Genius Poker

Now a Poker TV Guide to Give Updates on Televised Poker Programs

TV friendly tournaments have played a big role in promoting poker. Channels such as NBC, ESPN, The Travel Channel to name just a few, have all come up with several shows on poker. Not only in the United States, but the world over, Poker is fast making a focal place for itself, in the sporting arena. The latest addition to the world of poker on television, is the Poker TV Guide. It promises to keep the poker junkies updated with all the events and happenings. This website gives listings of all the televised programs not only in the United States but also in England and Sweden. Besides, this it is planning to give the details of television programming in several other countries soon. It is believed that with the poker playing community growing in leaps and bounds this unique site will surely find many seekers. Pokernews.com reports:

It has listings for every hour and day of the week and is sure to satisfy the most rabid poker enthusiasts. According to Poker TV Guide's director of marketing, Martin Dabrowski, the site will fulfill the needs of users for the moment but can't promise about the future due to the growing success of combining television and poker.

Read More: Find Your Televised Poker Action

Poker Related Events Keep Viewers Glued to TV

Tournaments like Texas Hold'em are exceedingly successful and have become big business on Television. Producers, advertisers and online offshoots make mega bucks from such events, worldwide. In Britain the time alloted to poker broadcasts, has gone up by 250 percent, in the last two years. This week 16 tournaments will be telecast on nine channels.  Jonathan Webb, head of the channels at Flextech, said that he would like to use poker as a tool to uncover deceit, power and the different thought processes of men and women. He spoke about adding more creativity to poker related events, instead of simply telecasting them for the sake of doing so. One of the biggest attractions in the last few years has been the excitment from seeing punters who win online tournaments with only $25 entry fees, suddenly begin competing at real poker tables against champs. Million-dollar pots are involved at such events. Today.reuters.com reports:

Broadcasters also have made the game look slick by investing in production , including under-table cameras that reveal players' cards to TV viewers, and celebrity tournaments. Poker-watching has is beginning to become segmented with some channels focusing on bigger, event-driven programmes and others catering to card-playing aficionados with niche shows.

Read More: TV raises its bet on poker against longer odds

WPT's Restrictions on Logos Comes Under Critisism From Players

An agreement has been reached between WPT Enterprises Inc. and poker players. According to it, players will be allowed to wear sponsor logos in the preliminary and final tables of the company's World Poker Tour events that will be televised. The company will lay down specific guidelines for the size of the logo. It will also specify the placement and consent of the logo, which must be again in compliance with its rules. WPT's restrictions have come under criticism from players. They feel that this will hinder their ability to bring in major sponsors to poker tournaments. It will hamper the scoring of big sponsorship deals. Internet poker sites that hire players as represetatives form the bulk of the sponsors. Lasvegassun.com reports:

Poker players have criticised WPT's restriction on logos, saying it has dampened their ability to attract major sponsors to poker tournaments and score big sponsorship deals. Brian Balsbaugh, an agent who represents several players, said the change will "open the door for corporate sponsorship...sponsors want certainty and these guidelines provide just that."

Read More: Players to be allowed to wear logos on televised poker tour

World Series of Poker Circuit to be Covered by ESPN

Television coverage for the 2005-2006 World Series of Poker Circuit, will be provided by ESPN. This was announced by the tournament owner Harrah's Entertainment Inc. A series of country-wide events have been started off at the Grand Casino Tunica. This has been done, in order to capitalize on Harrah's purchase of the World Series of Poker brand. The 12 casino stops that are a part of the circuit are expected to increase the interest in the World Series of Poker. The Tournament of Champions is supposed to be by invitation only. There are no buy-in top ranked professional players to have qualified for it. Harrah's has said that it will be holding its 2005 World Series of Poker Tournament of Champions between November 6-8 at Caesars Palace. Lasvegassun.com reports:

The Tournament of Champions is an invitational event with no-buy-in for top-ranked professional players and others who have qualified for the tournament based on their performance at five World Series of Poker Circuit events that concluded prior to this year's World Series of Poker at Rio. Next year's Tournament of Champions will be held at the Rio June 28-29 prior to the World Series of Poker, which will again be held at the Rio.

Read More: ESPN to Broadcast Poker Circuit

Poker Updates Acquired by Poker TV Network Inc.

