Season Two of the World Poker Tour: 2003-2004

After a successful debut year, there seems to be no turning back for the World Poker Tour. The first year did a good job of capturing millions of audience and inspiring more and more players to play the game of poker. The second season of the tour proved to be a step further to the highly anticipated success of the event.

In the second season of the World Poker Tour, several poker tournaments were once again featured as qualifying entries to the most prestigious WPT Championship to be held at the Bellagio Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada. The event featured some invitational tournaments as well.

The second season started off with the Grand Prix de Paris that was held at the Aviation Club de France in Paris from July 10 to 13, 2002. David Benyamine emerged as the ultimate winner in this tournament. This event was then followed by the Legends of Poker tournament that was held at the Bicycle Casino in Bell Gardens, California. Mel Judah emerged as the ultimate winner of this September 3, 2003 event, taking home a total grand prize of $579,375.

Next in line in this set of international tournaments is the Borgata Poker Open that was held in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Noli Francisco emerged as the ultimate winner of this event, bringing home a total of $470,000 from the three-day event in September. The previous tournament was then followed by the Ultimate Poker Classic, which was won by Erick Lindgren. He took home a total of $1,089,200.

The year 2003 was capped by another two successful poker tournaments in the form of the World Poker Finals at the Foxwoods Resort Casino in Mashantucket, Connecticut, and the Five Diamond World Poker Classic at the Bellagio Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada. The first tournament was won by Hoyt Corkins, taking home the grand prize of $1,089,200. The second tournament was then won by Paul Phillips, who won a grand total of $1,101,980.

As the World Poker Tour enters the year 2004, it started off with another set of big tournaments in the world of poker. In the first two months of the year, it already featured four huge tournaments including the Caribbean Adventure that was held at a Carribean Cruise, the World Poker Open at the Jack Binion Horseshoe Casino in Tunica, Mississippi, the L.A. Poker Classic tournament in California, and the WPT Invitational also in California. Gus Hansen, Barry Greenstein, Antonio Esfandiari and Phil Laak, respectively won the aforementioned tournaments.

The last three tournaments that made some serious noise during the second season are the PartyPoker Million III, the World Poker Challenge at the Reno Hilton in Nevada, and the WPT Championship at the Bellagio Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada. The winners of these tournaments are Erick Lindgren, Michael Kinney, and season ultimate winner Martin de Knijff. De Knijff brought home a World Poker Tour best $2,728,356.