Poker Stars has been a big fan of live poker tours. In addition to their online ventures, they have been involved with the European Poker Tour (EPT), Latin American Poker Tour (LAPT) and Asia Pacific Poker Tour (APPT). Now, this giant online poker website will take it one step further with the creation of the brand new North American Poker Tour (NAPT).

The NAPT schedule this year will be a bit hectic as new events will be added to the tournament schedule as time goes on. At the moment however, three different live poker tournaments have been confirmed as part of the first NAPT series.

The first of these events is already going on. It is the Poker Stars Caribbean Adventure and this year at least it’ll be pulling double duty between the nascent NAPT and the already well established EPT.

The second confirmed event will go to the heart of live poker in the world which is of course the city of Las Vegas in the state of Nevada. Specifically, the Venetian Casino will be the host to NAPT Venetian February 20-24. It will have a buy-in of $5000 and will likely feature a prize pool in the millions of dollars range.

The third event will take place April 7-11 at the Mohegan Sun Casino in Connecticut. It will officially be known as the NAPT Mohegan Sun tournament, although it is actually part of a local series of tournaments offered at the same casino as part of a new localized series of live poker that they are trying to promote. Like the event in Las Vegas, this tournament will feature a buy-in of $5000, although players without that kind of money can play at live tournaments for as little as $200 during the local Mohegan Sun Casino series.

Satellites for the latter two events are already running at Poker Stars, giving players a chance to win their way into one of the two events. For American players already reeling from UIGEA restrictions, the NAPT represents a fresh injection of poker into a market that is definitely hungry for it.