The World Poker Tour is a series of international poker tournaments and
associated television series broadcasting the final table of each
tournament. It was started in 2002 in the United States by attorney/television
producer Steven Lipscomb, who served as CEO of WPT Enterprises, the firm that
controlled the World Poker Tour up to November 2009. In 2008, the WPT started
offering bracelets to its event champions. Players who won a title prior
to the release of the WPT Bracelet were given one retroactively.
In November 2009, PartyGaming announced its acquisition of the World Poker Tour
from WPTE for $12,300,000. In December 2014, World Poker Tour
announced an alliance with Ourgame, agreeing to license products and
services on an exclusive basis in more than a dozen countries across Asia. In
addition, Ourgame received the rights to use the WPT logo and trademark
exclusively in Butan, Cambodia, China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Laos, Korea,
Nepal, Macau, Malaysia, Taiwan, Thailand, Philippines, and Vietnam and
operate on pokermonster.com. In June 2015, The World Poker Tour
announced that is was acquired by Ourgame International Holdings Ltd. for
a price of $35 million in cash. Television
The year-round WPT television show, building on the annual broadcast of the
World Series of Poker, has contributed to the Poker boom in American homes, in
local casino poker rooms and online. The key sponsors of the WPT are casinos and
online poker sites. The WPT television show, which is
syndicated internationally, features commentary and analysis by World Series
of Poker bracelet winner Mike Sexton and actor Vince Van Patten. Interviews and
sideline reporting are provided by a female host. 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. Poker player and reporter Amanda Leatherman was the host for
season seven. Kimberly Lansing returned as anchor for seasons nine through
eleven. Lynn Gilmartin assumed the anchor role for season twelve and
remains the current anchor for season thirteen, airing on Fox Sports Networks.
Following the November 2009 acquisition of the World Poker Tour by PartyGaming
plc, the new owners have added a second series of televised WPT events under
their Party Poker brand name. This series has, to date, focused on
televising the European stops of the WPT. Mike Sexton continues to provide
commentary, though he is partnered with Denmark-based American commentator Jesse
May rather than Vince Van Patten. The role of female show host and sideline
reporter has been served by a number of personalities, often from the country
where the event is held. One exception is Canadian born poker player Kara
Scott, who has served as host for a number of the Party Poker branded
telecasts of these European WPT events. In 2014, the World Poker Tour launched a
high roller tournament series, WPT Alpha8, broadcasting on Fox Sports 1.
The series features commentary and analysis by Ali Nejad and Olivier
Busquet, with Lynn Gilmartin serving as anchor.
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 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. In July 2008, WPTE announced that the series would move to Fox Sports Net
for its seventh season. The drawing power of the WPT, and most
other poker tournaments, is that anyone who can pay the "buy-in" or win a
"satellite" tournament is able to compete against the top professional
players. 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. The first three seasons of WPT are
available on NTSC DVD. A series of spin-off tournaments, titled
the Professional Poker Tour, began filming in 2004. Broadcast of the series
was delayed, which was partly due to a dispute with the Travel Channel over
rights. In the fall of 2005, WPTE announced that "a cable channel" 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.
An interesting side note is that only 4 players finished in the money at least
once in the first 8 seasons of the World Poker Tour. These players are Phil
Hellmuth, Erik Seidel, Mark Seif, and Surinder Sunar.
ClubWPT In 2008, the WPT launched a new product
called ClubWPT. It is a subscription-based club where members
can pay a monthly fee to play in tournaments that award over $100,000 in
cash and prizes each month. Commentary
The show's hosts, Mike Sexton and Vince Van Patten, sit at a booth near the
final table, providing commentary and occasionally interacting with the
players during the game. However, their specific comments about hole cards are
recorded after the tournament takes place because gaming regulations
prohibit them from observing a live feed of the "hole card cameras" while on the
set. Sherman Act lawsuit
In July 2006, seven poker professionals sued WPTE, alleging violations of the
Sherman Antitrust Act, the California Cartwright Act, and intentional
interference with contract. The professionals allege that WPTE's
standard release forms, required for participation in WPTE events, are
anti-competitive and designed to interfere with their contractual
obligations to other companies. The anti-competition claim is based on the
fact that WPTE's contracts with the casinos that host its tournaments bar
those casinos from hosting non-WPTE poker events. The claim of interference
with contract is based on the releases' claim to perpetual rights to the
players' likenesses for any use WPTE wishes. The players claim that this
would put them in violation of other contracts. Hachem and Raymer dropped out
of the lawsuit before its eventual settlement.
