The Poker Superstars Invitational Tournament is a series of no limit Texas hold 'em poker tournaments. The first season is available on NTSC DVD. It airs on Fox Sports Net in the United States and on Rogers Sportsnet in Canada. // Wikibooks Poker has more about this subject: Betting This article describes the common terms, rules, and procedures in the game, but does not cover the strategic impact of betting. ... Texas hold em // Texas hold em (also holdem, holdem) is the most popular of the community card poker games. ... A poker tournament is a tournament at which the winners are decided by playing poker, usually a particular style of poker. ... NTSC is the analog television system in use in Korea, Japan, United States, Canada and certain other places, mostly in the Americas (see map). ... This article is becoming very long. ... Fox Sports Net headquarters in Los Angeles. ... Rogers Sportsnet is a Canadian cable television specialty channel with programming featuring sports, operating four regional feeds and one national high-definition feed. ...

Crew

The first series was hosted by Chris Rose, with support from poker author Michael Konik and poker professional Mark Gregorich. Mark Gregorich left the show at the end of the first season. Michael Konik is an American author, television personality, jazz singer, improvisational comedian, blackjack player and poker player. ...

The first series grand finale was hosted by Matt Vasgersian, with support from poker professional Erick Lindgren. Backstage interviews were conducted by poker player Evelyn Ng. Matt Vasgersian (born 1967) is an American sportscaster and television host, known for his versatility and humor. ... Erick E-Dog Lindgren (born August 11, 1976 in Burney, California) is an American professional poker player. ... Evelyn Ng in the Ultimate Poker Challenge Evelyn Evybabee Ng (born in 1975 in Toronto) is a Canadian professional poker player. ...

Howard "The Professor" Lederer and Annie Duke replaced Michael Konik at the beginning of the 3rd season. Mary Strong conducted the backstage interviews. Howard The Professor Lederer (born in Concord, New Hampshire), is a professional poker player and brother of poker professional Annie Duke. ... Annie Duke Annie Duke (born September 13, 1965) is a professional poker player and author. ...

Competitors

• Season 1 featured 8 competitors each paying $400,000 to enter.
• Season 2 featured 24 competitors each paying $40,000 to enter.
• Season 3 featured 24 competitors each paying $50,000 to enter.

