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World Poker Tour

Promotions

Become our next Aussie Millions champion for free

Win your luxury package to this year’s Aussie Millions and we’ll send you Down Under to play for Australia’s biggest poker prize – all for free.

Qualifiers for these dream trips start on 22nd November with packages up for grabs in weekly satellites. There are satellites to suit both Australia-based players and players from the rest of the world, giving everyone the chance to play in the southern hemisphere’s biggest tournament

.And if you think you’ll be heading to the Crown Casino in Melbourne just to see the sights, think again…

Last year, PartyPoker.com qualifiers Tyron Krost and Frederik Jensen went all the way in the Aussie Millions, taking first and second places, after claiming packages just like these.

Krost, pictured left, won AUS$2 million for his efforts last year and has now gone on to become a PartyPoker.com sponsored pro, cashing in tournaments around the globe.

Start your journey to the Aussie Millions by playing in our daily freerolls or our low-cost qualifiers. Plan your route by clicking one of the links below:

PartyPoker.com website PartyPoker.com profile PartyGaming profile

PartyPoker.com Aussie Millions website PartyPoker.com website

Promotions

Palladium VIP's - Spoil Yourself With As Many Presents As You Want From PartyPoker - Santa's Party Pack Open To All On PartyCasino !

Win your share of $5,000 every day in December. See: PartyPoker.com

The first episode of PartyPoker.com World Open VI is now online.

Many of the players involved will remember the jaw dropping quads over quads – Andrew Robl, Toby Lewis, Mike Sexton and Jesse May talk about this in a special post here: PartyPoker.com

Aussie Millions qualifiers are up and running. Team Party pro Tyron Krost won the event last year and gives his own guide to satellites. PartyPoker.com

Palladium VIP's - Spoil Yourself With As Many Presents As You Want From PartyPoker - Santa's Party Pack Open To All On PartyCasino !

Gibraltar – 30th November 2010 -- The festive season is drawing closer and PartyPoker.com is making sure they treat their most-valued players to a whole stack of presents. Palladium VIPs have the opportunity to pick up six presents and fill their very own Santa sack by just earning points by playing at PartyPoker.com’s online tables from the 1st to 14th December 2010.

A PartyPoker.com spokesman said: "The premise is very simple – Palladium VIPs earn points that make prizes. At the bottom end there is a $50 cash bonus, while 30,000 points delivers a $5,000 WPT entry. Players are entitled to keep all of the prizes they can win - so with six prize levels there’s six fantastic presents to keep!"

Here’s what’s on offer in the VIP Gift Accumulator:

Prize level Points required Prize Prize Draw tickets
1 1,500 $50 cash bonus 1
2 3,000 $100 cash 2
3 6,000 iPod Touch 4
4 12,000 $700 cash 8
5 20,000 16GB iPad 14
6 30,000 WPT entry 20

The feast of presents doesn’t just end here though. Every time a player hits a prize level PartyPoker.com award tickets for the VIP Gift Accumulator prize draw which offers the chance to win a share of $10,000. The more prizes a Palladium VIP earn the more entries they’ll get into the draw, giving more frequent players a better chance of winning the $5,000 first prize, the $3,000 second prize or the $2,000 third prize. Winners will be announced on the 17th December.

Please note that this is an OPT-IN promotion. For more information see: PartyPoker.com

Santa is also coming to PartyCasino.com. Unlike the poker promotion this is open to non VIPs too and runs from the 1st – 14th December, whether you have been bad or good. Points mean prizes including a luxury Caribbean holiday!

See: PartyCasino.com for more information.

Santa’s Party Pack

Prizes whether you’ve been good or bad!

Starts: 00:00 ET, 1st December
Ends: 23:59 ET, 14th December

Santa is making an early appearance. He’s spreading Christmas cheer, handing out killer Christmas presents to non-VIP and Palladium VIP players.

From 1st to 14th December, you can celebrate Christmas in style with a double whammy of festive winning opportunities. There’s a prize giveaway where you can scoop up to 6 prizes, and a massive cash prize draw!

Winning a share of Santa’s Party Pack is simple, and you don’t even have to sit on Santa’s knee! Simply opt-in between the 1st-14th December and collect points by playing your favourite slots and jackpot slots. The more you play, the more prizes you’ll unwrap.

Prize Giveaway

If you’re not a VIP yet, check out the Christmas List below, Santa could bring you up to 5 fantastic prizes worth $1,000:

Points Cumulative prizes
20 $5 cash bonus
100 300 points
500 $50 cash bonus
1,000 $100 free cash
5,000 iPad 32GB WiFi*

*The iPad 32GB WiFi has a cash alternative of $600, this will automatically be credited to your account. Please see T&C’s for details of how to receive the non monetary alternative.

