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The World Poker Tour is the most popular
TV show about poker. The viewers get to watch the hole cards of
the players, therefore follow the action from the player's perspective.
A major part of the attraction is the high quality of the poker
that is filmed. All tournaments are high buy-in tournaments and
the players are some of the best players in the world. But the tournaments
are open for anyone to enter so occasionally an amateur reaches
the final table and battles it out against the poker professionals.
The first episode of the World Poker
Tour was recorded at the Bellagio in Las Vegas in 2002. The tournament
was The Diamond World Poker Classic and it had 146 entrants that
all paid an entrance fee of $10,000 each. From that point it just
went on, season 1 contained another 12 episodes recorded at major
tournaments. Most of them around the United States except three
recorded in the Caribbean, and one in France. The tournaments were
held between June 2002 and April 2003. The last event of the season
was held at the Bellagio where it all started. The last event of
the season is called the World Poker Tour Championship and costs
$25,000 to enter. This is one of the most prestigious tournaments
in the world to win. In season 3 the tour consisted of 16 events
in total.
Some extra episodes have been added
due to the high popularity of the show, for example have charity
free-rolls with Hollywood celebrities been held and also have tournaments
with former winners playing each other been shown on TV. In 2004
a new branch started of the WPT and it is called the Professional
Poker Tour. The PPT is an invitational tour where poker professionals
only are invited to play without having to pay a buy-in.
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