World Poker Tour releases Season Seven Schedule

[Fonzi]

The World Poker Tour has released its tournament event and production schedule for season seven, and it contains eight fewer tournaments than were scheduled in season 6.

The tournaments that were cut were the Mirage Poker Showdown, the Mandalay Bay Poker Championship, the Ladies Night invitational, the Turks and Caicos Poker Classic, the WPT Spanish Championship, the World Poker Challenge, and the World Poker Open.

In an interview, Steve Lipscomb, founder, president, and CEO of WPTE said WPTE had to cut back its schedule in order to remain competitive and to keep its major tournaments filled with as many players as possible, which helps to ensure that they are truly big-time events.

The WPT season seven schedule is as follows:

* Bellagio Cup IV — Bellagio, Las Vegas — July 11- 17
* Legends of Poker — The Bicycle Casino, Los Angeles — Aug. 23-28
* Borgata Poker Open — Borgata, Atlantic City — Sept. 14-18
* North American Poker Championship — Fallsview Resort Casino, Niagara Falls, Canada — Oct. 10-16
* Festa Al Lago — Bellagio, Las Vegas — Oct. 20-25
* World Poker Finals — Foxwoods, Mashantucket, Connecticut — Nov. 5-11
* Doyle Brunson Five-Diamond World Poker Classic — Bellagio, Las Vegas — Dec. 13-19
* Gulf Coast Poker Championship — Beau Rivage, Biloxi, Mississippi — Jan. 16-19, 2009
* Borgata Poker Classic — Borgata, Atlantic City — Jan. 25-29, 2009
* L.A. Poker Classic — Commerce Casino, Los Angeles — Feb. 28-March 5, 2009
* WPT Celebrity Invitational — Commerce Casino, Los Angeles — March 7-9, 2009
* Bay 101 Shooting Star — Bay 101, San Jose — March 16-20
* Foxwoods Poker Classic, Foxwoods, April 4-9
* WPT World Championship, Bellagio, Las Vegas, April 18-25

Win your way into a WPT event at Cake Poker.

[Dareiko]

Yea we will enjoy poker in 2008 .I am curiously waiting for the poker season to start . Thanks for the info .

[Calmplay]

I hope you are all following some updates of the last event for season 6 that is the WPT World Championship, Bellagio, Las Vegas. 6 players left for the final table which will be played in the coming hours

[Fonzi]

Yep, Cake Poker just signed the guy in 2nd place and he'll be wearing their gear.

Nice to see Gus atop the leaderboard, his game has really improved over the last year.

[Calmplay]

The last event for the WPT at the Bellagio Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas ended in a great style, with the final heads up between2 Full Tilt well respected Pros, Gus Hansen vs. David Chiu. And at the end it was David Chiu who came from behind to beat Gus Hansen and took one of the most prestigious poker tournaments in the world.

With the blinds at 80,000-160,000 (15,000 ante), here was the chip counts before heads-up play began:

Gus Hansen - 22,905,000 (has eliminated every player at the final table, good for a 5.25-to-1 chip lead. )
David Chiu - 4,360,000 (was facing one of the hardest comebacks in poker history, but who Mike Sexton described as a "Pro's pro," and a very patient player )

Hansen won many small pots, but Chiu started hitting the larger pots and gradually begun chasing Hansen in the chip lead. Then the situation changed when Chiu finally got the chip lead, and Hansen, who had a great performance at the beginning of the event, finally got busted by Chiu after 80 hands. Hansen raised preflop and Chiu called. The flop was Ac 10c 8s, and Chiu check-called a bet from Hansen. The turn was the 5s, Chiu bet, and Hansen moved all in with 10s 8h for two pair. Chiu had a strong hand with As 9s (pair of aces, flush draw), but he still took two minutes to carefully assess the situation before calling. With one chance left, Chiu desperately needed an ace, a nine, a five or any spade to score another victory and luckily for him, the river card was the Ah.

Final 6 players and their respective amount of money won
1st - David Chiu - $3,389,140
2nd - Gus Hansen - $1,714,800
3rd - John Roveto - $923,355
4th - Cory Carroll - $593,645
5th - Tommy Le - $395,725
6th - Jeff King - $263,815