WPT on NBC

[eMarkM]

From USA Today, poker goes Primetime (http://www.usatoday.com/sports/columnist/martzke/2003-11-16-martzke_x.htm). It's the last sentence, repeated below:

Alternative programming: NBC will carry the Travel Channel's World Poker Tour Battle of Champions on Feb. 1, opposite CBS' Super Bowl pregame show.

Poker's come a long way in one short year.

[Easy E]

Over/under on viewers for the WPT show against the Super Bowl.

The true battle- the Super Bowl commercials vs. flipping to the WPT Celebrity challenge.

The sub-pool: How many 2+2'ers will NOT watch the celebrity game, unless they actually play against them regularly.

[J.R.]

"The Battle of the Champions" is the 25K buy-in final event, not the celebrity challenge.

[ QUOTE ]
The World Poker Tour will consist of a further 12 nationally televised poker events filmed in casinos around the world, where finalists will compete for multi-million dollar prize pools. Champions from each of the tournaments world-wide will earn a spot in the season-crowning grand finale, “The Battle of Champions” in April 2003, with a participant entry fee of $25,000.


[/ QUOTE ]

link (http://www.thepokerforum.com/wptpress2.htm)

[lil']

Amazing. I always watch the Super Bowl with my father, and he keeps the freaking golf on RIGHT UNTIL KICKOFF. I'll never get to see it.

[BreakEvenPlayer]

So will they be showing a rerun of last year's Battle of Champions? The Super Bowl is in Feb. and this event supposedly takes place in April.

[MaxPower]

Not to toot my own horn, but I predicted in a thread a few months ago that NBC would be the first broadcast network to show poker.

The thread in question (http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/showthreaded.php?Cat=&Number=382188&page=&view=&sb =5&o=&vc=1)

This is great news. They must be going crazy at WPT headquarters (wherever that is).

[ResidentParanoid]

My bankroll is now looking forward to Super Sunday.

[eMarkM]

At first I thought they were just rerunning last year's chapmpionship, but no. All new! Mike Sexton posted an NBC press release on RGP (http://www.google.com/groups?q=nbc+press+release+group:rec.gambling.poke r+author:mike+author:sexton&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&selm=3fb99f76%240%2425304%249a6e19ea%40news.news hosting.com&rnum=1) about the event.

So not just a rerun of last year's championship event. All of last year's champs squaring off. It really will be interesting how it stacks up against Super Bowl pregame. Should do well against boring, overblown pregame drivel. I think it's a master stroke by NBC. Hopefully this will lead to regular show on network TV.