$30 Million Poker Tournament To Be Held At Wembley Stadium
October 7, 2011 8:19 amIf the stories are to be believed, then Wembley Stadium in London will play host to the “biggest poker event ever” starting May next year.
The International Stadiums Poker Tour (ISPT) is a new project of the Bernard Tapie Group, which has recently been making the poker headlines, after being revealed as Full Tilt Poker’s anonymous potential investor.
This has lead many in the poker community to speculate that the announcement of an ISPT $30 million guaranteed tournament with a top prize of $10 million is a publicity stunt by the French investment group.
Nevertheless, billing the Wembley event as the first stop on a once a year mega poker tournament schedule, Laurent Tapie described the tour as follows:
“The ISPT is the largest poker event of all times and in the future will be held annually. The tournament series will always be held in famous stadiums in various countries.”
Apparently, a rental contract between Wembley Stadium and Group Laurent Tapie had already been signed back in September 16, 2011, with company president Laurent Tapie predicting a 20,000 to 30,000 player turnout for the mega-tournament come next May.
Explaining the event further, Day 1 will see up to 30,000 competitors playing on electronic terminals within the stadium, with 3,000 players then progressing through to real poker tables on Day 2. Day 3 will then see 1,000 competitors play down to 250 players, with the final table of 10 being set by the end of Day 4. Finally, on Day 5 the lucky finalists will share the remaining $17 million prize pool with a whooping $10 million going to the eventual winner.
A website is now up and running with a promotional video doing the rounds on various social media announcing that entries can be made by visiting its www.ispt.com domain. In the meantime, details on the site are still sketchy including a precise date for the tournament, or its buy-in. Consequently, many poker enthusiasts are treating the event with a certain amount of skepticism until a more concrete confirmation has been made.