WPT Professional Players Tour - selection criteria?

[Army Eye]

Using the document linked in this thread, we can try to determine the criteria for membership on the "Professional Players Tour"

Here's what I've been able to pin down so far as what you have to do to make each level, along with some maybes that I'm not sure of:

3 YEAR EXEMPTION (fulfill any one of the following):
-win a WPT event
-win a WSOP main event
-be a member of the Poker Hall of Fame
-be a member of the WPT Walk of Fame? (indeterminate)
-have a top 10 finish in the Card Player of the Year standings
-have a top 10 finish in money winnings in a WPT season
-make two WPT final tables in the same season
-finish top 3 in a WPT Championship event
-finish top 3 in the WSOP main event post-2002? (presumably more leeway given starting in 2003 due to the larger field size)

2 YEAR EXEMPTION (fulfill any one of the following):
-finish 4th-6th in a WPT Championship event
-finish 4th-6th in a WSOP main event post-2002

1 YEAR EXEMPTION (fulfill any one of the following):
-have a top 10 finish in the Hellmuth Player of the Year standings
-have a top 10 finish in the European Player of the Year standings
-be a WPT commentator
-finish in the cash in a WPT event??? (this seems to be a criterion but if so, there are a lot of players missing)
-definitely one or more other criteria that I can't pinpoint, many players on the list with none of the above. looks like recent WSOP successes could be one possibility


I don't know how this document got leaked or whatever, because I don't see it linked on the WPT site anywhere, but I don't think it was quite ready for public consumption. There are some errors, omissions, etc. One glaring problems: John D'Agostino is listed as having won the Pokerstars Season 2 event, which of course Gus Hansen won. And then there is just some weird stuff: For example, Evelyn Ng gets a one year card, apparently for finishing 2nd in the Ladies Night event, while the winner of the event Clonie Gowen gets snubbed. There's an amazing case where Dee Luong gets a one year card with no apparent qualifications other than winning $500 in the first Party Poker Million, while a guy like James Tippin who won over $300,000 at the World Poker Open this year is nowhere to be found!

So, I don't think anyone should get too excited at this point about players being omitted or whatever. This list just doesn't look like it is done. Still it is fun to pick it apart and speculate on how the selections are done.

[Dave Johnston]

Here is the qualification information for the PPT in full detail...

The information wasn't leaked in an unauthorized fashion - but it was only initially sent to members of the media, then posted on their website (but not on the main pages). A link to the online documents was provided to me by WPT itself via a press release.

These are the official releases, even though they appear to be a bit incomplete.

I'm currently linking to both the player list and the Q-sheet on the front page of my site.

Figured I'd register and get on 2+2 to clear a bit of this up!

Thanks

Dave Johnston
www.bigslicknews.com