The WSOP logo. ... The World Poker Tour (WPT) is a series of poker tournaments featuring most of the worlds professional players. ... Doyle Texas Dolly Brunson (May 30, 1908 – June 5, 2006) in Longworth, Texas) is an American poker player who has played professionally for over 40 years. ... Todd Alijondro Darkhorse Brunson is the son of poker legend Doyle Brunson. ... Mike Mad Genius Caro (born May 16, 1944) is a professional poker player and author of poker books. ... Johnny Orient(al) Express Chan (born in Guangzhou (Canton), China in 1957) is a professional poker player. ... T.J. Cloutier (born October 13, 1939 in Albany, California) is a professional poker player. ... Kassem Freddy Deeb is a professional poker player who emigrated from Lebanon during his college years. ... Eli Elezra is an American professional poker player from Las Vegas, Nevada. ... Antonio Esfandiari in the World Poker Tour Celebrity Invitational event Antonio The Magician Esfandiari (born Amir Esfandiari, December 8, 1978 in Tehran, Iran) is a professional poker player. ... Chris Jesus Ferguson (born April 11, 1963, in Los Angeles, CA) is a professional poker player. ... Ted Forrest (born 1964 in Syracuse, New York) is a professional poker player. ... Chau Giang (born 1955? in Vietnam) is an American professional poker player of Chinese descent. ... Barry Greenstein (born December 30, 1954 in Chicago, Illinois) is a professional poker player. ... David Grey is an American professional poker player from Henderson, Nevada. ... For the Lebanese-Australian actor, see Joe Hasham. ... Bobby Hoff is an American professional poker player from Houston, Texas. ... Gus The Great Dane Hansen (born Gustav Hansen on February 13, 1974 outside Copenhagen, Denmark) is a professional poker player who lives in Monaco. ... Jennifer Harman is an American professional poker player with a reputation as a cash game player. ... Phillip J. Hellmuth, Jr. ... Phil Ivey (born February 1, 1976) is an American professional poker player. ... Howard The Professor Lederer (born in Concord, New Hampshire), is a professional poker player and brother of poker professional Annie Duke. ... Kathy Liebert in the Ultimate Poker Challenge Kathleen (Kathy) H. Liebert (born October 1, 1967 in Nashville, Tennessee) is an American professional poker player. ... Erick E-Dog Lindgren (born August 11, 1976 in Burney, California) is an American professional poker player. ... Michael (Mike) The Mouth Matusow (born April 30, 1968 in Los Angeles, California) is an American professional poker player, residing in Henderson, Nevada. ... Christopher Bryan Moneymaker (born 1976 in Tennessee) is an American professional poker player who won the main event at the 2003 World Series of Poker (WSOP). ... Juan Carlos The Matador Mortensen (born April 13, 1972 in Ambato, Ecuador) is a professional poker player. ... John Myung is an American accountant and poker player of Korean descent, originally from Rockville, Maryland. ... Daniel Kid Poker Negreanu (born July 26, 1974 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada) is a professional poker player. ... Thuan (Scotty) The Train Nguyen is a Vietnamese American professional poker player. ... Gregory (Greg) P. Fossilman Raymer (born 1964 in Minot, North Dakota) is a professional poker player. ... David Edward Chip Reese (born March 28, 1951) is an American professional gambler from Centerville, Ohio. ... Huckleberry (Huck) Seed (born 1969?) is an American professional poker player. ... Mike Sexton (born September 22, 1947) is an American professional poker player and commentator. ... Jeff Happy Shulman (born February 18, 1975 in Seattle, Washington) is the editor of Card Player Magazine, and an American poker player, based in Las Vegas, Nevada. ... David Sklansky at the 1979 World Series of Poker David Sklansky (born in Teaneck, New Jersey) is a professional poker player and author. ... Publicity shot of Tilly in Bound Jennifer Tilly (born September 16, 1958)[1] is an Academy Award nominated American born actress and occasional, semi-professional poker player. ... Dewey Tomko, a former kindergarten teacher, is an American professional poker player with over 35 years of experience. ... Thithi “Mimi” Tran (born July 5, 1960 in Nha Trang, Vietnam) is an American professional poker player. ... Cyndy Violette is a professional poker player. ... Tommy Wang is an American professional poker player from Rosemead, California. ...

Structure

Season 1

The tournament was split into two series, with each player's finishing position in the series final determining their starting chip count in the grand finale.

Similarly, the finishing position in two preliminary rounds per series determined the starting chip positions of each player in both series finals.

The Grand Final winner received $1,000,000. The payouts for the other entrants from the $3,200,000 prize pool were unclear in the broadcast. However, Phil Ivey has said, on Full Tilt, that he walked away with about $400,000, and, therefore, broke even.

In the first two rounds of each series, players start with 100,000 in chips. Their finish in each of these rounds deterimines their starting chips for the final round of the series as follows:

Finish

1. 250,000
2. 150,000
3. 112,000
4. 88,000
5. 72,000
6. 56,000
7. 40,000
8. 32,000

Series 1 Round 1 finish + Series 1 Round 2 finish = Starting chips for Series 1 Final

Series 2 uses the same format. Finishes in each series final are then used to determine the Grand Finale starting chip count as follows:

Finish - Finals

1. 500,000
2. 300,000
3. 224,000
4. 176,000
5. 144,000
6. 112,000
7. 80,000
8. 64,000

Series 1 Final finish + Series 2 Final finish = Starting chips for grand finale.

Season 2

POKER CHAMPION TOURNAMENT

16 Players

Blind Structure

The blinds increased every 20 minutes.

Qualifying Rounds

Six players competed in each tournament, with points being allocated as follows:

• Winner: 10 points
• Runner-Up: 7 points
• 3rd place: 5 points
• 4th place: 3 points
• 5th place: 1 point
• 6th place: 0 points

Each player played six preliminary tournaments with players randomly drawn. At the end of this, the points were tallied and the 16 players with the most points progressed to the next round.

Final 16

The top 16 are then split into 4 pools of players

Players in the final 16 started with 20,000 chips for every point earned up to then.

