On a temporary shut-down since February, staff terminated in September, the Heartland Poker Tour still exists but there’s no plans at this time for any tournaments.
“We just have no idea right now, you get optimistic things (are turning around), and then (COVID) numbers start going back up again,” said Eric Schippers, Penn Gaming Senior Vice President of Public Affairs. Penn Gaming owns the HPT.
Tournament Director Jeremy Smith and Marketing Manager Korey Stewart, the two primary HPT staff members, were terminated at the beginning of September as no events were taking place and none were planned for the remainder of 2020.
Although the HPT website still has some upcoming events listed, none are currently scheduled, according to Schippers. Stewart maintained the website and monitored its social media accounts. There does not appear to be anyone handling those duties at this time.
Among the listed events is one Card Player Cruises event in 2021 – and two were originally planned. The CardPlayerCruise staff, however, announced last month they received word from Penn Gaming to no plan on either HPT cruise taking place in ’21.
The last HPT to complete in 2020 was a $1,650 at Hollywood St. Louis Casino in late February. Kevin Garosshen took that event down for a $131,184 payday.
We provided the live tournament updates for most of the HPT Main Events the past seven years. There’s no indication at this time whether we are going to be retained should HPT begin in 2021.
Dan is the founder of PokerLiveUpdates, a veteran poker tournament reporter who can be found wandering somewhat aimlessly through tournament arenas worldwide. As a founding member of FunTour2.0, he searches for the best in craft beer at all locations in the poker world.
