Last week, we gave you a quick report on the World Poker Tour’s (WPT) release of the 2014 portion of the Season XII schedule. Well, it looks like there is a bit of a problem. The WPT World Championship, the most prestigious live poker tournament outside of the World Series of Poker (WSOP), overlaps with the European Poker Tour’s (EPT) Grand Final, perhaps the most prestigious live poker tournament outside of the WPT and WSOP.
The WPT World Championship, which will be held away from the Bellagio for the first time ever, is scheduled for April 22nd through April 26th at the Borgata in Atlantic City. The EPT Monte Carlo, a portion of which is the EPT Grand Final, is slated for April 23rd through May 3rd. Players who are planning their 2014 poker travel are naturally concerned, particularly because these are two major, major events. If one was a different stop on the WPT or EPT, it would likely not have been a big problem.
The complaints have not fallen on deaf ears. On the World Poker Tour blog, WPT President Adam Pliska addressed concerns, writing:
This potential conflict was always something we were acutely aware of, and we have been in close discussions with EPT organizers to find the best solution for players who want to play both events. Fortunately, there is only the slightest overlap and players can play both events – the only exception being those that make the final table of the WPT Main Event.
He goes on to detail that the final table of the WPT World Championship will take place on April 26th, which only directly conflicts with Day 1A of the EPT Grand Final. Day 1B of the EPT Grand Final is on April 27th and players are allowed to register for the tournament up until the start of Day 2 on April 28th. Thus, the only players who would be at very serious risk to miss the EPT Grand Final would be those who make the final table and one might assume (correctly or incorrectly) those skilled and fortunate few would not really mind missing the tournament this one time.
Of course, this still doesn’t address the fact that even the players that can make both tournaments have a hell of a flight schedule to deal with and any delays could hinder their chances to make the EPT Grand Final. Fortunately, everyone will be able to save a few hours travelling from the east coast of the United States rather than Las Vegas.
In the blog, Pliska added, “We will continue to work with other tours for the benefit of the poker community. The tight nature of this scheduling was unavoidable, but we feel we have done our best to accommodate players.”
The EPT has not publicly commented on the scheduling conflict. It does not appear right now that either poker tour will adjust its schedule.
