The Fifth Season of the World Poker Tour, 2006-2007

The World Poker Tour enters the fifth season with some new exciting poker tournaments. This season features an excellent mix of new and old tournaments to complete a one good season. The new events include the WPT Canadian Open, the Festa Al Lago, and the WPT Ladies Night event.

The season started off and eventually ended in Las Vegas, Nevada. Players began the season by gathering at the world-class Mirage in Las Vegas for the Mirage Poker Showdown. The event ended with Stanley Weiss taking the grand prize of $1,294,755.

After a successful season opener, the World Poker Tour then featured another three big poker tournaments between June and August 2006 including the Mandalay Bay Poker Championships in Nevada, the ACF Grand Prix de Paris in France, and the Legends of Poker tournament at the Bicycle Casino in California. The winners of these events were Joseph Tehan, Christian Grundtvig and Joe Pelton, respectively. The Legends of Poker tournament featured an all-women game that was eventually won by Joanne Liu.

As the season continued, six more tournaments were held to close out a very successful 2006 year for the franchise. These include the Borgata Poker Open in New Jersey, the Festa Al Lago at the Bellagio in Nevada, the North American Poker Championship and the WPT Canadian Open at the Niagara Fallsview Casino Resort, the Foxwoods World Poker Finals in Connecticut, and the Bellagio Five Diamond World Poker Classic in Nevada. The winners of these exciting events were Mark Newhouse, Andreas Walnum, Soren Turkewitsch, Scott Clements, Nenad Medic and Joe Hachem, respectively.

The World Poker Tour started the first month of the year 2007 by holding three big poker tournaments including the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure in Bahamas, the World Poker Open at the Gold Strike Casino in Mississippi, and the Borgata Poker Classic in Atlantic City, New Jersey. These events were won by Ryan Daut, Brian Sumner and John Hennigan, respectively.

If the month of January looked so hectic, just wait till you see the schedule set for March 2007. In this month, four big poker tournaments were held to make the World Poker Tour one of the biggest spectacles in the world of sports. These include the L.A. Poker Classic and the WPT Invitational at the Commerce Casino in California, the Bay 101 Shooting Stars in San Jose, California, and the World Poker Challenge at the Reno Hilton in Nevada.

As the fifth season of the World Poker Tour closes out in April 2007, two of the biggest tournaments were held including the Foxwoods Poker Classic in Mashantucket, Connecticut, and the highly anticipated WPT World Championship at the Bellagio. The winners of these two events are Radjendra Patel and Juan Carlos Mortensen, respectively. Mortensen emerged as the ultimate winner for the fifth season by winning a grand total of $3,970,415.