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The World Poker Tour (WPT) is a series of poker tournaments featuring most of the world's professional players. It was started by attorney/television producer Steven Lipscomb who now serves as CEO of WPT Enterprises (WPTE), the firm that controls the World Poker Tour.

The tour had its debut season in the latter part of 2002 and early part of 2003, climaxing with the WPT Championship in April 2003 at the Bellagio Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada. The first season aired on the Travel Channel on American cable television in the spring of 2003. The show made its network debut on February 1, 2004 on NBC with a special "Battle Of Champions" tournament, which aired against CBS coverage of the Super Bowl XXXVIII pre-game show.

The World Poker Tour is a collection of Texas hold 'em poker tournaments held internationally, but mainly in the United States. The television show has led to a boom in the table game across American homes, in local casino poker rooms, and of course online. It is perhaps not surprising, therefore, that the key sponsors of the tour are casinos and online poker sites. The show, which is syndicated internationally, is co-hosted by World Series of Poker winner Mike Sexton, and actor Vince Van Patten. Former model Shana Hiatt served as the show host and sideline reporter in its first three seasons. Former newscaster Courtney Friel took over the host role for the fourth season, and Sabina Gadecki for the fifth.

The show's hosts Mike Sexton and Vince Van Patten give the impression that all of their commentary is recorded live as the tournament happens, and they have occasionally interacted with the players during the game. However, much of the commentary is recorded in post-production. Consequently, the broadcast audio is a mix of the live recording, and commentary recorded in post-production.

The drawing power of the WPT and most other poker tournaments, is that anyone who can pay the "buy-in" (an amount ranging from $5,000 to $25,000) or win a "satellite" tournament is able to compete against the top professional players, such as Phil Hellmuth, Doyle Brunson, or the top 2004 tournament money and multi-WPT tournament winner, Daniel Negreanu.

Fans of the show find it interesting because of technical innovations such as the ability to see the players' hole cards through a small camera in front of them on the poker table (an innovation first seen on the UK programme Late Night Poker). With the success of the show, special programs, such as the "Hollywood Home Game" (featuring celebrities playing for charity) and "Ladies Night" (featuring six top women players) were developed.

In 2004, the World Poker Tour created a Walk of Fame, inducting poker legends Doyle Brunson and Gus Hansen as well as actor James Garner.

Now in its fourth season of broadcast, it still remains among the highest rated television programs on cable. It airs Wednesdays on the Travel Channel. The first three seasons of WPT are also available on NTSC DVD. (The second season DVD set features audio commentary by several of the players. The third season is only available in a "Best Of" format, featuring just half of the episodes.)

A series of spin-off tournaments, titled the Professional Poker Tour, began filming in 2004. Broadcast of the series was delayed, in part because of a dispute with the Travel Channel over rights. In the fall of 2005, WPTE announced that "a cable channel" (believed to be ESPN) had withdrawn from bidding for the PPT series, and that WPTE was negotiating with the Travel Channel to air the series. On January 30, 2006, WPTE and the Travel Channel announced that they had dismissed all open lawsuits. The series began regular broadcast July 5, 2006.

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Le World Poker Tour est un ensemble de tournois de poker où s'affrontent les meilleurs joueurs mondiaux.

La première saison à avoir été diffusée aux État-Unis est celle de 2003. En France, elle a été diffusée pour la première fois en 2005 par Canal +. Ce tournoi connaît un succès médiatique de plus en plus important.

Le tournoi se déroule dans les casinos du monde entier, parfois sur des bateaux de croisière, mais la plupart des sessions se situent aux États-Unis. Le seul tournoi WPT européen est celui de l'ACF (Aviation Club de France) situé sur les Champs-Elysées à Paris.

Tout le monde peut participer à ces tournois, soit en payant directement le ticket d'entrée (buy-in) valant plusieurs milliers d'euros, soit en se qualifiant par un satellite, c'est-à-dire un tournoi qualificatif avec un ticket d'entrée moins cher. Ensuite, le joueur pourra se confronter aux grands noms du poker comme Phil Hellmuth ou Doyle Brunson.

Ce show a aussi du succès grâce aux progrès techniques, comme la possibilité de voir les cartes des joueurs. Il existe plusieurs tournois télévisés de poker qui héritent de ce concept comme les « Celebrity Poker » ou « Ladies Night » aux États-Unis ou encore le « Tournoi des As » sur Paris Première en France. Dans ce dernier, on invite à la fois des célébrités et des joueurs professionnels.