The festival will feature a five-day Main Event with a US$5,000 buy-in. There will also be a broad range of fun and exciting side events catering to players of all bankroll levels.

So the NAPT is going back to the west coast to continue their series.  It was widely rumoured that an LA stop was a must, but the problem with the date is

1) It’s sooooo late, the wsop series is ending mid July (not including the final table).  Even if players take August off, what happened to stops in September or October?

2) This completely interferes with the British Columbia Poker Championships (BCPC) which usually runs during the same time period.  This puts dampers on the prospect of a 2010 North American Poker Tour stop in Canada.

Perhaps I am overlooking the fact that this is simply “a new” stop and not the next stop, then hopefully there will also be a Vancouver stop before or after NAPT Los Angeles or NAPT The Bike whatever this event will be nicknamed.

The headsup match was pretty much decided by one crucial flip, as Mercier’s 33 manged to hold against Stein’s AJs even after Sam spiked a Jack on the flop.  Turn and river completed a six high straight for Jason and the match ended a couple of hands later.  The win marks Mercier’s second high roller title in as many years.  The 23-year-old also won the 2008 EPT London High Roller Event (£516,000) and came close to winning a third high roller title back in February at the L.A. Poker Classic (3rd – $141,780).

Congrats again to the newest North American Poker Tour winner Jason Mercier.

PokerStars has also announced that The next stop on the inaugural season of the North American Poker Tour will be announced soon.  Stay tuned!

Vanessa Selbst is a poker coach and instructor at popular poker training site DeucesCracked.  Even though Deuces Cracked is more known for it cash game training, hopefully “fslexcduck” will provide more valuable insight on how she dominates tournament poker.

Congrats again on this dominating performance, and cheers to the winner of the 2010 NAPT Mohegan Sun

Seat 1: Joe Cassidy
Seat 2: Faraz Jaka
Seat 3: Peter Eastgate
Seat 4: Scott Seiver
Seat 5: Ashton Griffin
Seat 6: Hoyt Corkins
Seat 7: Brett Richey

Each final table participant was guaranteed a $75k bonus, and various bounty bonuses were still up for grabs.  The $25k Bounty Shootout will air on ESPN2 later this year.

