The World Poker Showdown event in St. Maarten is underway with a Main Event slated for 16 November
One of the best kept secrets on the tournament circuit, the World Poker Showdown, kicked off this weekend in the Caribbean. This is intentional on the part of the founder, Herb Van Dyke, who wants to keep it a fun, relaxed environment.
Van Dyke is a poker pioneer who was largely responsible for bringing Texas Hold’em to Russia more than 15 years ago. More recently he saw a need for a different approach to international tournaments, and the WPS was born.
The WPS is for players who want to combine reasonably-priced poker with exotic destinations. WPS believes in giving tournament players maximum play for their buy-ins as evidenced by the large number of starting chips and long levels.
The WPS tour includes stops in exciting destinations like St. Maarten, Costa Rica, and an annual Caribbean cruise. The championship events have buy-ins of $2,500. Online qualifiers are available through several poker sites that co-sponsor the events.
There are also plenty of $200 to $1,000 buy in tournaments, action-packed cash games, and live satellites leading up to the three-day championship event.
When playing at the WPS it is just as likely that you will be sitting next to a recreational player as it is that you will be next to a serious amateur or pro. The WPS events are professionally directed by WSOP veteran Tournament Director Warren Karp and his staff.
The professionals in the recent WPS Costa Rica event included Humberto Brenes, Alex Brenes, Arturo Morales, and Jose Rosenkrantz. Celebrity appearances were made by Cindy Margolis and Nicole Sullivan.
In the recent WPS Costa Rica Poker Showdown main event there were 87 players and a prize pool of $210,975. The first place winner was a young Swede living in Costa Rica named Henrik Alin. Although he was apparently already born with a poker nickname, he is actually called “Harry Potter” for his resemblance to the young wizard.
He is part of a group of up and coming players who attended the Costa Rica WPS, including John ‘Jet’ Taylor from Satellite Beach, Florida, Jordan Devenport from Comox, British Columbia, and amateur player Andrew Koplan from Atlanta, Georgia.
The natural beauty of Costa Rica and St. Maarten combined with great poker make the WPS poker tournaments worth attending, and it’s not too late the make the Main Event in St Maarten, scheduled for 16 November 2006.
