Poker on television used to be a regular occurrence. Prior to Black Friday in the United States, there was poker on the Travel Channel and ESPN, NBC and the Game Show Network. After the end of that poker boom, however, ESPN showed the World Series of Poker, and Fox Sports showed the World Poker Tour. Period.
NBC had been receptive to poker in the past. It continuously broadcast the NBC National Heads-Up Championship for years on weekends. But when that fell off, NBC took some time off from poker programming…until Poker Central came along.
In 2017, Poker Central fostered a partnership with NBC Sports Group and the NBC Sports Network (NBCSN). The initial deal was for Monday night broadcasts – in prime time – of the Super High Roller Bowl. There was also digital show availability and streaming options. In July 2020, Poker Central announced a renewal of that deal through 2022. NBC Sports would continue broadcasting the Super High Roller Bowl.
The renewal included more programming, though, as the SHRB shows proved successful. They added the US Poker Open and Poker Masters high-stakes poker series to the agreement.
As of Monday, August 16, NBC Sports will begin airing US Poker Open episodes.
Pandemic Delays
The renewal of the Poker Central-NBC Sports partnership didn’t produce any content for television right away. That was due to a little thing called the pandemic, which prohibited poker tournaments and filming, both necessary to produce poker content for broadcast.
Those delays ended in late 2020, when Poker Central started to film certain events in its PokerGO Studio on the Las Vegas Strip. But it wasn’t until June 2021 that they brought back the US Poker Open series to the studio. Players were more than ready to resume their live high-stakes action, and NBC wanted that footage to translate into shows.
The US Poker Open moved forward with 12 tournaments through the beginning of June. The buy-ins ranged from $10K to $50K, the latter being the grand finale of the 12-event series. When it was all said and done, Sean Winter won that last tournament for $756K, though David Peters won the series for the Golden Eagle trophy and his buy-in returned.
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On TV and Online
The official name of the program is the 2021 US Poker Open presented by Global Poker. The first of the episodes will air on Monday evening, August 16. The next one will air on the following Mondays – August 23 and August 30. Each air date will feature a group of four episodes of US Poker Open action as it happened at the PokerGO Studio.
In addition, Global Poker will allow poker players to compete in their own version of the series, though at much lower stakes and on Global Poker. The online version will play from August 23 through September 5. Players can use Global Poker’s gold coins, the form of currency accepted on the site, and sweeps coins, which are free tokens offered by Global Poker to play in promotions.
This means there are two components to the online version of the US Poker Open on Global Poker. The entire series offers 32 events, but it is divided into two parts and will crown two champions.
-Gold Coins: 500M gold coins guaranteed in total, 125M guaranteed in Main Event alone-Sweeps Coins: 1M sweeps coins guaranteed overall, 250K guaranteed in Main Event
Players will earn points throughout the series in a leaderboard competition. A Golden Scrimmage tournament will be named after the overall gold coin champion. And as for the sweeps coins champ of the series, he or she will win $5K to fund a trip to Las Vegas. On that trip, they will pick up their own Golden Trophy and $5K check at the PokerGO Studio.
The Global Poker website explains all of the details and caveats.
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PokerGO President Mori Eskandani commented, “With the online US Poker Open series on Global Poker running alongside the premiere episodes on NBC Sports Networks, poker enthusiasts will have an elevated viewing experience that includes being able to both watch and play the US Poker Open at the same time.”
