Sunday, February 5th, 2012
The World Poker Tour is to hit Florida after state legislators voted to relax previously strict rules concerning live poker.
For years, the maximum size of cash games and tournaments had been capped, but those restrictions have been lifted as of July 1st, with the state hoping for a surge in gaming as a result.
WPT Chief Executive Steve Heller said: “What’s exciting is that Florida will draw from not only the local area, but from across the world, this year you’ll see Florida boom as poker market.”
The hope for Florida’s Seminole Casinos is that they will all be able to take advantage of the WPT brand and also run satellites to the event, which i likely to have a buy in of around $10,000.
Jason Mercier and Michael Mirazchi, a November 9′er, are among the Floridians at the very top of the poker world.
With the Tour owned by Party Poker/BWin, we wait to see if the WPT can find ways to become pre-eminent again in TV poker after it played a big part in the game’s initial boom.
Whether poker viewers are still content with a series of all in confrontations is open to question, especially when you consider the success of High Stakes Poker on GSN.
But it’s good to see some expansion for the WPT nonetheless.
Tags: WPT