World Poker Tour Championship Kicks Off

The 2008 World Poker Tour Championship kicked off on Saturday, April 19 and this year’s tournament is seeing lower numbers than usual.  Part of that is because some of the biggest names in the poker community have been boycotting the championship, not just this year, but last year and the 2006 WPT Championship.  A lawsuit filed in 2006 by some big name players has finally been settled after two years of deliberation.

The lawsuit that was filed in 2006 stated that the WPT had violated state and federal anti-trust laws by using some big name players’ images and names to promote their products without the players’ permission.  It also claimed that the casinos involved were attempting to illegally eliminate competition and violated their intellectual property rights.  Some of the players involved in the lawsuit included Chris Ferguson, Howard Lederer, Andy Bloch, Annie Duke, Phil Gordon, Joe Hacham and Greg Raymer.  Raymer and Hachem droped out of the lawsuit though no reason was given.  

According to the information released about the lawsuit, the WPT required players to sign a release prior to playing in a WPT event that was a violation of their rights.  They were seeking ‘punitive damages’ from the WPT.  The remaining players settled with the WPT days prior to the start of the 2008 event and the settlement supposedly included a modified player release.  The WPT will not be paying any sort of damages to the players and they maintain that they didn’t do anything wrong by requiring the players to sign the original release.

Rumours have been circulating that the settlement was a result of the declining participation in this year’s event.  The World Poker Tour is just as big as the World Series of Poker, but with the American economy on the decline, many people are simply not entering the competition.  Some of the players also felt that there was no real competing tour and that the idea was unrealistic.  That theory was quickly debunked by the success of the European Poker Tour.  In addition, there was very little support for the lawsuit by the rest of the poker community.  Whether or not any of this is true is speculation and there may be other reasons behind the settlement that the general public will never know.

Gordon, Duke, and Ferguson will be competing in the 2008 World Poker Tour now that the lawsuit has been settled.