Each pool had two matches, with points being allocated as follows:

• Winner: 10 points
• Runner-Up: 7 points
• 3rd place: 4 points
• 4th place: 0 points

The points were cumulated from those 2 matches, and the players with the highest points then progressed to the quarter-finals.

Quarter-Finals

The quarter-finals are 2 groups with 4 players in each. Each group will play 2 matchs with the winner of the first match going to the semi- Finals. Then the 2nd game is played with the remaining 3 players in each, the winner in the one also advances. The Players in the quarter-finals started with 20,000 chips for every point in the Playoffs and 25,000 for the orginal points.

Semi-Finals and Finals

Both the semi-finals and finals were played in best two out of three heads-up matches.

Time Limit Rule

Players had 60 seconds to act on their hands. A player failing to act was penalized the worth of one small blind. An additional small blind penalty would be imposed for each additional ten seconds without action. The collected penalties were added to the next pot. Kathy Liebert was the only player penalized in season two, for one small blind.

Payouts

The payouts were as follows:

Winner=$400,000 USD

Runner Up=$140,000 USD

Season 3

Season 3 played exactly like Season 2, except for the following differences:

• The entry fee was $50,000 instead of $40,000.
• Each player played five preliminary tournaments instead of six with players randomly drawn.
• The finals were played in best 3-out-of-5 rather than 2-out-of-3.
• The Top 16 Players were split into 4 groups and played 2 games with 20,000 chips for every point earned up to then. The winner of each game, with the winner of game one not participating in two, advance to the semi finals, starting there with 600,000 resp. 400,000 chips. Same format is used in the quarter finals, with the two advancing to the semi-finals starting with 1,500,000 resp. 1,000,000 chips.
• The time limit rule was modified. After 60 seconds, a player had five seconds to act before being assessed a one small blind penalty. An additional small blind penalty would be assessed for each additional 30 seconds without action. Phil Ivey was assessed a penalty in his first Super Sixteen match.

Results

Season 1

See main article at Poker Superstars season 1 results. Below are the results of season 1 of Poker Superstars Invitational Tournament. ...

Season 2

See main article at Poker Superstars season 2 results. Regular Season Results Single-Table Invitational On February 5, 2006, NBC aired an 8-player single-table invitational freeroll, winner take all tournament for $500,000. ...

Season 3

See main article at Poker Superstars season 3 results. // Regular Season Results This season commenced on 12 March 2006. ...

Trivia

General

• The show has been greatly criticised for the lack of European players invited to attend.
• The show has also been criticized for its unusual structure, particularly in season 2 where the format went from 24 round robin matches to 2 match total points round of 16 matches to single elimination quarterfinals to best 2 out of 3 semis and finals.
• The show has also been criticized for the rounds being short making the blinds rise quickly.

Season 1

• Chip Reese suffered an incredible number of bad beats throughout the tournament that amazed both the players and the commentators.
• In the Grand Finale, Johnny Chan came back from $20,000 chips out of $3,200,000 in play to take second place.
• Gus Hansen eliminated all seven opponents in the Grand Finale.
• The $400,000 entry fee is the highest in poker history.

In poker, a bad beat occurs when a hand, which was at one time a big favourite to win, loses. ...

Season 2

• According to an article by Daniel Negreanu, both he and John Juanda were invited to play in season 2, but backed out as "things got really nutty with the negotiations." Negreanu would later get involved in season 3.

Daniel Kid Poker Negreanu (born July 26, 1974 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada) is a professional poker player. ... Johnson (John) Juanda (born July 8, 1971 in Indonesia) is an American professional poker player based in Marina Del Ray, California. ...

Computer Versions

There have been two computer games made of the first two seasons of the show.

• Poker Superstars Invitational Tournament
• Poker Superstars II

These were published by Funkitron.

The AI used in them was created by Brian Sheppard, the programmer who created the Maven Scrabble playing AI for Scrabble. Maven is the current best known artificial intelligence Scrabble player, created by Brian Sheppard. ... Scrabble is a popular word game and board game in which 2-4 players score points by forming words from individual lettered tiles on a 15×15 game board. ...

External links

• Finding the Ace Among Kings: A True Story (The Making of the Show)
• Poker Superstars (Article by Mike Sexton)
• Episode reviews
• Pokersuperstars.net (official site of show)