World Poker Tour: TV Poker Show
The World Poker Tour is one of the most popular TV poker shows and one of the reasons for the current huge popularity of the poker game. The show displays a series of poker tournaments around the world featuring some of the biggest names in the pro poker world. The winner in the World Poker Tour Championship Finale goes home with over 1 million dollars pot.
The fifth season of the World Poker Tour is broadcast on the Travel Channel every Wednesday at 9 pm. The first season was aired in the spring of 2003. The first World Poker Tour Championship was broadcast on NBC at the same time as CBS broadcast the Super Bowl XXXVIII pre-game show. The show is hosted by poker pro Mike Sexton, home poker player and Hollywood actor Vince Van Patten and model Courtney Friel.
In order to attract the home viewers, the World Poker Tour TV show offers several technical innovations. For example, a small camera located on the poker table in front of the participants reveals the hole cards to the viewers at home.
The World Poker Tour competes with the veteran World Series of Poker, which broadcast on ESPN, for the attention of the TV viewers. While the WSOP tournaments features only professional poker players, WPT is famous for providing an opportunity for amateur poker players to play against some of the top poker players in the world. In 2004, the World Poker Tour has launched a Wall of Fame, inducting poker legends Doyle Brunson and Gus Hansen as well as actor James Garner.
