Barcelona at the end of May 2011 was the place to be for all poker fanatics as the 10th season of the WPT Championship got under. With a decade under its belt, this campaign was shaping up to be a major celebration of poker and just like the 9th WPT season; a Scandinavian player got the event off to a great start.

Sweden’s Lukas Berglund was celebrating in Catalonia as he scooped the first prize and $260,000 at the end of the 5-day event at the Casino Barcelona.

California knows how to play poker

The tour had another stop-off in Europe with the WPT Slovenia event before it made it way across the Atlantic for the Legends of Poker event in California. United States man Will Failla took away just over three quarters of a million dollars from the 6 day event at the end of August. The top 5 players all hailed from the USA but sneaking into sixth place ahead of a competitive field was Pakistan star Owais Ahmed. With Ahmed also making his mark on a number of other poker circuits around this time, the summer of 2011 definitely saw Owais hitting top form.

The tour then continued its crisscrossing of the Atlantic with events in Paris (France) then Atlantic City in New Jersey and then Malta ensuring that poker players in Europe and the United States had access to big money tournaments.

Bobby Oboodi has been the biggest winner so far with regards to winnings from a particular tournament where he walked away with just short of $1m from the Borgata Poker Open in New Jersey. As the season continues, this amount of money will be eclipsed but it is still a prize that most poker players would be happy to pick up!

Grab every advantage that you can

In order to make the most of your poker money, taking advantage of bonus codes and welcome promotions is something that every poker player should be aware of. Who knows, the extra bonus received from starting up an account may make all the difference when it comes to a tight hand. Watching the run-in to the end of the WPT 2011/12 season will reiterate the importance of staying calm when the pressure is on and great bankroll management will definitely come into play.

There is never much time off from the poker season and it won’t be too long until the 10th WPT season gets underway but with so much excitement and drama to come in the 9th season, there is no sense in looking too far forward. Whether you can make it to Las Vegas or not, the climax of the 10th season of WPT is sure to be a thrilling spectacle of poker at its finest.