The international poker tournament circuit is hurtling toward its saturation point, and recent congressional legislation has placed a damper on the online poker party.
Yet those downers haven't been able to put a bad beat on World Poker Tour action in Las Vegas, said Doug Dalton, the director of poker operations at the Bellagio.
Dalton was upbeat about the 433-player field generated by the fifth annual Festa al Lago World Poker Tour championship event at the Bellagio.
It represented a small increase from last year's field of 420 in the event, which carries a $10,000 buy in and has become a regular stop on World Poker's lucrative, made-for-TV tour, and a big jump from the 312 that competed in 2004.
"There are so many tournaments going on all around the world right now, but we continue to exceed previous entry numbers year after year," Dalton said. "Any time you can exceed your previous tournament levels, you're meeting your goals."
Although World Poker has never offered online cash games to Americans, Internet poker in general has served as an unofficial feeder market for major live tournaments.
In fact, this edition of the Festa al Lago came down to a heads-up match between a pair of professional Internet poker players from Europe.
Andreas Walnum, a 23-year-old Norwegian, won the event's top prize of more than $1 million when he made a set (three of a kind) of deuces on the final hand Friday night and coaxed runner-up Steve Wong of the Netherlands into committing all of his chips with a pair of kings.
Wong, 33, who had Las Vegas pro Chau Giang in his corner at the final table, collected more than $542,000 from the tournament's total prize pool of about $4.2 million.
"It's unreal," said Walnum, the youngest player at the six-man final table. "I ran so good the last couple of days. On Day 3 (of the five-day event), I was short-stacked and it looked pretty bad. But I...
Yet those downers haven't been able to put a bad beat on World Poker Tour action in Las Vegas, said Doug Dalton, the director of poker operations at the Bellagio.
Dalton was upbeat about the 433-player field generated by the fifth annual Festa al Lago World Poker Tour championship event at the Bellagio.
It represented a small increase from last year's field of 420 in the event, which carries a $10,000 buy in and has become a regular stop on World Poker's lucrative, made-for-TV tour, and a big jump from the 312 that competed in 2004.
"There are so many tournaments going on all around the world right now, but we continue to exceed previous entry numbers year after year," Dalton said. "Any time you can exceed your previous tournament levels, you're meeting your goals."
Although World Poker has never offered online cash games to Americans, Internet poker in general has served as an unofficial feeder market for major live tournaments.
In fact, this edition of the Festa al Lago came down to a heads-up match between a pair of professional Internet poker players from Europe.
Andreas Walnum, a 23-year-old Norwegian, won the event's top prize of more than $1 million when he made a set (three of a kind) of deuces on the final hand Friday night and coaxed runner-up Steve Wong of the Netherlands into committing all of his chips with a pair of kings.
Wong, 33, who had Las Vegas pro Chau Giang in his corner at the final table, collected more than $542,000 from the tournament's total prize pool of about $4.2 million.
"It's unreal," said Walnum, the youngest player at the six-man final table. "I ran so good the last couple of days. On Day 3 (of the five-day event), I was short-stacked and it looked pretty bad. But I...
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