The newly formed North American Poker Tour has reached an agreement with Bristol cable network ESPN2 to air 16 one-hour episodes of its tournaments.
Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but the tour’s owners said it hoped its relationship with ESPN would last a long time.
“We have a long-term view on our relationship with ESPN and hope to provide the most riveting poker content available,” said Jeffrey Haas, managing director of tour owner Global Poker Tours Ltd.
ESPN also televises the main event of the World Series of Poker, the game’s richest tournament.
Global Poker Tours, based on the Isle of Man off the coast of northwest England, also owns poker tours in Australia, Europe, Latin America and Asia. PokerStars.net, the poker Web site, is the tour’s sponsor.
The North American Poker Tour, which has held one event already and announced two more, intends to hold five or six events in its first season, Haas said.
“This involves us having the best partner venues, a great number of players participating and incredibly well-run events,” Haas said in an e-mail to The Associated Press.
The tour begins its second stop on Saturday with a six-day series at the Venetian casino-resort on the Las Vegas Strip. The PokerStars.net Caribbean Adventure was held in January in the Bahamas and an April event is planned in Connecticut.
The Venetian stop features a $5,000 buy-in no-limit Texas Hold ’em main event, with more than 400 players registered so far, Haas said.
It also includes a $25,000 buy-in shootout tournament with more than half the field comprised of invited professionals, including Phil Hellmuth, Daniel Negreanu, Barry Greenstein and Antonio Esfandiari.
The unique format of the tournament starts with a maximum of 64 players, including 36 invited players and 28 spots for satellite winners or others who buy in. Players will win $5,000 for each player they eliminate from the tournament, plus a minimum of $50,000 if they outlast all opponents at their first table to make the final table.
The final table winner wins the rest of the money, though PokerStars will pay $100,000 to the player who eliminates the most players.
ESPN is owned by The Walt Disney Co. (AP)
