Las Vegas Review-Journal writer Howard Stutz sat down with WPT TV announcing duo Mike Sexton and Vince Van Patten as well as WPT President Adam Pliska at the Bellagio during the WPT Five Diamond World Poker Classic to discuss the 10-year history of the World Poker Tour. In the article they cover everything from the first shuffle up and deal that took place at the Bellagio ten years ago and the first use of the card cam to being the original PGA Tour of poker, turning regular poker players into TV stars. Excerpt below:
But if you ask the folks who have lived and breathed the World Poker Tour since the tournament’s first hand was dealt in 2002 at Bellagio, they will tell you the tour is one of the main reasons poker has gone through its renaissance and growth.
“There have been other events that played a part in poker’s explosion, but the WPT was the first to put poker on television and give it tremendous exposure,” said Mike Sexton, a 2009 inductee into the Poker Hall of Fame who has served as the play-by-play announcer for the World Poker tour since its inception.
“Poker is reality television at its finest,” Sexton said. “It’s real people, putting up real money and playing for millions of dollars.”
Read the rest of the article at the Las Vegas Review-Journal site and make sure to tune in when Season X starts airing on FOX SPORTS NET in early 2012.
Article mistakenly refers to WPT Five Diamond World Poker Classic as the Main Event and final event of Season X. The final event of Season X is the WPT World Championship at the Bellagio held May 19-26, 2012.