Already one of the elite international tours on the tournament poker calendar, the World Poker Tour announced yesterday the establishment of a new set of special “High Roller” events that should draw in the crème of the poker world for competition.
The tour, to be called “WPT Alpha8,” will be a series of eight, $100,000 (minimum) buy in tournaments to be held in some of the most prestigious venues around the world. Partnering with the soon to be introduced Fox Sports 1 (set to debut on August 17), each stop will be a part of the WPT television broadcast schedule. The first stop on the eight-stop tour will be on August 26 during the schedule at the Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open and will be called “WPT Alpha8 Florida,” with other stops expected to be in Europe, Asia, South Africa and other locations in North America.
“I am honored to announce Alpha8, WPT’s newest and most ambitious offering in conjunction with its primetime home on FS1,” said WPT President Adam Pliska during the announcement of the tour. “Showcasing the world’s poker elite and featuring multimillion dollar prize pools, Alpha8 represents the highest televised treatment of super high-roller tournament poker to date. Playing out over a global stage, this series will give audiences insight into the intensity and skill demanded at the sport’s highest levels.”
The WPT Alpha8 should draw some of the best players in the world, something that wasn’t lost on the head of the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino. “As a long-time World Poker Tour partner, Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino is excited to be hosting the first event in this exclusive, super high-roller series,” said Seminole Gaming COO Larry Mullin. “Adding WPT Alpha8 Florida to the Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open schedule raises the volume on this already highly anticipated series, including our $10 million guarantee Main Event.”
Fox Sports 1, vying with several other competitors for fresh programming (the network will join the crowded sports channel lineup that includes ESPN, the NBC Sports Network and the CBS Sports Network), will broadcast the WPT Alpha8 series for the next three years. “We’re excited to bring WPT’s new high-roller series to FS1 viewers,” said Fox Sports 1 Vice President of Programming David Sussin. “WPT Alpha8 will be a key part of our primetime line up and a tremendous complement to our other sports programming including MLB, NASCAR, UFC, soccer, and college basketball and football.”
“With this new series, WPT has significantly raised the stakes of televised poker,” Sussin continued. “By increasing the risk and raising the pressure, WPT Alpha8 delivers more drama and bigger personalities, and we’re confident the show will quickly become a habit for our viewers.”
The first broadcast, expected to hit the Fox Sports 1 airwaves in March 2014, will have a completely different look than other WPT broadcasts have had. A new set is being specially constructed for the WPT Alpha8 and, instead of employing some of the members of their broadcast team from the WPT stable, have reached out to a relatively new face (for some) to anchor the tour.
Noted poker reporter Lynn Gilmartin, an Australian broadcaster who has traveled the international tournament circuit reporting on events and a highly visible personality on Australian televised poker programs, will step to the anchor desk for the WPT Alpha8. Gilmartin, who had teased through the summer about a “big announcement” following the completion of the World Series of Poker, was understandably overjoyed at her new position. “I am beside myself with excitement,” Gilmartin commented over Twitter in accepting congratulations from friends and fans.
“High Roller” events have become a staple of many tours, but the move by the WPT to set up a special schedule for such tournaments is unprecedented. In March 2011, the Onyx Cup was created by Full Tilt Poker as a series of six high buy-in tournaments. One month later, however, “Black Friday” arose and the Onyx Cup never saw the light of day.
This year’s WSOP featured a bracelet event for the One Drop charity with an $111,111 buy in (roughly the size of a prospective Alpha8 buy in), drawing a pro-laden field of 166 runners for the tournament. If the WPT is even to capture a quarter of that number for each of its eight stops, it would make the WPT Alpha8 a highly successful venture.
