The North American Poker Tour to Air on ESPN2
PokerStars.net today announced an exclusive deal to televise the newly-launched North American Poker Tour (NAPT) on ESPN2 beginning in April 2010.
ESPN2 will televise 16 original hours of the groundbreaking poker tour, as well as multiple reruns, featuring all the NAPT stops, including the PokerStars.net Caribbean Adventure. The NAPT will also host webcasts, available on the NAPT website: www.napt.com.
'Having the North American Poker Tour on ESPN2 is going to take poker on this continent to a different level," said Team PokerStars.net Pro Daniel Negreanu. 'With some of the most important gaming venues in the US on board and the reach of ESPN2, the NAPT is set to bring the excitement of world-class tournament poker to millions who love this game as much as I do."
The NAPT has been created with accessible buy-ins and is set to attract thousands of players from around the world, competing for millions of dollars in prize pools. The main event buy-in for the first season has been set at $5,000. Free packages to the NAPT are up for grabs on PokerStars.net where players can win their $5,000 seat plus accommodation. The tour will include a host of side events with price points to suit all players.
ESPN2's coverage of the first event at the Venetian will also include the unique $25,000 buy-in Invitational High Roller Bounty Shootout tournament. This event will feature 36 of the biggest names in poker battling it out for a spot at a winner-take-all final table. Each player will have a bounty on their head and the player who collects the most bounties wins $100,000 -- added to the prize pool by PokerStars.net. Players already set to play the event include Phil Hellmuth, Daniel Negreanu, Antonio Esfandiari, Barry Greenstein, Tony G and many others.
The tour kicked off in the Bahamas at the PokerStars.net Caribbean Adventure in January. A record-breaking field of 1,529 players entered the 2010 Main Event, creating a massive prize pool of nearly $15 million. Harrison Gimbel came out on top taking an incredible $2.2 million back home to Florida.
The NAPT continues at the glamorous Venetian Resort Hotel Casino in Las Vegas this week (February 20-24), followed by the NAPT Mohegan Sun in Uncasville, Connecticut, from April 7-11. Additional tour stops and the full television schedule will be announced shortly.
Joanna Krupa, who was featured on 'Dancing with the Stars' and the 'PokerStars.net Million Dollar Challenge,' will be one of the show's hosts. 411 Productions is the official NAPT TV production team. The tour is already attracting some of the best poker players from North America and around the world including Daniel Negreanu, Joe Cada, Greg Raymer, Barry Greenstein, Dennis Phillips, Vanessa Rousso and many more.
