Dusk Till Dawn looks to breathe new life into ISPT

The International Stadiums Poker Tour (ISPT) has been the recipient of plenty of cynicism since the ambitious event was first announced in Late 2011. From the outset the ISPT has done very little to assuage the poker world’s fears that the ISPT is simply the next Epic Poker League with a series of changes that has seen the tournament go from grand vision to ho-hum poker tournament, and seen the ISPT rescind a number of the “promises” and “guarantees” they have made.

All that said, the ISPT may have found a White Knight this past week, as the Dusk Till Dawn poker club decided to partner with the flailing tournament series, and in the process has decided to GUARANTEE a $1 million first-place prize to the winner of the inaugural ISPT event that is set to take place in early June.

The partnership with Dusk Till Dawn brings some legitimacy to the ISPT, which has been met with about as much skepticism as the Epic Poker league, or Ultimate Bet Poker post-Super-User scandal –basically the poker community sees the ISPT as doomed to failure, with the players likely to be the recipients of the biggest kick to the lower extremities.

Proof of this can be seen in the pathetic numbers the ISPT drew for its first of several Day 1’s, which took place across a number of online poker sites recently. In all, a total of 13 seats were awarded to the live portion of the tournament, and several sites were forced to cancel/postpone their Day 1’s. But now, with Dusk Till Dawn swooping in and slapping a legitimate guarantee on the tournament, I expect the poker world to change their tone, and start warming-up to the ISPT.

The event seems to have been a case of biting off more than you can chew for Laurent Tapie and Prosper Masquellier (especially after the failed attempt to purchase Full Tilt Poker by Groupe Bernard Tapie) but with more realistic goals now in place the event could very well change poker –just not in the same way they originally intended. The ISPT could turn out to be the first successful fusion of online poker and live poker, and if it is both the ISPT and Dusk Till Dawn will reap the rewards –who knows, perhaps two years down the road there really is a combination live/online event held at Wembley Stadium with 30,000 entries and a $20 million first-place prize?

But for now, the ISPT should just be thankful that Dusk Till Dawn decided to take a flier on the tour that has yet to hold a single e vent, yet managed to scare the poker community senseless with the amount of fail they have produced.