PokerStars Announces NAPT

For years there have been rumors of an "imminent" North American Poker Tour. They always seemed to be exactly that: rumors, whispers of half-truths mixed in with some outlandish exaggerations. Yet I've known since at least this past August that PokerStars' global events head Jeffrey Haas was working diligently to make the NAPT a reality. This is a man who launched the APPT in the face of tall hurdles in some of the Asian host countries. It literally took him years to bring the poker world Season 1 of the APPT but he got the job done. If anyone was going to be able to put an NAPT on the map, it was Jeffrey.

Recently the whispers started coalescing into something that sounded a thousand times more concrete and plausible. When Otis posted on Twitter "Just had a 'holy cow' poker industry moment. Standby for an eyebrow-raiser." three days ago, it seemed like the NAPT announcement might really be coming. And what better place to make it than the PCA?

At a press conference this morning in the Bahamas, Jeffrey announced that the NAPT is finally going to start action next month with a $5,000 event at the Venentian in Las Vegas -- the Main Event of the Venetian's February Deep Stack Extravaganza. That event will be followed by a stop at Mohegan Sun. The rumor mill currently predicts further stops at Tunica and in a few different Canadian locales.

The tour will be produced for television by the same outfit that does ESPN's WSOP coverage. Anyone want to guess if NAPT is working on a TV deal with ESPN?

You can read Otis' full post on the news at The PokerStars Blog. Of particular note for the Entities at Wicked Chops Poker is that the television hostess will be Joanna Krupa.

Kudos to Jeffrey, to the NAPT and to PokerStars. You've given all of us something new to look forward to.