1. Tom Marchese, USA, $827,648.00
2. Sam Stein, USA, $522,306.00
3. Daniel Clemente, USA, $309,366.00
4. Yunus Jamal, USA, $241,064.00
5. David Paredes, USA, $184,816.00
6. Thomas Fuller, USA, $144,639.00
7. Miami John Cernuto, USA, $104,461.00
8. Eric Blair, USA, PokerStars player, $60,266.00
9. Kyle Zartman, USA, $44,195.00
10. Andrew Lichtenberger, USA, $44,195.00
11. John Franciosi, USA, $34,151.00
12. Steve Billirakis, USA, $34,151.00
13. Andrew Chen, Canada, PokerStars player, $28,526.00
14. Joseph Cutler, USA, $28,526.00
15. David Miscikowski, USA, $23,303.00
16. Daniel Cossette, Canada, PokerStars player, $23,303.00
17. Mark Ketteringham, USA, $20,089.00
18. Steve Stolzmann, USA, PokerStars player, $20,089.00
19. Daniele Nestola, Germany, PokerStars player, $20,089.00
20. Blair Hinkle, USA, $20,089.00
21. Michael De Gilio, USA, $20,089.00
22. Jonathan Aguiar , USA, PokerStars player, $20,089.00
23. Jason Dewitt, USA, PokerStars player, $20,089.00
24. Christina Lindley, USA, $20,089.00
25. Vanessa Rousso, USA, Team PokerStars Pro, $18,080.00
26. Andy Seth, USA, $18,080.00
27. Blake Buffington, USA, $18,080.00
28. Steve O’Dwyer, USA, $18,080.00
29. Michael Binger, USA, $18,080.00
30. Tom Sinistaj, USA , PokerStars player, $18,080.00
31. Daniel Sindelar, USA, PokerStars player, $18,080.00
32. Cody Slaubaugh, USA, $18,080.00
33. Ravi Raghavan, USA, $16,071.00
34. Klaus Pautrot, France, $16,071.00
35. Jose Alboukrek, Mexico, $16,071.00
36. Joseph Cheong, USA, $16,071.00
37. Al Rogers, USA, $16,071.00
38. Naim Tahan, Netherlands, PokerStars player, $16,071.00
39. Karga Holt, USA, $16,071.00
40. Olivier Busquet, USA, $16,071.00
41. John O’Shea, Ireland, $14,866.00
42. Helen Martynov, USA, PokerStars player, $14,866.00
43. Dwyte Pilgrim, USA, $14,866.00
44. Robert Wisiak, USA, $14,866.00
45. Paul Villamizar, Canada, PokerStars player,$14,866.00
46. Joshua Fussner,USA, $14,866.00
47. Men Nguyen, USA, $14,866.00
48. Paul Evans, USA, $14,866.00
49. Danny Wong, USA, $13,660.00
50. Ted Lawson, USA, $13,660.00
51. Corey Hochman, USA, $13,660.00
52. Bruno Martin, France, PokerStars player, $13,660.00
53. Chuck Kelley, USA, $13,660.00
54. Fabrice Soulier, France, $13,660.00
55. Nam Le, USA, $13,660.00
56. Alexis Cordova, USA, $13,660.00
57. Patrick Carron, USA, PokerStars player, $12,857.00
58. Martin Medina, Mexico, $12,857.00
59. Daniel Abromson, USA, $12,857.00
60. Tommy Vu, USA,$12,857.00
61. Frank Calo, USA, $12,857.00
62. Mclean Karr, USA, PokerStars player, $12,857.00
63. Ludovic Schlama, France, $12,857.00
64. Brian Horton, USA, PokerStars player, $12,857.00
65. Dan Shak, USA, $12,053.00
66. Naohiko Yamazaki, Japan, $12,053.00
67. Russell Rosenblum, USA, $12,053.00
68. David Poces, USA, $12,053.00
69. Frank Traino, USA, PokerStars player, $12,053.00
70. Matt Marafioti, Canada, $12,053.00
71. Max Katz, Russia, $12,053.00
72. JeanFrancois Talbot, Canada, PokerStars player, $12,053.00
73. Joseph Williams, Canada, $11,250.00
74. Mark Muchnik, USA, $11,250.00
75. Matt Smith, USA, PokerStars player, $11,250.00
76. Chris Bell, USA, $11,250.00
77. Joe Weiss, USA, $11,250.00
78. Michael Botwin, USA, PokerStars player, $11,250.00
79. Justin Smith, $11,250.00
80. Philip Collins, USA, $11,250.00
81. Bill Chen, USA, Friend of PokerStars, $10,446.00
82. Christiano Ribeiro, Brazil, PokerStars player, $10,446.00
83. John Taitt, USA , $10,446.00
84. Anthony Grappo, USA, $10,446.00
85. Raffi King, USA, $10,446.00
86. Anselmo Villarreal, USA, $10,446.00
87. Jason Ramirez, USA, PokerStars player, $10,446.00
88. Daniel Makowsky, Switzerland, PokerStars player, $10,446.00
89. Robert Durante, Canada, PokerStars player, $9,643.00
90. Michael McNeil, USA, PokerStars player, $9,643.00
91. Mike Beasley, USA, $9,643.00
92. Kitty Kuo, Taiwan, $9,643.00
93. Steven Karp, USA, $9,643.00
94. Robert McLaughlin, USA, $9,643.00
95. Brett Richey, USA, $9,643.00
96. David Sayago, Spain, PokerStars player, $9,643.00
97. Jimmy Fricke, USA, $8,839.00
98. Dmitrii Valouev, USA, $8,839.00
99. Arnold Rychner, USA, PokerStars player, $8,839.00
100. Dan Alspach, USA, $8,839.00
101. Tom McEvoy, USA, Team PokerStars Pro, $8,839.00
102. Greg Raymer, USA, Team PokerStars Pro, $8,839.00
103. William Van Ormer, USA, $8,839.00
104. Lauren Kling, USA, PokerStars player, $8,839.00
105. John Bunch, USA, $8,035.00
106. Ben Stoesser, Germany, PokerStars player, $8,035.00
107. Bob Lauria, USA, PokerStars player, $8,035.00
108. Riccardo Conigliaro, Spain, PokerStars player, $8,035.00
109. Zelong Dong, USA , PokerStars player, $8,035.00
110. Jared Davis, Dutch Antilles, PokerStars player, $8,035.00
111. James Mackey, USA, PokerStars player, $8,035.00
112. Jimmie Caldwell, USA, $8,035.00
113. Andrew Robl, USA, $7,232.00
114. Justin Jones, USA, $7,232.00
115. Jason Glass, USA, PokerStars player, $7,232.00
116. Mike Coglianese, USA, $7,232.00
117. Donald Toporowski. Canada, $7,232.00
118. Geoffrey Ulrich, Canada, PokerStars player, $7,232.00
119. Ryan O’Connor, UK, PokerStars player, $7,232.00
120. Jonathan Tamayo, USA, PokerStars player, $7,232.00
121. Joshua Herman, Canada, PokerStars player, $7,232.00
122. Brian Smith, USA, PokerStars player, $7,232.00
123. John Michalak, USA, PokerStars player, $7,232.00
124. Jose Ceballos, Spain, PokerStars player,$7,232.00
125. Stewart Yancik, $7,232.00
126. Jon Turner, USA, $7,232.00
127. Steven Goosen, Canada, $7,232.00
128. Brion Maciel, USA, PokerStars player, $7,232.00

There is also a rumour that Amanda Leatherman will host the NAPT shows on ESPN2.  You may remember Amanda from WPT and PokerRoad fame.  So will they have a ESPN and a NAPT host?  (Joanna Krupa)

No word yet on where to watch NAPT in Canada yet.  Nothing else on the Canada NAPT front either, though there is a rumour that the WPT (World Poker Tour) will hold 2 events in Canada in 2010.  Go Party Poker.  Stay tuned.

