Season 3 of the UKIPT

The first four stops of the third season of the hugely successful UK & Ireland Poker Tour (UKIPT) have now been announced. The new schedule will take in some of the region's most prestigious poker destinations, and the tournaments will again attract the huge player fields we've come to expect from the UK & Ireland's biggest and most popular poker tour. More stops will be announced soon - so keep checking back for more details as they are announced.

Each stop on the tour has been chosen for its cultural interest as well as for its location at one of many poker hubs in the UK and Ireland. There are live updates throughout each Main Event on the pokerstarsblog – follow the action as it happens from the first card dealt to the last hand on the final table. Many events are also being filmed and will be shown on Channel 4 throughout the season. Click here for more information on the TV schedule.

Season 2 of the UKIPT

PokerStars UK & Ireland Poker Tour – gained huge popularity in its inaugural season and retunred for Season 2 with a 2011 circuit spanning the islands. Each of the nine stops had a guaranteed six-figure prize pool and there were record-breaking turnouts – the Nottingham leg held at Dusk Till Dawn gathered the largest live field ever seen in the UK (1,058) and awarded champion Gareth Walker a top prize of £109,000.

About www.pokerstars.com:

PokerStars is the world's largest regulated gaming operator and poker site, with more than 44 million members. It's the first choice of the world's top players, with more daily tournaments than anywhere else, and with the best security online. More hands have been dealt on PokerStars than any other site; that's over 57 billion hands and more than 350 million tournaments played.

PokerStars operates worldwide under license from the Isle of Man government. Recent additions to the PokerStars family include PokerStars.fr, which operates in France under the French government license, as well as PokerStars.it, which operates in Italy under the Italian government license, and PokerStars.ee, which operates in Estonia under the Estonian government license.

PokerStars stages some of the biggest online poker tournaments in the world, including the World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP) and the Spring Championship of Online Poker (SCOOP), and is the official sponsor of some of the biggest live poker tournaments in the world, including the European Poker Tour (EPT), the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure (PCA) and the UK & Ireland Poker Tour (UKIPT).

PokerStars is also home to a team of sponsored players known as Team PokerStars Pro. This elite group of players travel the world competing in international tournaments. For a complete list, visit the Team PokerStars Pro home page.