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Gala To End British Poker Tour (GCBPT), Will Favor Online Tourneys
Thu, Feb 5th, 2009 @ 12:00am
UK-based Gala Casinos announced that they have decided not continue the very popular Gala Casinos British Poker Tour (GCBPT) into 2009. Instead they are choosing to focus on their online tournaments, reports Gamingintelligence.
Billed as the nation's finest poker tour, and nicknamed the peoples poker tour, the GCBPT pulled in large numbers of amateur and professional poker players from the 6 regions where festivals were hosted in Gala Casinos around the UK.
The grand final of 2008 was held in early December with Alan Vinson being crowned the GCBPT 2008 Champion, taking home a WSOP 2009 package and 83,000 GBP.
Commenting on the decision to discontinue the event, Mark O'Donnell, GCBPT's Tour Manager said: "While we've have had two fantastic years running the 'Great British Poker Tours', we've now decided to look at a number of new events and promotions for 2009 that will not only excite our players but are of great value and are accessible to poker players of all levels."
Though no reason was given for their decision, Gamingintelligence remarked that that fears about the UK economy and less people traveling likely influenced the company to end the tour. In lieu of the tour, Gala said it would increase the number of satellites at its three online poker rooms.
"Through our poker websites we are already planning to run more satellites than ever to the world's biggest poker tournaments including European Poker Tour (EPT), World Series of Poker (WSOP) and Aussie Millions," said O'Donnell.
The company added that its online schedule for 2009 would feature $14 million in guaranteed prizes each month, with a number of significant new tournaments to be announced in the coming months.
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