POKERSTARS LAUNCHES RUSSIAN POKER TOUR !!

Not content with laying claim to poker tours in most of Europe, Asia and South America, PokerStars announced today it will be starting the Russian Poker Tour.
Poker has exploded in popularity in Russia, as evidenced by the stellar finishes of Team PokerStars Pro's Alex Kravchenko and, most recently, Ivan Demidov at the WSOP Main Event final table. Other skilled Russian players include Kerill Gerasimov, Alexander Kostritsin and Yevgeniy Timoshenko.
Demidov is by far and away the overall Russian all-time money leader, with more than $6 million in tournament cashes to his name, thanks mostly to finishing second at the 2008 WSOP Main Event.
The inaugural season of the RPT is scheduled to begin Jan. 25-Feb. 1 in historic St. Petersburg. A few weeks after that, the tour will make its way to Moscow for a tournament in the nation's capital Feb. 22-28.
PokerStars did not mention if more stops would be added, but one would think if St. Petersburg and Moscow are a success, many more Russian cities will get an event to call their own.
These are not small tournaments either. The St. Petersburg stop will carry a $5,000 buy-in, while the Moscow event will carry an epic $10,000 buy-in.
To date the largest official tournament ever held in Russia was the 2007 Moscow Millions, in which Tony G won $205,000 for outlasting 52 other players. The aforementioned Kravchenko took third place in the event for $77,000.
Both of the PokerStars tournaments will likely have a good shot at becoming the biggest tournaments in Russia.
As usual, PokerStars will be providing some outstanding ways to qualify. Players can satellite in to the inaugural season of the RPT for as little as $2.22 or 111 Frequent Player Points from now until Dec. 30.
The RPT joins PokerStars' elite set of tours, which include the European Poker Tour (EPT), Asia Pacific Poker Tour (APPT) and the Latin America Poker Tour (LAPT).