Here is the current ESPN schedule:

April 19: Venetian $25,000 high-roller bounty shootout (9-11 pm. ET)
April 26: Venetian $25,000 high-roller bounty shootout (9 pm ET)
April 26: Venetian $5,000 main event (10 pm ET)
May 3: Mohegan Sun shootout (9-11 pm ET)
May 10: Mohegan Sun shootout (9 pm ET)
May 10: Mohegan Sun $5,000 main event (10 pm ET)
May 17: PokerStars Caribbean Adventure $25,000 high-roller (9-11 pm ET)

Anyway, here it is, all the info regarding the upcoming Venetian DSE/NAPT Event.

First, here are some quick links to the new DSE schedule…

http://www.napt.com/tournaments/venetian/

…and structure…

http://www.napt.com/tournaments/structure/

So, you’ll notice that the ME will be $5,000 instead of $2,500 and will be on the 20th instead of 23rd. It will be a 5-day event. The final table will be televised on a major network, with the 1st four days having floating cameras catching some of the earlier action.

There will only be ONE day 1 and the starting stack is 30,000.

There are freeroll satellites for this event, see Pokerstars.net for further details.

At the Venetian, we will be running 1 and 2 table satellites starting on January 28th. Specifically, we are scheduling a 2-table satellite every night at 8pm and whenever we get a list of enough interested.

Feb 19th are supersatellites: 12:00pm $220 plus $200 rebuys for first 3 levels
4:00pm $220 plus $200 rebuys for first 3 levels
8:00pm $540 no rebuys

Starting chips for the $200′s will be 3,000 with 2,000 chips/rebuy.
Starting chips for the $500 will be 5,000.

Poker rates are still available. You need to reference group code CP02L1 (that’s a zero before the 2) when you book your room. This will qualify you for a rate of $119 wkdy and $159 wknd as long as you play, at least, one event (or average of 6 hours/day of cash games). A $15 resort fee will be added to all reservations. The resort fee entitles you to free internet access, newspaper, local and 800 phone calls, and access to the gym.

We will still be doing our ‘Best Overall Player’ award. Half of one percent will be held out of the prize pools for this award, with the top 4 players receiving 40, 30, 20, and 10% of the money collected.

We will continue our normal 7pm $120 tournament throughout this event, with the exception of February 19th.

Also reminder that there is a $700 25 seat guaranteed satellite on POker Stars on Sunday Jan 17 at 6pm est.  Other daily satellites include $33rs, once in a while $11rs (both are 3x turbos), and step 6 sng satellites.

NAPT Satellites – Qualify Now

Cash: from $2.22 |FPPs: from 100 |Steps: from $7.50 or 500 FPPs

Satellites for NAPT Venetian are running now – giving you the chance to win a prize package that includes tournament buy-in, hotel accommodation and expenses.

To register, open the PokerStars lobby, click ‘Events’ & ‘Special’ or ‘Events’ & ‘NAPT’.

When your morning begins looking into the eyes of Joanna Krupa, it’s pretty certain it’s going to be a good day. When she announces she is the host of a brand new PokerStars tour, you feel it might be a good month. When you learn that tour is going to hit places like Las Vegas’ Venetian and Connecticut’s Mohegan Sun, mark it down as a red letter year.

Just a few minutes ago, Krupa and PokerStars’ global events head Jeffrey Haas stood before the assembled media here at the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure and announced the formation of a brand new poker tour.

Officially, the 2010 PCA marks the first event of the North American Poker Tour. From here, the NAPT will head to the Venetian in Las Vegas. As many of you know, the Venetian is famous for its Deep Stack Extravaganza series. February 20-24, the main event of the Deep Stack Extravaganza will be a $5,000 NAPT event.

“I’m excited to play,” Daniel Negreanu told us this morning. “It’s going to be nice to have some events at home in Vegas.”

From there, the NAPT will head to the three million square feet of the Mohegan Sun in Connecticut for a 20-event poker festival in the spring with buy-ins ranging from $200 to $25,000. The $5,000 main event will run April 7-11.

Haas told us this morning that these are just the first events on the schedule and we should expect more announcements in the coming weeks and months.

“We are going to a lot of beautiful places and going to put on some great tournaments,” he said.

Haas and Krupa announce the NAPT

Like the EPT, APPT, LAPT, and other PokerStars tours before it, the NAPT will be supported by online PokeStars satellites to the main events. EPT creator John Duthie recalled this morning how humbly his tour began in Season 1 and how quickly it exploded with PokerStars’ support.

“I think the NAPT has a huge future,” Duthie said. “As a player, I am very excited.”

Haas said today that PokerStars has already signed up top television production company 441 (the same group that produces ESPN’s coverage of the WSOP) to produce a brand new NAPT series. What’s more, a television deal is in the works.

“We do have a first tier broadcast partner that will hopefully be announced in the next two weeks,” he said.

And of course, when the show hits television, it will be hosted by Ms. Krupa.

Stay tuned for more details, future NAPT dates, and how you can qualify online at PokerStars.