= Settlement= In April 2008, WPT Enterprises, Inc.
settled with the five remaining players of the lawsuit that was brought against
them, Chris Ferguson, said about the settlement, "We are happy to have come
to an agreement that is fair to all players, and to have put in place a new
release that clears up ambiguities in how players' images may be used. We are
especially happy that this new release will apply to all poker players who wish
to participate in WPT tournaments and events."
WPT Ladies In January 2008, the WPT announced a set
of tournaments for women, known as WPT Ladies. The first season had five
events, with buy-ins ranging from $300 to $1,500. Nancy Todd finished first in
the Ladies Championship with Vanessa Selbst finishing second. There are
currently no WPT Ladies events scheduled.
WPT Walk of Fame The World Poker Tour Walk of Fame is
designed to honor those poker players who have played the game well at the
highest levels as well as those who have promoted the spread of it through film,
television, and literature. In February 2004, the World Poker Tour
Walk of Fame inducted its second members at the Commerce Casino in a ceremony
before top pros and celebrities in town for the World Poker Tour Invitational
Poker Tournament. The induction ceremony was staged on the doorstep of Commerce
Casino. No new players have been inducted since
2004. The original inductees were Doyle Brunson, Gus Hansen and James Garner.
Player of the Year While the winner of the season-ending
WPT World Championship is deemed that season's WPT Champion, the WPT also
determines a Player of the Year to recognize the player who achieves
consistent high finishes in WPT events throughout the entire season.
The Player of the Year is determined by a points system, with the player who
earns the most points each season being named the WPT Player of the Year. The
season-ending WPT World Championship is a points-earning event for the Player of
the Year calculation. Through the end of Season 9, no player
has been named WPT Player of the Year and also captured the WPT Championship.
The closest to date is Season 7 WPT Player of the Year Bertrand Grospellier,
who finished 3rd in that season's WPT Championship.
= Points system= During the first 8 seasons, only the 6
players at the final table in each Open event, plus the last player eliminated
before the final table, earned points 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 Starting with season 9, the points
system was adjusted to recognize the number of entries and the size of the
prizepool for each event: Generally, 10% of the participants in
each event will finish in the money, so the system now gives Player of the Year
points to all ITM players. The maximum number of points awarded to
the event winner are now scaled to the size of the prizepool, with 600 points
to the winner of an event with a prizepool smaller than $500,000 and 1400
points to the winner of an event with a prize pool larger than $4,000,000. The
season-ending WPT World Championship, no matter the prizepool, also starts at
1400 points to the winner. The system still operates on a
descending scale, though the scale provides a minimum of 50 points to all
the 'bottom' ITM players in any event. = WPT Player of the Year, by Season=
The players earning WPT Player of the Year honors have been:
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
Season 9: Andy Frankenberger Season 10: Joe Serock
Season 11: Matthew Salsberg Season 12: Mukul Pahuja
Season 13: Anthony Zinno Tournament results
World Poker Tour season 1 results World Poker Tour season 2 results
World Poker Tour season 3 results World Poker Tour season 4 results
World Poker Tour season 5 results World Poker Tour season 6 results
World Poker Tour season 7 results World Poker Tour season 8 results
World Poker Tour season 9 results World Poker Tour season 10 results
World Poker Tour season 11 results World Poker Tour season 12 results
World Poker Tour season 13 results World Poker Tour season 14 results
Record winnings The largest win in a WPT event is the
$3,970,415 paid to Carlos Mortensen for winning the season-ending WPT
Championship for season 5. = Regular Events=
Progression of the "highest payout" through the history of the WPT, starting
with the win by Gus Hansen in Event 1 of WPT Season 1. Entries have declined post
the poker boom, with no increase in "highest payout" for a number of years -
the highest has not increased since an event in 2007.
= WPT Championships= Each WPT season culminates with the
$25,000 buy-in WPT World Championship. Deal
A fictional WPT championship match is the setting for the 2007 feature film
Deal. Sexton, Van Patten, and Friel 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. References
External links Official site