The most popular form of poker is a tournament. Anyone who will pay the buy-in entry can play. They play down to one final winner and on any given day anyone can win. Popular tournaments have numerous online and live satellites so you don't have to buy in for the full amount, if you qualify. The prize pools and numbers increase, but so does the anonymity of the players.
The unknown player beating the pros may work well for a once a year marquee event like the World Series of Poker Main Event, but for casual fans of poker they want to see players they recognize and respect when they watch poker on TV. Watching nine unknown players with little or no history or pedigree battle it out, isn't very engaging.
One example of how tournaments are adapting is the North American Poker Tour's L.A. Bounty Shoutout event currently going on at the Crystal Casino in Los Angeles. While the L.A. NAPT main event had 701 entrants with many satellite entrants, the vast majority are naturally unknowns. It's too big and anonymous a tournament to cover on TV from start to finish. The Bounty Shoutout has the same buy-in of $5,000. The difference is that there were only 81 spots available, 9 tables worth, which sold out quickly by established players. $4,000 goes into the main pool and each player carries a $1,000 bounty on their head. Knock out a player, win that $1,000. The shootout component indicates that each table is playing down to one individual winner who pockets $20,000, then the winners of all 9 tables will come back Thursday to play a winner-take-all for $134,280 final table. There is even an added incentive of a seat to the PCA Bounty Shootout for the player who collects the most bounties in the tournament.
The list of recognizable and super talented pros playing in the ESPN taped tournament is impressive. Many young guns of poker like Annette Obrestad, Jonathan Little, Isaac Haxton, Joseph Cheong, Tom Marchese, Vanessa Selbst, Eric Baldwin, Scott Clements, and Justin Bonomo are battling established pros like Michael Mizrachi, Daniel Negreanu, Phil Hellmuth, Antonio Esfandiari, Phil Laak and Barry Greenstein. The quality of players, their stellar results, and their recognition both online and live should make for compelling TV poker.
Table 1
Seat 1: Sam Stein
Seat 2: Scott Montgomery
Seat 3: Pat Walsh
Seat 4: Andy Frankenberger
Seat 5: Greg Mueller
Seat 6: Justin Young
Seat 7: Scott Clements
Seat 8: Eric Froehlich
Seat 9: William Reynolds
Table 2
Seat 1: Sorel Mizzi
Seat 2: McLean Karr
Seat 3: Clint Coffee
Seat 4: Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier
Seat 5: Marcello Del Grosso
Seat 6: Andy Seth
Seat 7: Olivier Busquet
Seat 8: Faraz Jaka
Seat 9: Justin Bonomo
Table 3
Seat 1: Jennifer Tilly
Seat 2: Scott Seiver
Seat 3: Greg DeBora
Seat 4: Ronnie Bardah
Seat 5: Dan Shak
Seat 6: Annette Obrestad
Seat 7: Andrew Robl
Seat 8: Tom Marchese
Seat 9: Vanessa Rousso
Table 4
Seat 1: Michael Mizrachi
Seat 2: Chance Kornuth
Seat 3: Shannon Shorr
Seat 4: Jason Senti
Seat 5: Aaron Gustavson
Seat 6: Tyson Marks
Seat 7: Jonathan Aguiar
Seat 8: Lauren Kling
Seat 9: Vanessa Selbst
Table 5
Seat 1: Jason Alexander
Seat 2: David Baker
Seat 3: Eric Baldwin
Seat 4: Tom Koral
Seat 5: Antonio Esfandiari
Seat 6: Matt Woodward
Seat 7: Aaron Jones
Seat 8: Ali Eslami
Seat 9: Chad Brown
Table 1B
Seat 1: Joseph Cheong
Seat 2: Matt Keikoan
Seat 3: Michael Binger
Seat 4: Jared Jaffee
Seat 5: Adam Junglen
Seat 6: Nacho Barbero
Seat 7: David Williams
Seat 8: Isaac Haxton
Seat 9: Frank Kassela
Table 2B
Seat 1: Bob Lauria
Seat 2: Daniel Negreanu
Seat 3: Barry Greenstein
Seat 4: Phil Laak
Seat 5: Alex Keating
Seat 6: Brett Richey
Seat 7: Pat Pezzin
Seat 8: Darus Suharto
Seat 9: Tim Begley
Table 3B
Seat 1: Aurel Bogdan
Seat 2: Todd Terry
Seat 3: Dan Suied
Seat 4: Victor Ramdin
Seat 5: Hasan Habib
Seat 6: Michael Pesek
Seat 7: Dan Woodward
Seat 8: Chad Batista
Seat 9: Moshin Charania
Table 4B
Seat 1: Jonathan Little
Seat 2: Nick Binger
Seat 3: Ben Lamb
Seat 4: Shaun Deeb
Seat 5: Jean-Robert Bellande
Seat 6: Chris Moneymaker
Seat 7: Phil Hellmuth
Seat 8: Liv Boeree
Seat 9: Kevin MacPhee
Source: PokerStarsBlog
