PokerStars has announced several new details for both the upcoming North American Poker Tour (NAPT) Las Vegas festival, to be held this November at Resorts World Las Vegas, and Season 2 of the PokerStars Big Game on Tour, which will be filmed at Resorts World amid all the other NAPT Las Vegas events and activities.
The Big Game on Tour is Stars' popular revival of the original PokerStars Big Game, which aired for two seasons over a decade ago. The 'On Tour' revival became an immediate hit while also bringing back many of the show's orginal elements, including the return of the 'Loose Cannon', an amateur or celebrity player cast into the high-stakes cash game to compete against a lineup of pros and other established players.
The first season of The Big Game on Tour featured Nikki Limo and Lily Newhouse as the selected Loose Cannons. Both players were separately staked to play against a rotating lineup that included pros Phil Hellmuth, Maria Ho, Phil Laak, and Alan Keating, plus veteran poker-playing Hollywood stars Jennifer Tilly, Arden Cho, and Michael Ian Black.
Big Game on Tour Heat 2 PlayersAdditional pathways to Loose Cannon auditions
While the final selection of Season 2's Loose Cannons remains an audition-and-selection process, PokerStars has added channels for NAPT participants to become part of the show. According to a PokerStars update, all players who are attending NAPT Las Vegas and playing in the championship event via winning an NAPT Gold Pass will automatically receive an invitation to audition for one of the Loose Cannon seats.
PokerStars has already announced that at least 100 Gold Passes will be awarded. Each Gold Pass is valued at $10,000, which includes the $5,300 championship-event seat. The auditions won't be limited to domestic Gold Pass winners, however. The latest update from Stars reveals that all the remaining players at Resorts World will have the chance to participate in a free qualifying tournament, where the top finishers will move on to join the auditions.
Big Game on Tour show hosts James Hartigan and Joe Stapleton will conduct the auditions on November 4 and 5, and the pair will ultimately decide who will win Season 2's Loose Cannon seats. Each Loose Cannon will be staked $50,000 in the Big Game and will be able to keep any profit over the $50,000 stake that they can amass.
Judges James Hartigan and Joe Stapleton will decide who gets to be the Loose Cannon
'Power Path'-way for dot-com Stars players
As for international players, they'll now have a separate (and very affordable) path to NAPT Las Vegas and the $5,300 championship event. Dot-com players can win their own $10,000 NAPT Las Vegas Gold Pass via Stars' 'Power Path' satellite framework, and it's possible some fortunate players might win the Gold Pass almost for free.
While players can buy into the Power Path satellites at several different levels, they'll also receive a Step 1 ticket valued at 50 cents just for playing a single hand at a real-money cash-game table. It's a long shot, but one or more winners could parlay that all the way into the $10,000 trip to Las Vegas in November. PokerStars has published additional information for its dot-com players.
