Poker: WPT Launches The Professional Poker Tour

Published on Monday, November 15, 2004 9:33:12 AM

Season One of The Professional Poker Tour(TM) (PPT) is jampacked with a stellar line-up of All-Star players, 134 of which turned out for the Tour's inaugural competition on November 9-10 at Foxwoods Resort Casino. Many of the game's favorites played a hand in the elite competition, but only six prevailed. Chris Bigler, Jennifer Harman, Daniel Harrington, John Juanda, Casey Kastle, and Ron Rose will advance to the PPT Final Table on Nov. 19 where only one will capture the very first PPT victory.

That's like saying you won the first PGA tournament in history, or ensnared the first Wimbledon title. In addition to being entitled to bragging rights and becoming the latest answer on the next generation of Trivial Pursuit, the winner will go home with $200,000, a $25,000 seat to the WPT World Championship, and some serious respect from the poker world. The tournament at Foxwoods is the first of five free-rolls that will offer a total sponsored prize pool of $2.5 million over the inaugural 2004-2005 Season. After its debut at Foxwoods, the PROFESSIONAL POKER TOUR will move on to Commerce Casino (Los Angeles), Bellagio (Las Vegas), and The Mirage (Las Vegas) in Season One of the Tour.

Launched by WPT Enterprises, Inc. (NASDAQ:WPTE), the creator of the World Poker Tour(TM) (WPT), Professional Poker Tour reflects the evolution of poker as a sport. Whereas anyone can play on the WPT, only the game's professional elite that qualify will compete on the PPT. The PPT is unique because players can earn PPT Tour Cards throughout the WPT season and begin free-roll tournament play immediately. To be eligible to play on the Professional Poker Tour Professional Poker Tour, players must have proven themselves in past poker competition: By winning or making a Final Table at a WPT event or a WPT Championship, by scoring as a top 10 point leader in WPT Player-of-the-Year rankings, by winning or placing highly in the $10K buy-in event at the World Series of Poker, by securing a spot on either CardPlayer Magazine's Card Player of the Year Top 10 list or Poker Europa's Top 10, or by being a member of the Poker Hall of Fame.

These are the players who made the first PPT final table:

Chris Bigler, Jennifer Harman, Daniel Harrington, John Juanda, Casey Kastle and Ron Rose.

WPT has the full story. Click here.