Pinnacle Entertainment has announced that it will preserve the popular Heartland Poker Tour after the group took over the assets of the bankrupt Federated Sports + Gaming last month.

Pinnacle won the right to acquire the FS + G assets after an auction round, and included the Heartland Poker Tour in the buyout.

Since then, many have questioned whether or not the tour would survive, but now Pinnacle has announced that it has big plans with the circuit. Not only will the tour survive, it will even expand to Pinnacle's own casinos, the company said.

"In July, we extended our development strategy and growth pipeline with the acquisition of Federated Sports + Gaming, Inc. and Federated Heartland Inc," Anthony Sanfilippo, President and CEO of Pinnacle said according to Pokernews.

"Through the Heartland Poker Tour purchase, we acquired an impressive portfolio of brands and intellectual property that will help us advance in a new line of business and our online gaming strategy… We expect the Heartland acquisition to be accretive."

Part of Pinnacle's strategy will further be to "expand the Heartland Poker Tour and more extensively integrate its events into our property portfolio," Sanfilippo added.

In concrete terms, this means bringing the Heartland events to Pinnacle's own casinos in St. Louis, Louisiana and Indiana.

The Heartland Poker Tour has already been through seven seasons and is now in its eighth after making 17 stops in 15 states in 2011.