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World
Poker Tour Debuts on Fox Sports Net, by Dan Cypra
- 5th January 2009
(Credit:
Poker News Daily)
On Sunday night, the seventh season
of the World Poker Tour (WPT) kicked off. Part
one of Bellagio Cup IV aired, which featured a
final table that included Mike Watson, David Benyamine,
Luke Staudenmaier, Ralph Perry, John Phan, and
Gabriel Thaler. It was the first WPT tournament
to be sponsored by FullTiltPoker.net, which received
a sizable amount of exposure throughout the one
hour episode on Fox Sports Net.
The
first of 26 installments hit the airwaves on Sunday
night. The Bellagio Cup IV was actually the second
WPT tournament of Season VII. In May, a non-televised
Spanish Championship took place in Barcelona.
The Bellagio Cup IV took place in July, just after
the start of the 2008 World Series of Poker (WSOP)
Main Event. For Season VII, the WPT inked a sponsorship
agreement with FullTiltPoker.net. As such, the
educational gaming site received an ample amount
of publicity throughout the show, including in
its opening.
Each
of the on-screen displays of chip counts featured
a FullTiltPoker.net logo, as did the graphic that
appears when players peek at their cards. One
of the most noticeable changes included the felt
in the center of the table, which contained a
digitally-produced FullTiltPoker.net logo. This
were added in during post-production of the episodes,
as Full Tilt did not sign on as a presenting sponsor
until November, four months after the tournament
was filmed.
Two
other companies also received a considerable amount
of exposure. Southwest Airlines, one of the major
carriers in the United States, is also a sponsor
of the seventh season of the WPT. As such, it
received prominent placement, including a voiceover
by WPT Co-Host Vince Van Patten, who claimed,
“Tonight’s broadcast sponsored in
part by Southwest Airlines.” The WPT also
featured its ClubWPT MySpace page in signage on
the Bellagio Cup IV set. The advertisements directed
viewers to view the subscription-based online
poker room’s MySpace page, located at myspace.com/worldpokertour.
On
the inside walls of the tables were logos for
the WPT Boot Camp, a roving educational seminar
on cash games and tournaments that features such
brand name pros as Kenna James, Poker News Daily
Columnist Linda Johnson, T.J. Cloutier, Tom McEvoy,
and Jan Fisher. The next ring game Boot Camp is
scheduled for January 17th and 18th at the Hollywood
Park Casino in Inglewood, California.
In
addition to its MySpace presence, ClubWPT also
received a multitude of advertising spots. The
commercials noted that players competed for over
$100,000 in monthly prizes and that membership
is $19.95 per month. ClubWPT is open to customers
of the United States due to its subscription status.
It is one of the last subscription sites standing,
as two of its competitors, Zosoz and Fleet Street
Games, closed their doors near the end of the
2008 calendar year.
The
presence of WPT Live Updates hostess Amanda Leatherman
is also a noticeable difference. During Sunday’s
episode, she appeared on screen interviewing Erica
Schoenberg, the fiancée of tournament competitor
David Benyamine. The Frenchman won his first WSOP
bracelet in the $10,000 buy-in World Championship
of Omaha Hi-Low Split Eight or Better for $535,000
in June.
Phan
is fresh off being named Bluff Magazine’s
2008 Player of the Year. He donned both of his
WSOP bracelets on set for the Bellagio Cup IV.
Along with Benyamine, he gave Full Tilt even more
exposure, as both were wearing the online poker
room’s gear. Benyamine and Watson entered
the final table as the two chip leaders; the two
would eventually finish first and second, respectively.
Because
of the episode being an hour long, only two eliminations
(Phan and Thaler) were shown. The end of the show
featured a preview for next week, which consisted
of each of the four remaining players moving all
in and Van Patten reacting strongly to the result
of a hand. The WPT is slated to launch a Channel
Finder in the near future in order to assist fans
with finding its programming.
Profiles
World
Poker Tour
World
Series of Poker
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