World Team Poker Championship Postponed

The World Team Poker Championship has been postponed, in order to give time for the dust to settle from the recent online poker shutdown in the United States. The event was originally scheduled to take place between May 24 and 26 at the South Point Casino in Las Vegas, and is not expected to be rescheduled for a date later in the summer.

Click Here For Poker Sites Still Accepting USA Players

“The recent developments in online poker has had a rippling effect throughout the poker industry,” Michael A. Christian, CEO of World Team Poker said in a press release. “World Team Poker has decided that it is in the players and World Team Poker’s best interest to postpone the event until the end of the summer. This should allow the current situation with online poker to settle down and resolve itself.”

Several teams include players that have relationships with PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker, and Absolute Poker or UB.com, but no team may be more affected than the United States team. Several Full Tilt Poker professionals are on the team, including Jennifer Harman and Howard Lederer, who may both have stakes in the ownership of the site. Tom Dwan is also a Full Tilt pro, but has specifically noted that he has no stake in the company.

Other players on the US team with online poker ties include Todd and Doyle Brunson, who work with DoylesRoom, and Phil Hellmuth and Annie Duke, who formerly represented UB.com.

The World Team Poker Championship Event was expected to draw teams from about 30 different countries. The inaugural event, held in 2010, was won by Team China, which outlasted seven other teams in a 19-hour battle. The Chinese team includes 10-time World Series of Poker bracelet winner Johnny Chan, David Chiu, Derek Cheung, Chau Giang, Maria Ho, Winfred Yu and Rich Zhu.

A rescheduled date for the 2011 World Team Poker Championship has yet to be determined. Last year’s event featured a mix of limit and no-limit hold’em along with pot limit Omaha.