Poker Superstars
Phil Hellmuth
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World Poker Tour Season 7 Schedule Edit |
 For many years now, the World Poker Tour has proved itself to be pretty much the high water mark of poker programming, a bar set not only for all other poker shows to measure up to, but a map for all poker tournaments themselves, establishing a level of class and renown not always schedules for poker's forms of competition. A rescheduling of this upcoming seasons 7, now on GSN rather than the Travel Channel, has some people retrospecting.
As mentioned last week, the new season of WPT will be on GSN rather than the Travel Channel, a move that has raised some eyebrows. Though last season they filmed 20 episodes of the program, this new season 7 will feature only 14 events, all of which (except one at Niagra Falls) will remain within the U.S. borders, kind of drawing back from the idea of a "World Poker Tour." Several popular tournaments that have been included in previous seasons will now be cut, including Mirage Poker Showdown, the Mandalay Bay Poker Championship, the Ladies Night invitational, the Turks and Caicos Poker Classic, the WPT Spanish Championship, and the World Poker Challenge.
It's kind of weird mashing, and the change has got a lot of people asking questions.
“Well, I can say that mostly what went into that decision has lots to do with the market," said Steve Lipscomb, CEO of WPTE, a publicly traded company. "Players let us know [where they prefer to play] verbally, and they also vote with their tournament dollars,” Lipscomb said. “I think we’re trying to be mindful of places that people really want to go, where they want to play, and the properties that really have the resources and the dedication to be able to grow substantial events over time.”
Furthermore, Lipscomb mentioned that WPTE had been in the process of developing broadcasts of poker tournaments more locally, though he didn't expand much on this rather compelling idea.
WPTE stock has taken a huge hit in the past few years, coming down from a peak of $9.15 to today's closing price of $1.46. Much of this loss has been pinpointed to WPTE's lack of presence on the online gambling market, which they are well aware of and beginning to take a look at tackling.
“World Poker Tour came in and reinvented poker so that it worked in a different way on television, and it really started making profits in a number of different areas, from consumer products and television licensing and sponsorship, and then the online gaming market in the United States literally became the profit center for the entire industry,” Lipscomb said.
They've also been dipping into China's online poker market via the nationally sponsored Traktor Poker Tour, which WPTE feels will help them expand online in massive ways.
Regardless of where they're at now, there's no question of the WPT's influence on the state of the game. As they begin to reanalyze the current state of the market, including the unstoppable online industry, there's pretty much no doubt they'll find a way to regain steam. As for now, we'll have to make due with the revised schedule, and enjoy what we have:
- Bellagio Cup IV — Bellagio, Las Vegas — July 11- 17
- Legends of Poker — The Bicycle Casino, Los Angeles — Aug. 23-28
- Borgata Poker Open — Borgata, Atlantic City — Sept. 14-18
- North American Poker Championship — Fallsview Resort Casino, Niagara Falls, Canada — Oct. 10-16
- Festa Al Lago — Bellagio, Las Vegas — Oct. 20-25
- World Poker Finals — Foxwoods, Mashantucket, Connecticut — Nov. 5-11
- Doyle Brunson Five-Diamond World Poker Classic — Bellagio, Las Vegas — Dec. 13-19
- Gulf Coast Poker Championship — Beau Rivage, Biloxi, Mississippi — Jan. 16-19, 2009
- Borgata Poker Classic — Borgata, Atlantic City — Jan. 25-29, 2009
- L.A. Poker Classic — Commerce Casino, Los Angeles — Feb. 28-March 5, 2009
- WPT Celebrity Invitational — Commerce Casino, Los Angeles — March 7-9, 2009
- Bay 101 Shooting Star — Bay 101, San Jose — March 16-20
- Foxwoods Poker Classic, Foxwoods, April 4-9
- WPT World Championship, Bellagio, Las Vegas, April 18-25
February 20, 2008 |
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