Poker Pros Flock to NAPT Venetian High Roller Shootout

The NAPT champ won’t win this diamond-studded mouse – but they should.

The table draws are set for the NAPT High Roller Shootout at the Venetian in Las Vegas, which starts this afternoon. As if the $25,000 buy-in and winner-take-all shootout format weren’t enough reason to pay attention to Venetian today, the field that turned out for the tournament doesn’t have a single weak spot. Whoever ends up winning will have to outclass the toughest poker pros in the world’s toughest poker town.

To say the field is packed with recognizable names would be like saying that Phil Ivey is good at poker. Former WSOP Main Event champions Greg Raymer, Joe Hachem and Chris Moneymaker will be playing the event, along with the three youngest players ever to win the world championship, Peter Eastgate, Joe Cada and Phil Hellmuth. If young guns are more to your liking you can track the progress of Phil “OMGClayAiken” Galfond, Justin Bonomo, Sorel Mizzi and Jason Mercier. Europeans will watch the progress of Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier and Dario Minieri, with great interest, while fans of old-fashioned skill poker will have their eyes on Barry Greenstein, J.C. Tran, Daniel Negreanu, John “World” Hennigan, and Chau Giang.

It’s safe to say there hasn’t been this much poker star power in one American tournament field since last year’s WSOP. There’s something for everyone at the NAPT, which means poker fans should be in for a real treat when ESPN2 rolls out its coverage of the High Roller Shootout in the spring of this year.