Is there hope for the NAPT?

North American Poker Tour History

The first season of the NAPT kicked off with four series clustered in the winter mainly, and focused on more warmer climates.

• PokerStars Caribbean Adventure – The Bahamas – January 5th – 14th
• NAPT Venetian – The Venetian, Las Vegas – February 20th – 25th NAPT Mohegan Sun – Mohegan Sun, – April 7th – 13th
• NAPT Los Angeles – November 12th – 17th

The second season was scheduled for longer, but was cut short when the DOJ and the US Attorney’s Office seized PokerStars.com and other online poker platforms operating in the US. The second event at Mohegan Sun was underway, with the $5k Main Event halfway completed, and the High Roller Bounty Shootout about to begin when the seizure took place. Both tournaments were held, but the NAPT shut down after the tournaments were completed.

The $5k Main Events were attracting 700 to 800 players, while the PCA saw more players win their way to Nassau as the $10k Main Event drew over 1500 players each season. The PCA continued after the seizure until 2019 when PokerStars announced that the PCA was being suspended. It made a return in 2023 along with the PSPC but appears to be a one-shot deal as there has been no updates on the PCA since.

NAPT / PokerStars Open / EPT / APPT – What Gives?

Given the competition that PokerStars faces from GG Poker and the WSOP Circuit, as well as the WPT events that are still a standard on the continent, it’s rather puzzling to see them promote the NAPT Las Vegas as heavily as they do without a full series along with it. In fairness to PokerStars, there are two live events in the US that have popped up over the last few years, but are not branded under the NAPT Banner:

• PokerStars Open Philadelphia
• PokerStars Open Maryland

What poker players aren’t connecting is that these two events could easily be branded NAPT and included as part of a three-casino series in March (Philly), October (Maryland) and November (NAPT Las Vegas) but the first two are still being branded under the PokerStars Open banner – which includes tournaments around the world:

• Campione – January / February
• Philadelphia – March
• Namur – May / June
• Malaga – June
• Maryland – October (Not officially announced for 2026)

This of course crosses other PokerStars brands like the EPT and the APPT, which to say the least is rather confusing to the average poker player trying to understand where PokerStars is going with their live events.

Recall that PokerStars went to re-brand the EPT back in 2017 to the PokerStars Championships, but that lasted all of one year before the EPT returned in 2018. When you put it all together, one must wonder what PokerStars’ global brand strategy is for their live product as it really is all over the place. COVID-19 certainly played a role in the reduction of live events that PokerStars puts on, but this contradicts the increase in live events that the WPT and WSOP / GG Poker are putting on, so what could be going on?

One theory is that PokerStars is focusing more on the recreational poker player rather than pushing the envelope of the biggest live events – this being partially supported by the reduction of their team online pro. By focusing more on the amateur poker player, they can apply more resources to improving the playing experience for the vast majority of their micro, low, medium and higher poker players.

Another is controlling costs – running a live poker series like the NAPT or the PokerStars Open is not cheap. From shipping the tables, technology, poker chips, backgrounds, and stage(s) for the featured tables, along with all of the broadcasting equipment is hugely expensive, not to mention paying for the room and board for the dealers, production crew, and tournament staff costs the room a ton of cash. To pay for all of that, the rake collected needs to cover it and then some, so cutting back there could make financial sense.

But that’s a moot point when you look at the current landscape – why have two branding schemes for poker series PokerStars is hosting in the US? Something else needs to be happening in the background.

NAPT 2027 Potential

That leads us to this theory – that PokerStars wants to test out the feasibility of running the NAPT continent wide before committing to it. By using branding of the PokerStars Open as a way to gauge interest, and if the commitment by the players is there, the NAPT “should” become a poker series, and not a poker tournament in Las Vegas every November. We know players love going to The Bahamas to play judged from the previous PCA’s and PSPC’s, along with the number of players that now go for the WSOP Paradise, and Las Vegas will always draw a crowd, but also consider the crossover that PokerStars has had with the WSOP broadcasts over the last couple of years that a possible connection could come from that. So if PokerStars is looking for a North American series, it could look like this:

• PokerStars Caribbean Adventure – The Bahamas – January
• NAPT Las Vegas Winter – Resorts World – February
• NAPT Philly Live – Philadelphia – March
• NAPT Montreal – Playground – August
• NAPT Atlantic City – Borgata – September
• NAPT Maryland Live – Maryland – October
• NAPT Las Vegas Fall – Resorts World – November

By expanding its relationship with Resorts World and offering two opportunities for Las Vegas poker players to get into the NAPT, and going back to Borgata in Atlantic City, as well as Playground Poker which doesn’t have a partnership with just one live tour (WPT and WSOP offer live events there), PokerStars would have a relatively easy path to establish the NAPT as a true competitor to the WSOP Circuit. Will it happen – who knows, but the path exists.

Regardless of what happens, poker players are hoping to see the NAPT go beyond Las Vegas once a year. What was a promising tour for North America back in the early 2010’s still has potential today, but will it ever be able to live up to that hype?