2011 World Poker Tour Strong Despite Black Friday

One would think that what happened last Black Friday would affect the 2011 World Poker Tour, making people think that there will be fewer participants. That is not exactly what happened though. In fact, it was quite the opposite.

The First Day

The first day of the 2011 World Poker Tour saw a big number of participants trying their luck on the $25,000 event. The event drew 188 players on the first day alone, what with the registration going on as late as 3:30 pm last Saturday. In fact, this made this year’s World Poker Tour as the tournament that received a huge turnout after April’s Black Friday.

Why the Huge Turnout?

Tony Dunst, the host of 2011 World Poker Tour’s Raw Deal as well as a participant of the $25,000 event, stated that what happened last Black Friday had little effect on the 2011 World Poker Tour. He stated that the participants of the 2011 World Poker Tour already had made their decisions regarding the poker tournament. The professional poker players, he said, already has the money for the buy-in fees and that what happened online has little impact on their poker games.

Blair Hinkle, a participant of the 2011 World Poker Tour, has a huge amount of money stuck in Full Tilt Poker. As you all know, Full Tilt Poker is one of the three major online poker sites accused by the United States Department of Justice of fraud and illegal gambling. Hinkle won a huge amount of money (a million bucks) at the FTOPS main vevent, which took place last February, and most of this amount is still in his player’s account with Full Tilt Poker when Black Friday happened. This, however, did not stop him from participating at the 2011 World Poker Tour just because his money is locked up at the famous online poker site. In fact, the first day ended with Hinkle having 121,775 chips.

Hinkle admitted though that he is worried about his money locked up at Full Tilt Poker. He is thinking of purchasing a place in Kansas City and says that it will be a big problem for him if he could not get his money out in time. However, he is pretty confident though that he will get his money back.

This is what Dunst was speaking about. He knows that even if professional poker players have cash locked up in those three online poker sites, it will not affect the 2011 World Poker Tour at all because, let us face it, major poker tournaments like these draw pro poker players from all over the globe.

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