ESPN2 broadcasting the final table of some of the tournaments on the tour. The first series was completed in full, with seven events taking place across California, Connecticut and Nevada. The Nevada legs were held in The Venetian Resort, which has recently announced a multi-year naming rights partnership with Yahoo and William Hill and a revamped sportsbook.
The only non-US part of the tour was the “PokerStars Caribbean” which took place in the Bahamas and paid the largest individual prize of all tournaments. It had 1,529 buy-ins and a total prize pool of $14,831,300 paid out to 224 entrants. Harrison Gimbel took first place, taking $2.2 million in prize money.
The second season saw three events played before the competition was suspended. On April 15, 2011, dubbed ‘Black Friday’ in the poker world, PokerStars, along with several other poker operators were seized and shut down by the US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York due to al-leged federal bank fraud and AML violations.
The NAPT will feature no guaranteed prize pools, but will have a total prize allocated depending on buy-ins. The tour has been announced just the week before Las Vegas hosts its first Formula 1 Grand Prix.
Steve Preiss, VP for PokerStars North America commented in a release: “We are delighted to announce the return of this iconic series and once again hold the NAPT for poker players in North America. 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 stated: “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