On December 6, 2011, the Bellagio in Las Vegas once again hosted a World Poker Tour event, but this one held special meaning. The 2011 WPT Five Diamond World Poker Classic marked the 10th anniversary of the WPT, a decade of televised poker innovation and historical moments that took the poker boom to new levels and has continued to keep poker fresh and forward-looking. In honor of this anniversary, PokerNews sat down WPT Host and Poker Hall of Famer Mike Sexton and WPT CEO Steve Heller to take a look back at 10 years of WPT history and the importance of the Bellagio throughout that time.
“This is our 10th season out on the World Poker Tour, and our kickoff event, the first tournament ever, was at the Five Diamond World Poker Classic right here at the Bellagio,” Sexton told PokerNews. “I believe that final table was one of our greatest final tables ever. I think we had nine WPT championships come out of that final table: Scotty Nguyen, Freddy Deeb, John Hennigan, but obviously the star of that table was Gus Hansen, and he was probably the only unknown at the table. He went on to win three WPT titles and become the biggest star of the tour.”
Read the full article over at PokerNews and stay tuned for more details on Season X episodes, set to start airing in early 2012.