The World Poker Tour
The World Poker Tour (WPT) is a series of Texas Hold 'em poker tournaments featuring most of the world's better players. 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. While the World Poker Tour has an international cast of characters, with only a few exceptions, events are held in the United States.
Make no mistake, the WPT is a made for television series of poker events that was brainchild of television producer Stephen Lipscomb, CEO of WPT Enterprises (WPTE), the firm that controls the World Poker Tour. While casinos and online poker rooms power the advertising at each event, the poker boom keeps the telecasts high revenue and heavily viewed. The first season aired on the Travel Channel in the spring of 2003, and it currently airs on Wednesdays. Now in its fourth season of broadcast, it still remains among the highest rated television programs on cable.
While the growth of poker initiated the development of the WPT, the WPT is credited with flaming the fires of public interest in poker. Although hosts Mike Sexton and Vince Van Patten give the impression that their commentary is "live" during the televised edition of the event, almost all the audio for the show is recorded in post-production. Commentator remarks about the players' hole cards and strategies are carefully scripted to flow with already known events. While this may be the preferred telecast strategy when done on a wide scale in any case, in fact, it is the only option available. Because most, although not all, of the WPT venues are prohibited by state regulations to allow camera feeds inside a gaming area. Consquently, the audio heard on the show broadcasts is primarily post recorded, with a mix of audio recorded live.
But the host commentary is not the primary viewer draw. It is the live table banter and the outpouring of real life emotion that keeps the viewers watching. Add in some real life learning techniques and you have a strong nucleus viewership that love the shows. The WPT is an obvious program takeoff on the long-running World Series of Poker main event. The one difference being the WSOP is once a year, and the WPT provides a series of events to keep fresh shows coming all year round. Another draw of the WPT, like any poker tournament, is that anyone who can pay the "buy-in," ranging from $5,000 to $25,000 or win a "satellite" tournament is able to compete against the top professional players, such as Phil Hellmuth, Doyle Brunson, or Phil Ivey.
It is a fairly new invention that has allowed the WPT and the WSOP telecasts to prosper. The technical innovation that provided the ability to see the players' hole cards through a small camera in front of them on the poker table. To further the WPT’s reputation as a WSOP spinoff, the World Poker Tour created the Walk of Fame, similarly to the Poker Hall of Fame initiated by Benny Binion for the WSOP. The first Walk of Fame inductees in 2004 were poker legends Doyle Brunson, and Gus Hansen, and actor James Garner.
In addition to each event winner, WPT tournament players compete to be named WPT player of the year. Points are awarded for all open events to determine the winner. For each event, points are awarded as follows: Winner: 1000 points, Runner-up: 700 points, 3rd place: 600 points, 4th place: 500 points, 5th place: 400 points, 6th place: 300 points, 7th place: 200 points Thus far, the WPT players of the year winners are: Season 1- Howard Lederer; Season 2- Erick Lindgren; Season 3- Daniel Negreanu; Season 4- Gavin Smith; Season 5- J.C. Tran; Season 6- Jonathan Little; Season 7- Bertrand Grospellier; Season 8- Faraz Jaka. |
