Card Player Poker Tour Season II Underway After a Successful Inaugural YEAR

The next great tournament series is underway with Season II of the Card Player Poker Tour (CPPT) picking up after a successful inaugural season, which awarded more than $4.675 million in main event prize money.
While some tours cater only to super high-rollers, certain geographical areas or local grinders, the CPPT has something for every player as main event buy-ins range from $1,000 to $5,000 at properties across the nation.
Backed by the industry’s leading publication, Card Player magazine and CardPlayer.com, the CPPT provides an unequaled amount of celebratory coverage in addition to the traditional cash winnings and trophies.
The CPPT features live-streaming of main event final tables, on-site live editorial coverage, full online coverage of local players and preliminary event winners, and international coverage in Card Player magazine. The current season has already locked in stops at properties in Connecticut, Nevada, Florida, and the Caribbean.
A Great Start For Season II
Season II kicked off Aug. 29, 2013 at bestbet Jacksonville in Jacksonville, Florida with a 14-event tournament series highlighted by the $1,500 no-limit hold’em $300,000 guarantee main event. Harvey Vandeven became the first winner of Season II, taking home $76,598 and the CPPT trophy. The tour will return to bestbet in May of 2014.
A Look Ahead
The season’s second stop takes place at Palm Beach Kennel Club in West Palm Beach, Florida, Dec. 5-16, 2013 with a nine-tournament series culminating in a $1,120 no-limit hold’em $250,000 guarantee main event.
The stop at Palm Beach Kennel Club will also feature a Player of the Series leaderboard with $26,000 up for grabs for the top ten finishers with $10,000 going to the winner. Points will be awarded based on an algorithm taking buy-in and field size into account with more points going to players who finish in the top ten percent of the field. Any player who participates in one of the nine tournaments plus satellites will receive leaderboard points.
The series will begin with a $365 no-limit hold’em $100,000 guarantee and will also include a $30 no-limit hold’em with $20 re-buys $10,000 guarantee, a $135 H.O.R.S.E. tournament, nightly no-limit hold’em events and satellites to the main event.
Following the Florida event the tour will visit Foxwoods Resort Casino in Mashantucket, Connecticut Feb. 8-17 for an 11-tournament series capped off with a $1,650 no-limit hold’em main event. The Foxwoods schedule will include no-limit hold’em re-entry tournaments with $250, $300, $400, $500 and $600 buy-ins, a mega-stack semi-turbo no-limit hold’em tournament and Omaha hi-lo eight or better and H.O.R.S.E. tournaments.
Juan De Jesus, Poker Tournament Director, said several of the tournaments will offer guaranteed prize pools and details will be released at a later date.
Players can then head to Atlantis Casino Resort Spa in Reno, Nevada in March of 2014 and play in the only major tournament series to take place during NCAA’s March Madness in the state of Nevada.
“We have scheduled the CPPT deliberately during that time,” said David Farahi, COO of Monarch Casino and Resort, which owns the Atlantis property. “We are the only property where players can bet on basketball while playing in a major poker tournament.”
The complete schedule of events will be released shortly and it will feature a $1,100 no-limit hold’em main event.
The tour will return to bestbet Jacksonville in May of 2014 and a complete tournament schedule will be released at a later date. The final stop of Season II, and one of the most exciting, will be a Caribbean Cruise aboard the Allure of the Seas for a seven-night Western Caribbean cruise in Sept. 2014 with a seven-tournament series featuring a $1,100 main event.
One stop has been confirmed for Season III. In Oct. 2014 the tour will stop at the Bicycle Casino in Los Angeles for a 30-tournamnet series culminating with a $1,100 no-limit hold’em main event.
A Look Back at the Inaugural Season
The inaugural season of the CPPT began in July 2012 at the Choctaw Casino Resort in Durant, Oklahoma and included stops in Reno, at The Wynn and Venetian Resort Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, and the Caribbean before coming full circle after a series of seven events to wrap up back at Choctaw in July 2013.
By all accounts the first season was a smashing success, awarding more than $4.675 million in main event prize money. Three of the seven main event prizepools topped $1 million and five of the seven winners took home six-figure scores. In total, the seven main event winners were awarded more than $1 million.
Card Player’s own Allyn Jaffrey Shulman finished out in front as the top money winner from Season I, tallying $303,309. Shulman picked up a championship title when she took down the CPPT Venetian $5,000 no-limit hold’em main event for $292,966. Shulman was on her way to a second title when she ran pocket aces into the ace-king of Mohammad Abedi-Arani during the July 2013 CPPT Choctaw main event. Abedi-Arani went on to win the title in the $1,500 no-limit hold’em main event for $220,626 and finished among the top money earners on the season.
Ray Dehkharghani, who won the CPPT Wynn Classic $5,000 main event in March 2013, was the second top money earner for Season I with $235,931. Other top money earners included Alex Condon, who finished second to Shulman at the Venetian for $181,278, Sam Stein and Tom Marchese, who finished second and third respectively to Dehkharghani in the CPPT Wynn main event and Dan O’Brien, who finished third in the CPPT Venetian main event.
Maxx Dansky finished the season fifth on the money leader board with $172,632, the bulk of it coming from his 2012 CPPT Choctaw $1,000 no-limit hold’em main event win for $152,008. Dansky finished Season I in a three-way tie for the most cashes with Sebastian Tejada and Michael Hack at seven. Dansky also ended the season with a three-way tie for the most final tables with Jesse McVicker and Pawan Braich at five.
Braich picked up four titles on the season, the most of any player. Braich’s four wins came from the CPPT Venetian in a $400 no-limit hold’em survivor, $600 no-limit hold’em survivor, $400 no-limit hold’em survivor, and a $200 no-limit hold’em event.
Card Player Poker Tour Season 1 Stats
Top Money Winners
1. Allyn Jaffrey Shulman – $303,309
2. Ray Dehkharghani – $235,931
3. Mohammad Abedi-Arani – $220,626
4. Alex Condon – $181,278
5. Maxx Dansky – $172,632
6. Sam Stein – $170,672
7. Allan Farber – $147,852
8. Dan O’Brien – $122,485
9. Tom Marchese – $115,454
10. Adam Sporinsky – $111,696

Titles
1. Pawan Braich – 4
2. Michael Haag – 3
3. Cheryl Blake – 3
4. Douglas Bartlett – 3
5. Lee Taylor – 3
6. Sebastian Tejada – 2
7. Mykel Comroe – 2
8. Ste ven Gordon – 2
9. Jesse McVicker – 2
10. Brent Hanks – 2
Most Cashes
1. Sebastian Tejada – 7
2. Maxx Dansky – 7
3. Michael Hack – 7
4. Joel Woods – 6
5. Benjamin Palmer – 6
6. Craig Gold – 6
7. Santos Inaki – 6
8. Matthew Levine – 6
9. Roger Tondeaur – 6
10. Pawan Braich – 6

Most Final Tables
1. Maxx Dansky – 5
2. Jesse McVicker – 5
3. Pawan Braich – 5
4. Sebastian Tejada – 4
5. Steven Gordon – 4
6. Benjamin Parker – 4
7. Michael Haag – 4
8. Nicola Sinisi – 4
9. Will Souther – 4
10. Craig Gold – 4