The World Poker Tour has added The Mandalay Bay Poker Championship to next year's tour. According to a press release, Steve Lipscomb, CEO and founder of WPT Enterprises, Inc. (NASDAQ: WPTE) said, "This continues to build our solid relationship with the MGM MIRAGE family of destination resort casinos." We have scored a trifecta with Mandalay Bay, The Mirage and Bellagio, the best Las Vegas has to offer."

WPT is also ending its relationship with Party Poker, removing the Party Poker Million cruise ship event from the tour, (which was a limit event, and made for the most uninteresting televised poker since the Chicken from Tropicana played against the Horse from Sam's Town in 1976.) It will be replaced with an event from Foxwoods (personal note: the TD from Foxwoods was the TD for the PCA at Atlantis, and is one of the nicest guys I've met in the poker world. I saw him deal quite patiently and diplomatically with some ultra-pissed-off players in a way that would make Johnny Grooms or Jack
McClelland proud.)

Ultimate Bet's event in Aruba will also be off the tour. Again, from the press release, Explained Lipscomb: "We've had a great run with both companies, but the circumstances have changed since we elected to launch WPTonline.com, our own international gaming website. Although they will no longer be on the tour, we continue to explore future opportunities with both of these organizations."

The schedule for Season V (which kicks off at Mirage in May) has been finalized and released. Follow the link below for all the details, and watch for my updates from the Celebrity Invitational at the Commerce Casino next month.