Interview with Founders of the Heartland Poker Tour

I was really interested in this story becasue I play in almost every HPT event ( every one that allows 18 year olds to play) so i found this very interesting.
Most serious poker players hope to capture a tournament championship on one of the tours that exist today, but many of them cannot travel or afford to buy into the World Poker Tour or World Series of Poker events. These players seem to have found a home in the Heartland Poker Tour.

Created in 2005 by Todd Anderson and Greg Lang, the Heartland Poker Tour is the preeminent “minor league” poker tour in the United States today, but it is anything but minor in what it does. In its four years of existence, the HPT has doled out over $15 million in prize money at member casinos that stretch from Colorado to New York. The HPT has also been the starting point for many players that have gone on to greater successes in the poker world. In November the HPT crowned Ron Rodgers of Edwardsburg, MI as their latest champion and also named Mary Jo Belcore-Zogman from McHenry, IL Player of the Year.

There are several reasons that the HPT has been hugely successful. Their unique “qualifier tournaments” – satellites to the championship event of an HPT stop that qualify the top 20% of each field – allow players to earn their way into a tournament that they may not have otherwise been able to pay for (the HPT also allows for direct buy in, but at five times the price of the qualifier tournament). In addition, because many of the tournaments are held in Indian casinos, players as young as eighteen can participate.

As they prepare for the fifth season of the HPT, which will start at the Downstream Casino Resort in Quapaw, OK (and is an 18+ event) on January 30th, Todd and Greg took a moment from their busy schedules to talk to Poker News Daily about the history of the HPT and discuss what players can look for in 2009.

PND: When you created the Heartland Poker Tour in 2005, did you ever envision it becoming what it is today?

TA: Honestly, we had no indication whatsoever that the tour would grow into what it has become. Clearly we stumbled onto something that poker players across the country are interested in!

GL: Our goal from day one was very modest; we just wanted to create a regional poker television show and tour. We would have been content to conduct the tour in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa and the Dakotas. Obviously we’re quite pleased with how the tour and television show has taken off, with the television show now available in 75 million homes nationwide.

PND: What do you believe has been the major draw for players to the HPT?

TA: Initially it was the chance to play on television, something that most poker players dream of doing. Beyond that, I would say that playing in HPT events is just a lot of fun, win or lose. I like to call it a “fishing trip:” you spend four days with your buddies playing poker, having some drinks and generally having a fun weekend. Fact is, not everyone is going to win, but if players have fun that’s really all that matters.

GL: Our events are much less stressful than any $10,000 buy-in event. It’s a great environment to meet new friends and have a good time. At the end of the day, if someone can leave the event on Sunday afternoon and say they had a great time, that’s all that matters and that’s why players keep coming back.

PND: Who are some of the “graduates” from the HPT that have gone on to greater success?

GL: I’ll never forget…our very first event we had a young man on our final table named Cody Slaubaugh. He was a really good young player from Fargo, ND, our hometown. Anyway, Cody has gone on to be a great player, having finished 2nd in a WSOP event this year. He also won a WSOP Circuit event last year as well as the PokerStars Sunday Million.

TA: Another great player from our early days is Mike Banducci. Banducci won his first WSOP bracelet this year in the $1000 No Limit re-buy and has made several big cashes in other events, including WSOP circuit events. Mike is from Michigan and is also good friends with Olympian Michael Phelps. Other notable HPT alums include Mike Simon (2006 WPT Reno World Poker Challenge champion) and Brook Lyter (second place at the 2006 WPT PokerStars Caribbean Adventure). All four of these guys were playing HPT events before they ever hit a big one.

PND: What has been the reaction of the casinos that have taken part in the HPT?

TA: Casinos have seen the upside to holding HPT events and are now an integral part of the tour. Frankly, without great casino partners there would be no HPT. For the casino, it provides a turnkey event that populates the hotel and casino for several days. We like to think of it as a headline act – think Kenny Rogers or Wayne Newton – only it last several days. We are in business today because of the casino partners that we have on the tour.

PND: How have the television broadcasts of the HPT been received? (Writer’s note: The HPT is broadcast on Comcast Sports Network and other individual local broadcasters. Check the HPT website for more details.)

TA: Probably the most challenging part of creating the Heartland Poker Tour was the actual show itself. Neither myself nor my partner had any idea how to produce a TV show when we first started this company. Honestly, had we known how difficult it was going to be, we may never have started the company at all!

GL: Let’s face it…we’re from Fargo, not exactly a hotbed for TV production! The other cold hard fact is that we started the company with very little money and were faced with the daunting task of producing a TV show that could stand up in today’s marketplace. Gone are the days of poker shows not showing hole cards, like some of the old WSOP shows with Dick Van Patten.

There was a definite production threshold that had to be met with the HPT and we realized that early on. Our budget may be one-tenth of other poker shows, but it had to look like those other shows to some degree. If it didn’t hold up, stations wouldn’t take it and people wouldn’t watch it.

TA: Fortunately, we found some very talented people here in our hometown and were able to pull it off (the tournaments are called by Chris Hanson and Fred Bevill, with Katie O‘Keefe handling player interviews). The first shows obviously were a little weak but we’ve been committed to making the show better each and every time we do an event. As an example, this past season we built a studio in our office adding to the professionalism of the show. At the end of 2008 we hit a milestone in the TV world by producing our 100th episode of the Heartland Poker Tour. Hopefully we’re on track to do another hundred.

PND: Has the recent economic downturn had any effect on the HPT tournaments?

GL: Yes, the economy has certainly had an impact on the HPT as well as with our casino partners. We’ve seen attendance drop at four of our last five events of 2008. The good news is that there is still a very high interest level in HPT events and the casinos are actually more inclined to work with us in the tough economic times, as they’re looking for ways to increase traffic.

TA: We may have seen some decline at the end of ’08, but the events were still popular and moving forward. People are always going to look for more bang for their entertainment dollar and our events do that.

PND: What will 2009 bring to players on the HPT?

GL: We’ve definitely got some new stuff for 2009. Most importantly, with the economy and all, we’re going to start re-structuring some of our events and actually lower the buy-in, plus make it easier to get into our main event through the qualifiers. The qualifiers – otherwise known as satellites, but we think of these as tournaments unto themselves and they are the bread and butter of our tournament prize pools – are a chance for players to get into the Main Event. Normally, we advance 20% to the Main but this year we’re going to advance 30% at some of our events, making it much easier for players to get to the Main Event. We’ve also got some new venues for 2009 including a great new property in Oklahoma called the Downstream Casino, where we’ll kick off the 2009 season.

PND: I also understand that this year will also feature a charitable aspect as well?

TA: That’s correct. We just signed a contract with Disabled American Veterans (DAV) that makes them our sponsored charity partner. We’ve been looking for a worthwhile charity to partner with for some time and are very impressed with the DAV and what they do for our wounded veterans. They have over one million members and they’re primary mission is to make sure veterans get the care and benefits they are entitled to by navigating government red tape and bureaucracy. They even have a fleet of vans (like 1500 nationwide) that transport vets to and from VA hospitals all over the country.

In 2009, the HPT will be contributing 1% of every prize pool to DAV as well as providing TV Public Service Announcements in the show every week and on the website. During our 2009 season we also plan to hold our first ever charity/celebrity event, a TV event in which the proceeds will go to DAV. We’re very excited about this relationship.

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