The WPT Heads to Niagara Falls Oct.
26th-Nov. 2nd, 2007

The World Poker Tour resumes following a quick break with the third and final stop outside of the United States. After visits to Turks & Caicos and Spain, the tour ventures back to North America, to Niagara Falls, Ontario for the North American Poker Championship.

The $10,300 CAD buy in event will take place October 26th to November 2nd at the Fallsview Casino Resort which overlooks the famous falls. The legal playing age of 19 will allow many to participate who are unable to do so in the US. This year each player will start with $20,000 in tournament chips and will play 90-minute blind levels.

This is the second year of the NAPC in Canada. Last year, 497 players registered for the event creating a prize pool of just over $4.8 million. It was truly a Canadian event as five of the six who made the WPT TV table were from Canada. The lone exception was well-known professional, John Juanda. The final table was setup in an amphitheatre with an enthusiastic sold-out crowd making it feel more like a boxing match. The final six and their payouts were:

The story of the tournament was definitely the eventual champion. Soren Turkewitsch, who was an auto parts worker that parlayed an investment of under $100 into the grand prize of over $1.3 million. He bought into a small satellite and continued to advance to bigger satellites in a “step” format. Before you knew it, he had a main event seat and the rest is what they call “history” as he outlasted 496 other players for the title.

A large field with many of the top professionals will definitely be in attendance again this year as the CardPlayer “Player of the Year” race winds down. Currently, David “The Dragon” Pham (Legends of Poker runner-up) has a 714 point lead over Bill Edler. Edler has been streaking over the last couple months with a WSOP victory, a very deep finish in the WSOP main event and was the champion of the Gulf Coast Poker Championship in September. Also lurking in third is the World Poker Challenge champion J.C. Tran. Tran has been very quiet for the last several months and could be ready to erupt. Several others are within striking distance including: Tom Schneider, Jon Little (Mirage Poker Showdown champion), Jared Hamby (Mandalay Bay Poker Championship runner-up) and James Van Alstyne.

Another event is on the horizon and we’ll be there for all the excitement. The action will get underway Friday at 12:00pm EDT.