World Poker Tour Media Man Australia

World Poker Tour

The World Poker Tour (Abbreviated WPT) is a series of international poker tournaments featuring most of the world's professional players. It was started in the United States by attorney/television producer Steven Lipscomb, who now serves as CEO of WPT Enterprises (WPTE), the firm that controls the World Poker Tour.

Introduction

The World Poker Tour is a collection of Texas hold 'em poker tournaments held internationally, but mainly in the United States. The television show has led to a boom in the table game across American homes, in local casino poker rooms and online. The key sponsors of the tour are casinos and online poker sites. The show, which is syndicated internationally, is co-hosted by World Series of Poker winner Mike Sexton, and actor Vince Van Patten. Shana Hiatt served as the show host and sideline reporter in its first three seasons. Courtney Friel took over the host role for the fourth season, and Sabina Gadecki for the fifth. Layla Kayleigh and Kimberly Lansing began serving as hostesses in season six.

Background

The tour had its debut season in the latter part of 2002 and early part of 2003, climaxing with the WPT Championship in April 2003 at the Bellagio Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada. The first season aired on the Travel Channel on American cable television in the spring of 2003. The show made its network debut on February 1, 2004 on NBC with a special "Battle Of Champions" tournament, which aired against CBS coverage of the Super Bowl XXXVIII pre-game show. The Travel Channel aired the first five seasons of the Tour. In April 2007, WPTE announced that the series would move to GSN for its sixth season in the spring of 2008. The first WPT tournament to air on GSN, the Mirage Poker Showdown, debuted on March 24, 2008.

Commentary

The show's hosts Mike Sexton and Vince Van Patten give the impression that all of their commentary is recorded live as the tournament happens, and they have occasionally interacted with the players during the game. However, their comments about hole cards are recorded after the tournament takes place because state gaming regulations prohibit them from observing a live feed of the "hole card cameras". Consequently, the broadcast audio is a mix of the live recording, and commentary recorded in post-production.

Reception

The drawing power of the WPT and most other poker tournaments is that anyone who can pay the "buy-in" (an amount ranging from $2,500 to $25,000) or win a "satellite" tournament is able to compete against the top professional players.

Fans of the show find it interesting because of technical innovations such as the ability to see the players' hole cards through a small camera in front of them on the poker table (an innovation first seen on the UK program Late Night Poker). With the success of the show, special programs, such as the "Hollywood Home Game" (featuring celebrities playing for charity) and "Ladies Night" (featuring six top women players) were developed.

In 2004, the World Poker Tour created a Walk of Fame, inducting poker legends Doyle Brunson and Gus Hansen as well as actor James Garner.

Now in its fifth season of broadcast, it still remains among the highest rated television programs on cable. It airs Wednesdays on the Travel Channel. The first three seasons of WPT are also available on NTSC DVD. (The second season DVD set features audio commentary by several of the players. The third season is only available in a "Best Of" format, featuring just half of the episodes.) CITY TV airs the WPT on Sundays at 4pm PST in Canada with a rebroadcast at Midnight (or shortly after depending on the length of their Sunday Night Movie. The series will move to Monday nights when it moves to GSN in 2008.

A series of spin-off tournaments, titled the Professional Poker Tour, began filming in 2004. Broadcast of the series was delayed, in part because of a dispute with the Travel Channel over rights. In the fall of 2005, WPTE announced that "a cable channel" (believed to be ESPN) had withdrawn from bidding for the PPT series, and that WPTE was negotiating with the Travel Channel to air the series. On January 30, 2006, WPTE and the Travel Channel announced that they had dismissed all open lawsuits. The series began regular broadcast July 5, 2006, but was suspended after one season as WPTE couldn't find a television home for a second season.

WPT Ladies

In January 2008, the WPT announced a set of tournaments for women, known as WPT Ladies. The first season will have five events, with buy-ins ranging from $300 to $1,500. The final table of the final event will be televised.

Deal

A fictional WPT championship match is the setting for the 2007 feature film Deal. Sexton, Van Patten, and Friel are slated to play themselves and a number of other poker professionals and poker-playing celebrities are reportedly in the cast. The WPT set was shipped to New Orleans for filming following the season 4 championship. (Credit: Wikipedia).

Review

POKER TOURNAMENTS

The smooth functionality, fast gameplay, and fantastic prizes of the ClubWPT.com poker rooms make them the best place to play online poker on the Web. Add the perks of no buy-ins and no risk and that makes ClubWPT.com the ONLY place to play online poker. Take a seat and start winning today.

ELIMINATION BLACKJACK

If you like blackjack, and you like poker, you’ll love Elimination Blackjack tournaments. EBJ tournaments combine the traditional elements of blackjack and the strategies and competition of poker with a couple of exciting twists. Join today and start winning big!

Website

Club World Poker Tour

Profiles

News

ClubWPT

Each month, ClubWPT members will get access to a digital version of Bluff Magazine. Its the new way to view magazines online.

Bluff Magazine is the world's number #1 poker publication, with titles in North America, Europe, Latin America, Australia, South Africa and China.

• latest poker strategy,
• lessons on how to improve your game,
• entertainment,
• tournament news,
• and stories directly from pros.

With articles by likes of: Antonio Esfandiari, Annie Duke, Phil Laak, Jeff Madsen, Paul Wasicka, and many more Bluff gives it's reader an opportunity to experience the Thrill of Poker.