PokerStars Confirms Cancellation of Latin American Poker Tour Chile Stop
PokerStars confirmed the cancellation of LAPT Chile, which was scheduled for next month and slated to be the first stop of the revived Latin American Poker Tour following a one-year hiatus. The announcement initially came in a Press Release via the Spanish PokerStars blog on Tuesday.
When we reached out to PokerStars, Director of Corporate Communications Eric Hollreiser gave the following statement:
"As we review our strategy for tournaments in Latin America, alongside the global event calendar and the overall Live Events proposition of PokerStars, we have decided to cancel LAPT Chile. We want to continue to produce tournaments in the region that players can love, and that can be enduring. As such, we are refining our plans with the aim to present a more exciting and stronger offering than ever before."
In the original statement, PokerStars did not provide much in terms of reasons for the late change in plans but assured players that they were working to improve their live events offerings to suit the players.
“We want to continue producing events that players can love and that can facilitate access to all participants in the region. To do this, we are perfecting our plans for PokerStars live sponsored events with the goal of presenting a richer, more exciting and solid event offer.”
Hollreiser: "We are refining our plans with the aim to present a more exciting and stronger offering than ever before."
In the release, Stars also thanked their local event partner, Enjoy Viña del Mar Casino & Resort, for their more than seven years of association, stating that “Long-term relationships with our partners are the core of our events.”
The announcement came more than a week after rumors of the dissolution of the event began to circle as PokerStars removed satellites for the event from the poker client and LAPT Chile web pages from the PokerStars Live site.
PokerStars assured that all players who qualified for the event via their poker client should already have their money returned to their online accounts, and the casino would reimburse those who have qualified through the venue.
PokerStars Live Brand
PokerStars announced in 2016 a strategy shift that would move the live portion of the brand from long-running regional events to a more global approach of having all events fall mostly under one of two categories — PokerStars Championships with main events in the $5,000 range, and PokerStars Festivals offering main events closer to $1,000.
That change took place for the 2017 season but proved unpopular among many players who missed the regional events, especially the European Poker Tour (EPT) that dated back to 2004. As the 2017 season winded down with the PokerStars Championship Prague, PokerStars team pro Daniel Negreanu announced on behalf of PokerStars the return of regional tours like the EPT, the LAPT and the Asia Pacific Poker Tour (APPT), back by popular demand for the 2018 season.
While the cancellation of the first stop represents a bumpy start for the LAPT’s return, the AAPT got rolling last week with the Macau Poker Cup and the first EPT event will kick off in Sochi, Russia in March.
The absence of a Chile stop for PokerStars will end nearly a decade-long tradition of holding an event in the country, with Casino Enjoy in Valparaíso having played host to an annual PokerStars live event since Season 2 of the LAPT in 2009, even in the absence of the LAPT last year. There has been no information released by PokerStars about the other legs of the 2018 LAPT.
Players can go to the following link for updates on PokerStars Live events for 2018, and PokerNews will continue to provide the latest news on PokerStars events across the globe.
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