If you’re a Palladium VIP player, check out the Christmas list below. Santa could bring you up to 6 prizes worth $10,000:

Points Cumulative prizes
2,000 $75 cash bonus
3,000 1500 points
5,000 $150 cash bonus
7,500 $250 free cash
15,000 iPad 64GB WiFi**
50,000 Luxury Caribbean Holiday**
(worth $8,500)

**The iPad 64GB WiFi has a cash alternative of $1,000, **The Luxury Caribbean Holiday has a cash alternative of $5,000 these will automatically be credited to your account. Please see T&C’s for details of how to receive the non monetary alternative.

Santa’s Big Prize Draw

What a cracker! But wait…there’s an extra present under the tree – Santa’s Big Prize Draw. By taking part in Santa’s Party Pack, you will be eligible for the draw. The more points you earn the more entries you will receive. Check below to see how much cash you can win:

Non-VIP Big Prize Draw

Every time you earn 20 points during the promotion, you’ll get one entry to the Big Prize Draw. $10,000 will be shared equally between 10 lucky players.

VIP Big Prize Draw

Every time you earn 500 points during the promotion, you’ll get one entry to the Big Prize Draw. $20,000 will be shared between 3 lucky players in the following amounts: 1st - $10,000, 2nd - $6,000 and 3rd - $4,000.

You can collect points on any of our slots and jackpot slots. To join the festivities you need to Opt-In from the 1st-14th December. Win some exceptional presents this Christmas with Santa’s Party Pack.

Good luck and Merry Christmas!

News

PartyPoker Introduces Five Star Poker Challenge - 29th November 2010

In December, PartyPoker will unveil the Five Star Poker Challenge, offering 31 freerolls worth $5,000 each plus other high-stakes cash prizes. PartyPoker offers some of the industry’s most unique promotions every month.

All you have to do to take full advantage of the Five Star Poker Challenge is rack up five Party Points in a single day. That’s it; that’s really all you have to do. When you amass five points, PartyPoker will grant you entry into a $5,000 freeroll the next day. There are 31 freerolls that will be held in total, meaning that the site is putting up over $150,000 for this part of the Five Star Poker Challenge promotion.

Now, if you qualify for five of the aforementioned $5,000 freerolls, you’ll score entry into a $50,000 freeroll that will be held on January 2nd. You’ll be ringing in the new year in style as you vie for a five-figure prize pool, all for playing on one of the world’s largest online poker sites.

In addition, repeat winners of the $5,000 freerolls will be in for a special treat. Win two daily $5,000 freerolls and you’ll take home a $5,000 cash prize. If you manage to win three daily freerolls, then your prize will be increased to $50,000. Finally, any PartyPoker player who manages to take down five daily $5,000 freerolls will win a colossal $500,000 cash prize.

Your $5,000 freeroll victories don’t have to be consecutive; rather, they can happen on any days during the promotion. Finally, PartyPoker is offering up one $5,000, $50,000, and $500,000 bonus, so start playing early to claim your prize, as jackpots will be paid out on a first come, first served basis.

Text found on PartyPoker’s website explains how bonuses can be claimed: “To make a claim, players must send an email to info@partypoker.com and confirm their account name. PartyPoker will respond to all claims within 48 hours in order to verify all claims and ensure no fraudulent play has taken place.” PartyPoker expects to pay out bonuses within 48 hours.

The $5,000 tournaments will kick off at 15:00 ET each day during the Five Star Poker Challenge. According to PartyPoker’s terms, a “day” runs from 00:00 ET to 23:59 ET, so make sure to pick up five Party Points during this time span to qualify.

Also in December, PartyPoker is holding the VIP Gift Accumulator for its VIP members. All players need to do is earn Party Points. Then, at certain thresholds, they’ll receive rewards for their play, ranging from a $50 cash prize to a $5,000 World Poker Tour (WPT) buy-in. Other prizes include $100 in cash, an iPod Touch, $700 in cash, and a 16 GB iPad, which will likely be one of the hottest gift items for the holiday season. All prizes are cumulative, which could make for a pretty full stocking come Christmas morning.

The VIP Gift Accumulator also includes a prize draw that will shell out $10,000. The top payout in the prize draw is $5,000, with cash sums of $3,000 and $2,000 also available. The VIP Gift Accumulator promotion runs from December 1st to 14th, with the prize draw occurring on December 17th. Players must opt into the VIP Gift Accumulator in order to participate.

The WPT buy-in is good for any event before March 31st. Players who would rather not head to a live poker tournament can opt for a cash alternative of $3,500. In order to check out how many VIP Gift Accumulator points you’ve earned, head to your PartyPoker account after you’ve opted in.

