The world’s largest poker website-PokerStars almost shocked the poker world when the company announced during the 2016 European Poker Tour (EPT) Barcelona that it would drop regional poker tours such as the EPT, Latin American Poker Tour (LAPT) and Asia Pacific Poker Tour (APPT).
The players around the world felt deeply disappointed to know that the company had decided to drop these tours (EPT, LAPT and APPT) without getting their feedback. In fact, these tours were quite popular among the local players and drew large number of players.
Keeping the love and excitement for these tours in mind, PokerStars has decided to bring back European Poker Tour (EPT, Latin American Poker Tour (LAPT) and Asia Pacific Poker Tour (APPT) in 2018 and drop the idea of running numerous PokerStars Festivals and Championships.
The company asked its Team Pro Daniel Negreanu to announce it during the PokerStars Championship Prague. Negreanu who is one of the greatest poker players of his time spoke about the number of changes and plans that the PokerStars was expected to come up in 2018 and 2019.
In a statement, Negreanu said “It was clear to me when we changed the name that there were a lot of disappointed people because the EPT had such a long history. One way we can show in 2018 and beyond, that PokerStars is committed to giving the players what they want is to give them back the EPT, give them back the LAPT, and the APPTs. So this really was an easy decision, as far as I was concerned. It just took a little bit of logistical work to get it done.”
Poker players from around the world are happy to learn that PokerStars is bringing back its popular regional tours. Negreanu confirmed that the LAPT, APPT and EPT will come back in 2018, but there is no confirmation if the smaller events like the ANPT and Eureka will make a comeback.
PokerStars to Announce Some More Plans for 2018
Meanwhile, PokerStars is expected to announce some more plans as the New Year approaches. The company is planing to give players more value in both online and live poker. PokerStars will do this by launching PokerStars Players No Limit Hold’em Championship in 2019, a new event which is expected to be a game changer in the industry and will have a $25,000 buy-in.