World Poker Tour Kicks Off Season X

Poker News / Short-Stacked Shamus / 25 August 2011 / Leave a Comment

Mike Sexton, Kimberly Lansing, and Vince Van Patten of the World Poker Tour

The last decade has witnessed unprecedented growth in the popularity of poker worldwide, with the World Poker Tour having been a significant part of that story throughout. Today the WPT had a press conference to announce it was kicking off its 10th season, with new stops planned in Florida and Pennsylvania, plus additional events in France, Italy, Ireland, Prague, and Malta.

The new season kicks off this week with the Legends of Poker event at the Bicycle Casino in California. The tour then travels far and wide with nearly the entire rest of the 2011 calendar covered by WPT events.

In September the tour will visit the Aviation Club de France in Paris, the Borgata in Atlantic City, New Jersey, then the Casino at Portomaso in Malta, the latter stop having just been announced two weeks ago.

From there it is on to Foxwoods Resort Casino in Connecticut (Oct.), the Seven Casino d'Amneville in France (Nov.), the Jacksonville Poker Room in Florida (Nov.), the Casino de Marrakech (Nov.), the Corinthia Casino in Prague (Dec.), and the Five Diamond World Poker Classic at the Bellagio in Las Vegas (Dec.).

Season X events will also be featuring some live streaming from final tables on the World Poker Tour site. That comes in addition to the live updates and other comprehensive coverage of WPT events already provided there.

Over on the television side, the WPT returns to the Fox Sports Network where events from Season X will begin airing on Sunday nights in early 2012. Mike Sexton and Vince Van Patten return once again as co-hosts, with Kimberly Lansing also coming back as the show's anchor. Tony Dunst will return as well with his "Raw Deal" segments in which he provides analysis of particular final table hands.

In addition to the usual shows centered on individual events, this year the tour will be airing additional shows looking back on Season IX, previewing the upcoming season, as well as some "behind-the-scenes" episodes featuring the hosts and Royal Flush Girls on tour.

Well-known poker commentator Ali Nejad is joining the WPT team to serve as a live host at final tables this time around. And Matt Savage (interviewed here) will be returning again as Executive Tour Director while also doing some sideline reporting for the show.

Among the other items announced today were several concerning various ways the WPT plans to recognize its winners going forward. A "Champions Club" has been created to recognize WPT main event winners while also granting them special accommodations at all future WPT events. There will also be a new "WPT Champions Cup" that will be carried to all events and feature engraved plaques denoting all winners. And rather than award winners bracelets as has been done in the past, this year they'll be receiving customized, engraved silver card protectors to go along with the riches they'll earn for their victories.

Kind of amazing to think it has already been nearly a decade since Gus Hansen won that first WPT event back at the Bellagio in the spring of 2002.

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