Visit PartyPoker for the full rundowns of the Five Star Poker Challenge and VIP Gift Accumulator. (Credit: Poker News Daily)

2009 News

PartyGaming Moves For World Poker Tour Assets With Superior Offer

Agreement to acquire the World Poker Tour

PartyGaming Purchases WPT Enterprises for $12.3 Million

World Poker Tour good legal standing with United States, Australia

Crown Casino open to World Poker Tour proposals, industry buzz

PartyPoker.com, other PartyGaming brands likely to benefit from WTP deal

World Poker Tour Debuts on Fox Sports Net

WTP - PartyGaming deal tipped to boost Hitwise, PokerScout, Alexa rankings

PartyGaming profile

Games

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The World Poker Tour (Abbreviated WPT) is a series of international poker tournaments featuring most of the world's professional players. It was started in the United States by attorney/television producer Steven Lipscomb, who now serves as CEO of WPT Enterprises (WPTE), the firm that controls the World Poker Tour.

Introduction

The World Poker Tour is a collection of Texas hold 'em poker tournaments held internationally, but mainly in the United States. The television show has led to a boom in the table game across American homes, in local casino poker rooms and online. The key sponsors of the tour are casinos and online poker sites. The show, which is syndicated internationally, is co-hosted by World Series of Poker winner Mike Sexton, and actor Vince Van Patten. Shana Hiatt served as the show host and sideline reporter in its first three seasons. Courtney Friel took over the host role for the fourth season, and Sabina Gadecki for the fifth. Layla Kayleigh and Kimberly Lansing began serving as hostesses in season six.

Background

The tour had its debut season in the latter part of 2002 and early part of 2003, climaxing with the WPT Championship in April 2003 at the Bellagio Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada. The first season aired on the Travel Channel on American cable television in the spring of 2003. The show made its network debut on February 1, 2004 on NBC with a special "Battle Of Champions" tournament, which aired against CBS coverage of the Super Bowl XXXVIII pre-game show. The Travel Channel aired the first five seasons of the Tour. In April 2007, WPTE announced that the series would move to GSN for its sixth season in the spring of 2008. The first WPT tournament to air on GSN, the Mirage Poker Showdown, debuted on March 24, 2008.

Commentary

The show's hosts Mike Sexton and Vince Van Patten give the impression that all of their commentary is recorded live as the tournament happens, and they have occasionally interacted with the players during the game. However, their comments about hole cards are recorded after the tournament takes place because state gaming regulations prohibit them from observing a live feed of the "hole card cameras". Consequently, the broadcast audio is a mix of the live recording, and commentary recorded in post-production.

Reception

The drawing power of the WPT and most other poker tournaments is that anyone who can pay the "buy-in" (an amount ranging from $2,500 to $25,000) or win a "satellite" tournament is able to compete against the top professional players.

Fans of the show find it interesting because of technical innovations such as the ability to see the players' hole cards through a small camera in front of them on the poker table (an innovation first seen on the UK program Late Night Poker). With the success of the show, special programs, such as the "Hollywood Home Game" (featuring celebrities playing for charity) and "Ladies Night" (featuring six top women players) were developed.

In 2004, the World Poker Tour created a Walk of Fame, inducting poker legends Doyle Brunson and Gus Hansen as well as actor James Garner.

Now in its fifth season of broadcast, it still remains among the highest rated television programs on cable. It airs Wednesdays on the Travel Channel. The first three seasons of WPT are also available on NTSC DVD. (The second season DVD set features audio commentary by several of the players. The third season is only available in a "Best Of" format, featuring just half of the episodes.) CITY TV airs the WPT on Sundays at 4pm PST in Canada with a rebroadcast at Midnight (or shortly after depending on the length of their Sunday Night Movie. The series will move to Monday nights when it moves to GSN in 2008.

A series of spin-off tournaments, titled the Professional Poker Tour, began filming in 2004. Broadcast of the series was delayed, in part because of a dispute with the Travel Channel over rights. In the fall of 2005, WPTE announced that "a cable channel" (believed to be ESPN) had withdrawn from bidding for the PPT series, and that WPTE was negotiating with the Travel Channel to air the series. On January 30, 2006, WPTE and the Travel Channel announced that they had dismissed all open lawsuits. The series began regular broadcast July 5, 2006, but was suspended after one season as WPTE couldn't find a television home for a second season.

WPT Ladies

In January 2008, the WPT announced a set of tournaments for women, known as WPT Ladies. The first season will have five events, with buy-ins ranging from $300 to $1,500. The final table of the final event will be televised.

