International Stadiums Poker Tour Just One Week Away

The much anticipated, if not much altered, International Stadiums Poker Tour is all ready to get underway in London in just one week’s time. I say much changed as the tournament now guarantees a first-place prize of €1 million rather than the €10 million originally touted, and the number of enteries is expected to be significantly down on the 30,000 initially expected.
Nevertheless, the inaugral ISPT tournament is all set for its May 31st debut, with 550 players already confirmed for the potential poker tournament of the year. A majority of these players qualified through a  €300 buy-in online satellites, which will continue to run from May 26th to 31st. There will also be €300 satellites running live from May 25-27, although those wishing to buy directly through to Day Two can do so at a fee of €3,000.
The latter list obviously includes an array of ISPT sponsored pros, which includes Patrik Antonius, Lucy Lieu, David Benyamine and Sam Trickett. A whole slew of other pros also likely to attend include the likes of JP Kelly, Dave “Devilfish” Ulliot, Toby Lewis, Roberto Romanello, Johnny Lodden, Barney Boatman, Luke Schwartz and Ram Vaswani.
As the May 31st start date approaches, the International Stadiums Poker Tour’s list of official sponsors has also continued to grow, with businesses such as Dusk Till Dawn Poker and Austrian-based energy drink company Red Bull already onboard.
When the ISPT tournament was originally announced, the event organizer  Laurent Tapie declared; ““We hope that this event will be fondly remembered by the participants and that it breaks all records in the matter. We had to consider an exceptional set up, a location that can host 30,000 people. Wembley seemed like the perfect option.”
The ISPT has since revised its goal of becoming the biggest ever live poker tournament to the biggest one ever held in the UK, a far less lofty goal at around 3,000 participants. Nevertheless, if the inaugural tournament attracts a reasonable field and goes off without any hitches, then the ISPT could see its credibility and potential profits rise exponentially in the future.