Betting And Bluffing Like The Pro's
Sweeping across the globe, poker has dominated the gaming tables as the game of choice. Thanks to the World Poker Tour, the game has been brought from casinos to live television the world over. By taking the pro's to primetime television, the WPT has allowed people a glimpse of the real high stakes kind of poker. Since then, the game's popularity boomed as more and more people became interested in poker. Since poker is a game of both skill and luck, people all over the world have become drawn to it because of this combination. Ever since World Poker Tour became a TV show, casinos, real and online, have had a steady influx of players to their tables.
The World Poker Tour is comprised of several poker games or tournaments with professional poker players as participants. By televising tournaments whose participants are the biggest and most feared names in poker tables, audiences see how the pros do it. Names like Bertrand Grospellier and Allan Goehring have become staples in basic professional poker tours. Seeing how these people play and how they handle the cards they have been dealt, audiences learn new ways and tricks into winning their own poker games.
Syndicated internationally, the World Poker Tour has participants from all over the world. Games are held almost in every part of the globe. However, most of these games are in the United States. The World Poker Tour is made of a series of No Limit Hold 'Em poker tournaments. The show's biggest sponsors are casinos as well as online poker sites. In 2003, World Poker Tour made its first appearance on cable television and was aired on the Travel Channel. The cable network aired the Tour's first five seasons. Then, the tour its network debut in February 2004 that featured the Battle of the Champions tournament. Aired on NBC, this first broadcast went against the pre game show of Super Bowl XXXVIII.
World-renowned player Mike Sexton and Vince Van Patten, an actor, hosts the show. The two hosts give a blow-by-blow account of what goes on during a round as well as some analysis of the game. The hosts' commentaries seem live and were said as the game unfolded but they have, in fact, had some sort of interaction with the players of the tournament while the game was on. By doing so, poker enthusiasts learn new tricks into improving their own game; and what better source of techniques than pro poker players? With succinct analysis from respected poker players in the form of Sexton and Van Patten, each game is broken down into a series of moves, counter moves; of bluffs and counter bluffs as well as a thorough knowledge of how the game is played.
The World Poker Tour has not only fuelled many a person's passion in playing poker: it has also helped both amateurs and advanced poker players to learn from the best ones in the world just by watching the show. By learning new strategies, poker players increase their chances clearing his opponents of bets and taking home the pot. Riveting up until the last minute, the Tour is not only an entertaining show but a educational one as well.
