This month’s closure by the French police of the Cercle Cadet poker room in Paris has disrupted Pokerstars plans to hold the next leg of the French Poker Series live tournaments, prompting the online poker giant to cancel the Parisian leg.
The Cercle Cadet tournament would have kicked off on November 21, bringing hundreds of poker fans to the city of light, a bonanza that the city and its hospitality industry will now lose.
Cédric Billot, the president of the French Poker Series said in a press statement that his organisation had been forced to cancel the Paris leg because “…it was impossible to find, in such a short time, another trusted partner that would allow us to organize the FPS in Paris and in optimal conditions.”
He added:
“We will propose some form of compensation to all the online qualifiers. We are really sorry to be forced to cancel this FPS stop, but at the same time we still have some other great events for our players as the ones in Deauville, Namur, Prague, or even the French Championship of Online Poker (FCOOP).”
Subsequent reports indicate that online qualifiers will be offered five different options to trade in their Paris entries for tickets in the FPS Final in Deauville; the Belgian Poker Series in Namur; the Eureka Poker Tour Prague; or two different packages for the FCOOP on PokerStars.fr in November.