According to an announcement made by Poker TV Network, Inc. (PTN), it has acquired many poker related Internet properties. These include PokerUpdates.com, PokerMediaNetwork.com and PokerTalkShow.com which have been acquired from Eric Rosenberg, considered to be a pioneer in web broadcasting. PTN CEO, Michael Grasso stated that ever since they had begun development of the network, they had been eyeing Poker Updates as well as other content being produced by Eric. It should be remembered that Poker Updates is the world's first and only online TV show, in the domain of poker. Eric said that he found PTN's vision very similar to his own. He believes that Poker TV Network will be able to take this vision forward to a higher level. Eric will be joining the PTN team as the Chief Operations Officer and Production Coordinator. He will also be a part of the Board of Directors. His role will be to produce many new and innovative poker related television programs in the coming months. No disclosures have been made about the financial details with regard to this deal. Biz.yahoo.com reports:

Poker TV Network is a develoment stage compahy that is creating a broadband Internet based TV network dedicated to providing information, news, trends, updates, non-fiction entertainment (reality based), and educational programming related to the world of poker. The Poker TV Network plans on-air growth and market penetration through the acquisition of established cable television stations and production facilities as well as programming to expand its library.

Read More: Poker TV Network Raises the Stakes With Acquision of Poker Updates

ESPN Telecasts WSOP 2005 Tonight

ESPN will be broadcasting the 2005 World Series of Poker from tonight. During the first hour, event #2, which is a $1500 buy-in-No-Limit Hold'em contest will be telecast. The other event viewers will get to watch is event #3, that is a $1500 buy-in-Pot-Limit Hold'em tournament. Featured will be the results of three days of play. 2305 players were seated for this tournament, creating a record of sorts. Owing to the large number of players, tournament officials allotted an extra day. The World Series promises all-out action packed entertainment. Although the telvised series will pack all the action into an hour, the actual event entailed many hours of nail-biting competitive play. Lasvegasvegas.com reports:

The second hour of 2005 WSOP action tonight will be the final table of the $1,500 buy-in Pot-LImit event #3. Another record crowd of 1071 players began play on the first day.

Read More: 2005 WSOP Debuts on ESPN Tonight!

Canadian Laws Prohibit Promotions by Internet Poker Comapanies, on TV

Canadian laws pertaining to criminal code are being re-examined. The reason behind this is, to forbid casinos from advertising on television. Earlier, United States has already made a move in this direction, wanting to curb internet poker companies from using television as a medium of promotion. Jim Patterson who is the CEO of the Television Bureau of Canada, says that the new criminal code totally prohibits on-line gambling. Since promoting any illegal activity is against law, no promotions or advertisements will be approved if they lure the viewer to play for cash. However, every law seems to have a loophole and this one is no exception. Even though Canadian TV stations cannot show advertisements of poker sites, they can show "play money" commercials for organizations such as PartyPoker and PokerStars. Cleverly, these playsites have similar names and end with .net instead of the usual dot com. Pokernews.com reports:

Toronto based internet consultant Rick Broadhead is quick to point out that allowing this practice makes Canadian regulators look foolish. Mr. Patterson, who runs Telecaster (Canadian TV station) in addition to playing a role at the Television Bureau of Canada, sympathizes with Broadheawd but feels there are line regulatory agencies shouldn't cross.

Read More: Oh, Canada - Poker Ads Examined

National Lampoon's Strip Poker?

When Victoria's Secret decided to launch a new viral marketing campaign to take advantage of all the searches for poker, I didn't think much of it until I saw them at #1 for the phrase 'party poker' in Google. They'd apparently convinced every advertising blog in the country to talk about their new 'pink pany poker party' and the resulting Google-bomb worked. But the whole thing highlighted something else that's been on my mind a lot lately - gender and poker.

I'm amazed at the interest in women who play poker, and I'm not quite sure I understand it. I know that Pokerstars celeb Jennicide gets an unbelievable amount of attention, and while she is lovely, I just don't understand why guys who are interested in looking at girly pictures don't just hang out at Playboy's or Maxim's website. I run another poker site that gets search engine traffic from phrases like 'Annie Duke nude' too. I'm not even going to comment on how many different ways that's wrong.

So today when I searched for poker news, one of the top items was about a WWE diva (Alexis) who lost the National Lampoon Strip Poker event, which was evidently a big pay-per-view event. For some reason I think the World Series of Poker would make a better pay-per-view event if you're interested in poker. For me, I'll take my nudity old-school by watching reruns of Shannon Tweed thrillers on Cinemax.