LOS ANGELES, California – (PRESS RELEASE) -- With the television debut of the first season of the Professional Poker Tour(PPT) slated for July 5 on the Travel Channel – only a month away – WPT Enterprises, Inc., announced today the field and the schedule for the PPTs second tournament season to begin in September 2006.

PPTs Season II features a field of 265 and one new site on the tour — Borgata in Atlantic City, NJ. In addition to Borgata, the four PPT tournaments will be filmed at some of Americas true palaces of poker: Foxwoods Resort Casino, Commerce Casino and Bellagio.

The action-packed Professional Poker Tour showcases pokers leading stars in a new and exciting format, destined to ratchet up televised poker to a whole new level. Enticed by four freeroll tournaments with a total of $2 million in prize money provided by the PPT, the games legends and new young idols face off over several grueling days of tournament play and one intense championship round.

Casino                                                Tournament Dates                      Final Table Date
Borgata, Atlantic City, NJ                            9/11/06 – 9/12/06                        9/20/06
Foxwoods, Mashantucket, CT                            11/07/06 – 11/08/06                   11/15/06
Bellagio, Las Vegas, NV                               11/29/06-11/30/06                      12/20/06            
Commerce Casino, Los Angeles, CA                      02/12/07 – 02/13/07                   03/06/07
 

The field of poker All-Stars competing in the PPT continues to grow even stronger with the addition of newly qualified players, whose performances over the past two years have landed them one, two or three-year PPT-Tour cards.

New to the list are Season IV World Poker Tour® (WPT) Player of the Year Gavin Smith, two-time WPT winner Michael The Grinder Mizrachi, WPT World Champions Joe Bartholdi and Tuan Le, two-time Season IV WPT Final Table players David Singer and John DAgostino, World Series winner Joseph Hachem, and the following WPT Champions and poker notables: Patrik Antonius, Al Ardebili, Andrew Black, Alex Brenes, Steven Dannenmann, Roland De Wolfe, John Gale, Michael Gracz, Joan Hoang, Rob Hollink, Alex Kahaner, Aaron Kanter, Hung La, Scott Lazar, Nam Le, J.J. Liu, Ming Ly, Lee Markholt Jr., Paul Maxfield, Danny Nguyen, Steve Paul-Ambrose, Rehne Pedersen, Max Pescatori, John Phan, Vanessa Rousso, Nick Schulman, Michael Simon, David Singer, Arnold Spee, Fabrice Soulier John Stolzmann, Johan Storakers and James Van Alstyne, among others.

Returnees include a vast array of poker luminaries including Doyle Brunson, Barry Greenstein, Phil Ivey, John Juanda, Ted Forrest, Carlos Mortensen, Men The Master Nguyen, Scotty Nguyen, Erick Lindgren, Daniel Negreanu, Jennifer Harman, T. J. Cloutier, Dan Harrington, Antonio Esfandiari, Phil Laak, Mel Judah, Kathy Liebert, Erik Seidel, David Williams, Hasan Habib, and more.

With its PPT Qualification system, the Professional Poker Tour has ensured the highest level of play at each and every tournament. For its second season, players receive membership based on their previous poker accomplishments – which must include winning a WPT event, playing at more than one WPT Final Table in a season, placing in the top six at the WPT World Championship™, by scoring as a top 10 point leader in WPT Player-of-the-Year rankings, by winning or placing among the final six at the $10K Main Event at the World Series of Poker, by securing a spot on either CardPlayer Magazines Player of the Year Top 10 list, Bluff Magazines Player of the Year Top 10 list, PokerPages.coms Player of the Year Top 10 list, ALL-IN Magazines Player of the Year Top 10 list, Poker Europas Top 20 list, or by being inducted in the Poker Hall of Fame. Players who participated in 13 WPT events in either Season 3 or 4 also received memberships, and all remaining players were the top money finishers in Seasons 3 and 4 of the World Poker Tour.