Poker on television
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Poker television programs have been extremely popular in the last several years, especially in North America and Europe. This has especially become the case since the invention of the "pocket cam" in 1997 (and its first use in the United States in 2002), which allows viewers at home to see each player's hole cards.
Contents |
[edit] History
Poker has been appearing on television somewhat regularly since the late-1970s. In the United States, ESPN started airing the final table of the World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event as an annual one hour show around this time. For many years, the coverage was less than robust because viewers at home could not see what cards the players had. Instead, the coverage essentially involved the commentators guessing what cards the players had.
This all changed in 1997 with the introduction of the hole cam in Europe and later introduction into the United States in 2002. The hole cam was patented by WSOP bracelet winner Henry Orenstein and first used in the Late Night Poker television series. It was used again in the inaugural Poker Million tournament in 2000 which boasted the attraction of the first £1,000,000 poker game on live television.
The usage of the hole cam expanded from Europe to North America in 2002 when it was first used in the coverage of the final table of the 2002 WSOP Main Event. The World Poker Tour (WPT) was formed later that year and began airing in 2003, attracting numerous new poker fans and leading to increased numbers of entrants to live poker tournaments and increased investment in online poker. ESPN's coverage of the 2003 Main Event also is credited for attracting a lot more interest in poker. The much improved ratings of poker television programs from this point on lead to ESPN covering many more events of the World Series of Poker (besides just the Main Event as in the past) since 2003, as well as covering some other tournaments outside of the World Series, such as the United States Poker Championship.
Since the introduction of the hole cam, poker has become almost ubiquitous in the US and Europe. While poker originally aired on sports channels such as ESPN and Sky Sports has expanded to such "non traditional" networks as Bravo and GSN. All poker television programs make heavy use of the aforementioned pocket cam, plus generally feature a "straightman" and a "comedian" type of commentators, with one often being a professional poker player.
With the ability to edit a tournament that lasts days into just a few hours, ESPN's World Series of Poker broadcasts generally focus on showing how various star players fared in each event. Key hands from throughout the many days of each year's WSOP Main Event are shown, and similar highly edited coverage of final tables is also provided. For the events in the WSOP before the Main Event, only the final table is covered in television coverage, similar to how the Main Event was televised before ESPN's airing of the 2003 World Series Main Event.
The World Poker Tour does not offer general coverage of the multi-day poker tournaments. Instead, the WPT covers only the action at the final table of each event. With aggressive play and increasing blinds and antes, the important action from a single table can easily be edited into a two hour episode. Although the tournament fate of fewer stars are chronicled this way, it allows the drama to build more naturally toward the final heads up showdown.
Although most poker shows on television focus on tournaments, High Stakes Poker shows a high-stakes cash game. In this game professional and amateur players play no limit Texas Hold 'em with their own money (the minimum to enter the game is $100,000). This game has allowed spectators to observe differences between cash games and tournaments, and to see how players adjust their play to the different format.[1]
Poker's growth in Europe led to the creation of two FTA channels: The Poker Channel and Pokerzone. Both began broadcasting during 2005.
[edit] Poker television programs
Here is a list of poker television programs currently airing on television in either the United States or Europe.
[edit] North America
| Program | Network | Years aired | Current commentators |
|---|---|---|---|
| World Series of Poker | ESPN | 1979-1998; 2002 onwards1 |
Lon McEachern and Norman Chad |
| World Poker Tour | The Travel Channel | 2003 onwards | Mike Sexton and Vince Van Patten |
| Celebrity Poker Showdown | Bravo | 2003 onwards | Dave Foley and Phil Hellmuth |
| Poker Superstars Invitational Tournament | Fox Sports Net | 2004 onwards | Chris Rose and Howard "The Professor" Lederer |
| Ultimate Poker Challenge | syndication | 2004 onwards | Chad Brown and weekly guest |
| Poker Royale | GSN | 2004-2006 | John Ahlers and Robert Williamson III |
| High Stakes Poker | GSN | 2006 onwards | A.J. Benza and Gabe Kaplan |
| Professional Poker Tour | The Travel Channel | 2006 onwards | Matt Corboy and Mark Seif |
| National Heads-Up Poker Championship | NBC | 2005 onwards | Matt Vasgersian and Gabe Kaplan |
| Poker Dome Challenge | Fox Sports Net | 2006 | Barry Tompkins and Michael Konik |
| Poker After Dark | NBC | 2007 | Shana Hiatt and Oliver Nejad |
| Pro-Am Poker Equalizer | ESPN | 2007 | Phil Gordon |
1 The Discovery Channel aired one-hour specials on the 2000 and 2001 WSOP
[edit] Europe
| Program | Network | Years aired | Current commentators |
|---|---|---|---|
| Late Night Poker | Channel 4 (UK) Fox Sports Net (US) |
1999-2002, 2006 onwards | Jesse May and "Barmy" Barny Boatman (final season) |
| Poker Million | Sky Sports | 2000, 2003 onwards | Jesse May and John Duthie |
| World Heads-Up Poker Championship | Unknown | 2001 onwards | Unknown |
| Celebrity Poker Club | Challenge (UK) | 2003 onwards | Jesse May and Victoria Coren |
| European Poker Tour | Channel 4 (UK) | 2004 onwards | Colin Murray and John Duthie |
| Victor Chandler Poker Cup | Sky Sports | 2004 onwards | Jesse May and "Barmy" Barny Boatman |
| The Gaming Club World Poker Championship | Sky Sports | 2004 | Unknown |
| British Poker Open | The Poker Channel | 2005 onwards | Unknown |
| World Speed Poker Open | The Poker Channel | 2005 onwards | Gary "The Choirboy" Jones, Roy "The Boy" Brindley, Lucy "Golden Ovaries" Rokach |
| Late Night Poker Ace | Channel 4 (UK) | 2005 onwards | Jesse May and Simon "Aces" Trumper |
| PartyPoker Poker Den | Challenge (UK) | 2005 onwards | Grub Smith and Tony Cascarino |
| William Hill Poker Grand Prix | Sky Sports | 2006 onwards | Jesse May, Andrew Black, Lucy "Golden Ovaries" Rokach |
| 888.com Poker Nations Cup | Channel 4 (UK) | 2006 onwards | Jesse May, "Barmy" Barny Boatman and Padraig Parkinson |
| PartyPoker.com Football & Poker Legends Cup | Channel 5 (UK) | 2006 onwards | Jesse May, Padraig Parkinson and Ken "Top Hat" Lennaárd |
| Pokerheaven.com Online Series of Poker | CNBC | 2006 onwards | Unknown |
[edit] Notes
- ^ Burton, Earl (May 24, 2006). 'High Stakes Poker' Back for a Second Season in June. PokerNews. Retrieved on October 27, 2006.
