Apparently the possibility of taking over the struggling online poker website Full Tilt Poker wasn’t enough news for the Groupe Bernard Tapie this past week, as it was also revealed that the company is behind the recently announced International Stadiums Poker Tour (ISPT).

The ISPT first came to light in a thread on 2+2 where teasers for the initial stop at Wembley Stadium in London, England started appearing on the Internet, boasting a very impressive $30 million guaranteed prize-pool, with a full $10 million going to the winner of the event.

The first event is tentatively slated to take place in September 2012, which would give Groupe Bernard Tapie plenty of time to rehabilitate the Full Tilt Poker brand as they stated in a recent interview that IF the sale goes through they expect to have the website back up and running by January 2012.

The tournament series is not going to follow the all too familiar format we have grown accustomed to, instead plotting a brand new course that will be a hybrid of live and online play. In order to reach their lofty goal of $30 million they are anticipating attendance to reach 20,000-30,000 players!

In a statement on the ISPT website the company outlined their plan in the following way:

“The first step of the event consists in making all the players (ISPT expects their number to be comprised between 20,000 and 30,000) competing online, simultaneously, on a dedicated software and using electronic pads which will be offered to them, from their seats in the stadium,”

“During the second step, the 3,000 top-ranked players still in the running will be gathered around real tables set up on the lawn of the stadium, to compete in real mode.”

“The last step is the Final Table, where the last 10 players will compete for the remaining $17.5 million prize, the winner earning $10 million,”

While the format and running of the tournament, as well as the ISPT’s goals, seem very lofty, the interest by Groupe Bernard Tapie in Full Tilt Poker takes on a whole new dimension now that the ISPT has been announced. Obviously Full Tilt Poker software will be incorporated into the events, and it’s highly likely that numerous players will win satellite events into the ISPT Main Events through online play at Full Tilt Poker, which could morph into one of the easiest poker sites thanks to this development.

For more information on the ISPT you can head over to their website, which includes a 1 minute and 20 second teaser video of the ISPT –the video makes me want to play!!!

Tags: 10 Million, 30 Million, 5 Million, Attendance, Bernard Tapie, Electronic Pads, Full tilt Poker, Hybrid, Investors, Ispt, Launch, Lofty Goal, London England, Online Poker, Plenty Of Time, Prize Pool, Ranked Players, Real Mode, Stadiums, Teasers

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 6th, 2011 at 8:03 am and is filed under Poker News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.