On Wednesday, the Main Event of the PokerStars North American Poker Tour (NAPT) Mohegan Sun will kick off from Uncasville, Connecticut. Running April 7th through April 11th, the five-day No Limit Hold’em tournament will cost players $4,700 + $300.
The first two days of the Main Event will start at Noon and likely end sometime in the evening. Day Three on Friday will also begin at Noon, but will conclude when the tournament is down to 24 players. Day Four will go until there are only eight players remaining and on Sunday’s Day Five, a champion will be crowned. The eight-handed final table, a format unique to the NAPT, will be filmed for broadcast later this year on ESPN2.
Fifteen preliminary events have already been contested at NAPT Mohegan Sun, including deepstacks, freezeouts, shootouts, and bounty tournaments. Most have been No Limit Hold’em, but Omaha Eight or Better, Seven Card Stud, Pot Limit Omaha, and H.O.S.E. have also been featured. The largest event to date was actually the very first one, the two-day $550 + $50 No Limit Hold’em Deepstack tournament that concluded on March 28th. Michael Hills outlasted 379 competitors to claim the $38,000 first prize from the $202,730 prize pool. In that event, the top three finishers – Hills, Aaron Smith, and Derek Buonano – received $38,000, $35,210, and $32,207, respectively. The drop off to the next finisher, Daniel Cai ($14,191), was fairly steep.
During and after the Main Event, there are seven side events to be played, the most anticipated of which is the $25,000 + $600 No Limit Hold’em Bounty Shootout, which will be contested on April 12th and 13th. NAPT organizers expect to be able to fill nine tables with nine players each. $5,000 of each player’s buy-in will be a bounty on his head, awarded to the player who knocks him out. Each table will play down to a single winner and the nine survivors will battle it out at the final table. Every player at the final table will receive $50,000 and the eventual champion will take home the remainder of the prize pool. The $25,000 Bounty Shootout was introduced at the NAPT Venetian in February, with Ashton Griffin winning the first prize of $560,000. Like the Main Event, the Bounty Shootout will be televised on ESPN2.
