The Poker Superstars Invitational Tournament

The Poker Superstars Invitational Tournament was a series of Texas hold 'em poker tournaments meant for television broadcast. Popular on television in America, it was part of the initial wave of hold 'em popularity and led to countless television clones.

Poker Superstars Invitational highlights:

Season 1

Chip Reese suffered such bad luck throughout the tournament that both the players and the commentators took notice. In this case, his lucky first name did nothing to right his sinking ship.

Gus Hansen eliminated all seven of his opponents at the final table.

Season 2

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

Johnny Chan eventually beat Todd Brunson in a series of 3 matches where Chan was trailing after losing the first match. The always incredible Chan later won the remaining two matches to become the champion of Poker Superstars II.

Poker Superstars Invitational Tournament Celebrities

The first series of the Poker Superstars Invitational Tournament was hosted by Chris Rose, with support from poker author Michael Konik and poker pro Mark Gregorich. Mark Gregorich left the show at the end of the first season. 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.

The first season is available on DVD. It airs on Fox Sports Net in the United States, Rogers Sportsnet in Canada and ftn in the United Kingdom.

There have been two computer games made of the first two seasons of the show: Poker Superstars Invitational Tournament and the ubiquitous sequel, Poker Superstars II. There is also an online web version made in flash of the computer game. These games and flash versions were published by Funkitron and available at Play Poker Superstars, the official Funkitron Poker Superstars website. The AI used in them was created by Brian Sheppard, the programmer who
created the Maven Scrabble-playing AI for Scrabble.

Season 1 featured 8 competitors each paying $400,000 to enter. This was the largest entry fee in poker history.

Season 2 featured 24 competitors each paying $40,000 to enter, and $250,000 added to the prize pool.

Season 3 featured 24 competitors each paying $50,000 to enter.

Season 1

The smaller season one 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 chip counts of each player in both series finals.

The Grand Finale winner received $1,000,000.

Season 2

This season featured 24 players, easing the entry fee from a preposterously high number to something a little more accessible. This had the effect of "equalizing" the field -- perhaps an attempt on the part of tournament organizers and television producers to garner audience interest.

Unfortunately, the rules grew far more complex, most likely evening out whatever positive effect the larger field may have had on television audiences.

This season was unique in that tournament blinds increased every 20 minutes. 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

Both the semi-finals and finals were played in best two out of three heads-up matches. Players had 60 seconds to act on their hands. A player failing to act was penalized the worth of one small blind. This occurred often enough to draw comments from players and experts analyzing -- perhaps these expert poker players were less prepared for a time limit than they thought.

In the second season, the grand finale winner took home $400,000, while the runner up pocketed $140,000. The total prize pool was $1.2 million. It is unclear who supplied the extra $240,000 for the pool, since 24 times 40,000 equals only $960,000. This odd little problem was solved in Season 3 with the additional buy-in money, making the buy-in a steep $50,000.

Season 3

This season's entry fee was $50,000 instead of $40,000. Each player worked their way through five preliminary tournaments instead of six tourneys drawn randomly. 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. The winner of each game then advanced to the quarterfinals, starting there with 600,000 chips. The same format was used in the quarter finals, with the two advancing to the semi-finals starting with 1,500,000 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.

The Poker Superstars Invitational Tournament is no more. When reached for further comment, representatives of MSN, now the parent company of Fox Sports Net (who used to broadcast the tournament) had nothing to offer. I suppose this tournament is another victim of the saturation of televised poker. Poker Superstars continues to live on, though, through video and computer gaming, and through episodes released on DVD.

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