Deal

A fictional WPT championship match is the setting for the 2007 feature film Deal. Sexton, Van Patten, and Friel are slated to play themselves and a number of other poker professionals and poker-playing celebrities are reportedly in the cast. The WPT set was shipped to New Orleans for filming following the season 4 championship. (Credit: Wikipedia).

Review

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News

WPT Championship Begins Saturday - 16th April 2009
(Credit: Poker News Daily)

On Saturday, the World Poker Tour (WPT) Championship will kick off from the Bellagio in Las Vegas. The $25,000 buy-in tournament is the last stop of Season VII and will crown a champion seven days later.

Last year, David Chiu emerged victorious from a pack of 545 entrants en route to victory. He pocketed $3.4 million for his efforts, one of the largest paydays in WPT history. The finale featured Chiu take on Full Tilt Poker pro Gus Hansen, one of the world’s most feared players. Hansen landed a $1.7 million consolation prize. Also at the final table were John Roveto (third for $923,355), Cory “UGOTPZD” Carroll (fourth for $593,645), Tommy Le (fifth for $395,725), and Jeff King (sixth for $263,815). A total of 100 players finished in the money during the Season VI WPT Championship.

In a tournament series that has seen a bevy of events come and go, the WPT Championship has remained a staple. The annual end of year gala has seen some of the world’s top poker players dominate. During the Season V WPT Championship, “The Spaniard” Carlos Mortensen triumphed over a field of 639 players and cashed for $3.9 million. He defeated World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelet winner Kirk Morrison heads-up; Morrison took home $2.0 million for his efforts. Others who claimed life-changing money were Paul Lee (third for $1.1 million), Guy Laliberte (fourth for $696,220), Tim Phan (fifth for $464,110), and Mike Wattel (sixth for $309,405).

The Season IV final table will go down as one of the most talented in the history of the WPT. In the end, Joe Bartholdi, a poker player in his 20s, bested Davidson Matthew heads-up and grabbed $3.8 million. Roland de Wolfe, James Van Alstyne, and Men “The Master” Nguyen also made the final table. During Season III, Tuan Le outlasted Paul Maxfield heads-up in a tournament that attracted 453 entrants. The duo were joined by Hasan Habib, John “The Razor” Phan, European Poker Tour (EPT) Monte Carlo Grand Final winner Rob Hollink, and Phil Ivey at the televised final table.

Season II saw Martin de Knijff battle Habib in the finale, with the former coming out on top and earning $2.7 million. Matt Matros and recent Bay 101 Shooting Star Champion Steve Brecher were also at the final table, taking third and sixth, respectively. The first ever WPT Championship was held in 2003, with Alan Goehring defeating Kirill Gerasimov. Goehring earned $1 million for the win over a final table that also featured Ivey, Doyle Brunson, and Ted Forrest. The $25,000 buy-in event is the richest of any WPT tournament. Each event’s winner during the regular season takes home an entry.

Here is the schedule for the seventh annual WPT Championship at the Bellagio in Las Vegas. All times are local:

Saturday, April 18th, 2009: Day 1A, 12:00pm
Sunday, April 19th, 2009: Day 1B, 12:00pm
Monday, April 20th, 2009: Day 2, 12:00pm
Tuesday, April 21st, 2009: Day 3, 12:00pm
Wednesday, April 22nd, 2009: Day 4, 12:00pm
Thursday, April 23rd, 2009: Day 5, 12:00pm
Friday, April 24th, 2009: Day 6, 12:00pm
Saturday, April 25th, 2009: Final Table, TBA

In addition to the WPT Championship, a $540 buy-in ClubWPT side event will take place on April 23rd at 2:00pm. ClubWPT is the tournament series’ subscription-based online poker room that accepts customers from the United States. Super satellites to the Main Event are also taking place daily. The final opportunity for players to win their way into the WPT Championship occurs on Saturday at 10:00pm; super satellite tournaments boast a $1,590 price tag.

The Season VII WPT Championship will air on Fox Sports Net, which also holds the rights to broadcast Season VIII of the roving tournament series. New episodes air on Sunday nights.

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ClubWPT

Each month, ClubWPT members will get access to a digital version of Bluff Magazine. Its the new way to view magazines online.

Bluff Magazine is the world's number #1 poker publication, with titles in North America, Europe, Latin America, Australia, South Africa and China.

• latest poker strategy,
• lessons on how to improve your game,
• entertainment,
• tournament news,
• and stories directly from pros.

With articles by likes of: Antonio Esfandiari, Annie Duke, Phil Laak, Jeff Madsen, Paul Wasicka, and many more Bluff gives it's reader an opportunity to experience the Thrill of Poker.

Media Man Australia does not represent World Poker Tour

Media Man Australia conducts b2b business with the parent company of World Poker Tour, PartyGaming, the details of which are commercially sensative in nature