The World Poker Tour was started in 2002 in the United States by attorney/television producer Steven Lipscomb, who served as CEO of WPT Enterprises, Inc. In November 2009, PartyGaming announced its acquisition of the World Poker Tour for $12.3 million. In 2011, PartyGaming merged with bwin to form bwin.Party Digital Entertainment. Steve Lipscomb and Mr. Lyle Berman brought poker to new heights with the creation of the World Poker Tour, and their passion and dedication have allowed the WPT to become what it is today.”.

• Steve Lipscomb Poker
• Steve Lipscomb Poker Announcer
• Steve Lipscomb Poker Coach
• Steve Lipscomb Poker Game
• Steve Lipscomb Poker Player

(Mostly) The Real Skinny on the Future of the WPT

Steve Lipscomb speaks of new television partners, revamped biz model, layoffs, etc.

photo: Michele Lewis

All WSOP-long I’ve been seeing Lyle Berman and feeling torn between my journalistic ethos and respect for poker etiquette. Here, the guy who has answers to everything everyone wants to know about the future of the World Poker Tour has been anywhere from 10-feet to 100 yards away from me, but I can’t bring myself to approach him mid-tourney or just after a painful bustout to pepper him with questions about whether or not the business he helped build is crumbling. Call me a wussy journo or poker fanboy, but could I really take a chance of putting Mr. Berman on tilt, especially when WPTE stock is trading for less than a dollar a share and he might really need the prize money?

But lo and behold, WPT CEO Steve Lipscomb showed up at the Rio yesterday, and he wasn’t playing! He was just taking his annual tour of the WSOP main event with buddy Jeffrey Pollack … which seemed like a great time to trip him by the shoelaces, pin him down on the ground and shove a recorder in his face while threatening to pop him with a loogie. Alas, no one had a concealed watergun in the pressbox and he was wearing loafers, but still … Lipscomb did sit down with Pokerati for almost a half hour during the main event and give some frank(ish) answers to whatever softballs I could hurl at him.

(NOTE: I didn’t know at the time that the WPT had laid off about 10 people last week and was about to give a few more their walking papers today — but now his comments about hating that part of the job make a little more sense.)

Steve Lipscomb (at the WSOP) on the future of poker and the WPT
June 6, 2008 — Las Vegas

[audio:lipscomb2.mp3]

What you don’t hear below …
OK, now here’s the bad part: This was totally impromptu — had about 10 seconds to prepare — and because I’ve hardly used my recorder this WSOP (we’ve been using Pauly’s device for Tao of Pokerati) I must’ve pressed some wrong buttons or something … because the first five or six minutes just ain’t there. Grrr. And of course I wasn’t taking notes because I was too busy pressing buttons on the recorder. So here’s a quick summary of what we talked about during that time — you’ll just have to take my word or wait for Steve Lipscomb to post a comment correcting me:

Dan: So, what’s going on with the WPT?
Steve: Lots of stuff. Reinventing selves. Isn’t the WSOP great? Can’t tell you exactly what the WPT has working in terms of TV deals, but we’re gonna be announcing something about it really soon.
Dan: Really soon like two days or like two months?
Steve: Can’t say, but we were hoping to have it out before the main event, if that tells you anything. [Obvious implications that the deal is probably not with GSN and may or may not be akin to an online poker site time-buy.] Something about time-buys vs. some other television term, something about finding a new broadcast partner …
Dan: Something else, don’t remember what.
Steve: The WSOP really is great … different animal altogether yadda yadda. WPT played a role in making it all possible. Bad beats in the form of the UIGEA and GSN executive overhaul. People saying that the WPT is going away? Balderdash!

That’s where the audio picks up …

Thanks to a WCP reader for this link. Apparently WPT CEO Steve Lipscomb has a blog on TVWeek.com, because it wouldn’t make any sense to have one on the WPT site. Whatever. Anyway, in his latest blog entry, Lipscomb talks about his recent trip to China, and specifically about lessons in capitalism we all could learn from this utopian communist nation.

Says Lipscomb:

'If you want to foster healthy markets, a level playing field is critical. And that requires enforcement. If the bandits are not stopped, and in fact thrive, legitimate markets die…Ironically, China represents one of the few places in the world that protects legitimate businesses from being preyed upon by online businesses that will not play by the rules.'

Ummmm…

Nevermind that Lipscomb is making these points about an oppressive communist regime less than 20 years removed from Tiananmen Square. Or that Steven Spielberg just made a power play over his (lack of) involvement at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing if the Chinese government didn’t change their stance on Darfur. Or that just five years ago the Chinese government wouldn’t let their biggest athletic star, Yao Ming, play professional basketball in the states until Houston won the draft lottery. Or that the same government is trying to force Yi Jianlian out of Milwaukee.

Or that the Chinese government actually outlaws forms of gambling like poker.

Steve Lipscomb Poker

Yet the World Poker Tour is, as it stands now, the only organization allowed to 'promote' poker within the communist nation. Wow, that sounds really fair.

If Lipscomb was in fourth grade, he’d probably start a report on fair business practices with the line, 'Webster Dictionary defines ‘fair’ as when I have the total and complete upper hand. It defines ‘unfair’ as when I don’t.'

Let’s look at Lipscomb’s line: 'Ironically, China represents one of the few places in the world that protects legitimate businesses from being preyed upon by online businesses that will not play by the rules.'

We obviously can’t get into Lipscomb’s mind, but this sure sounds like a direct shot at FTP, Bodog, and all of the other sites that were operating their poker rooms in the U.S. while the WPT (Lipscomb) bitched and complained about how unfair it was. Even though we did love their response to the equally hypocritical and ridiculous lawsuit against them from Gordon, Raymer, Hachem et. al., Lipscomb’s intentions in his latest blog entry couldn’t be more transparent.

Steve Lipscomb Poker Announcer

Also remember, when the WPT responded to said ridiculous lawsuit, their public statement included this bit:

Steve Lipscomb Poker Coach

'[H]aving used the World Poker Tour as a springboard to become wealthy and famous enough to own or otherwise affiliate themselves with various business ventures, including online gaming ventures such as Full Tilt Poker that also now offer televised poker tournaments in competition with WPTE, Plaintiffs have turned around and sued WPTE to damage WPTE’s goodwill and reputation to the benefit of Full Tilt Poker and the other websites and companies in which Plaintiffs have ownership or other interests.'

'For example, Full Tilt Poker, a website started by Plaintiffs Chris Ferguson and Howard Lederer and with which at least two other Plaintiffs are affiliated, already competes unfairly against WPTE by using the tremendous revenues it obtains from promoting online gambling in the United States and accepting online bets from persons located in the United States – activities declared by the US Department of Justice as illegal under existing law – to subsidize the poker programming it offers television networks.'

So let’s make a very logical jump that at least part of the WPT’s motivation towards getting into China was to open the door for its online gaming site to be allowed in China, because seriously, there’s no way this conversation hasn’t come up at least once…right?…then how is this any different or a less fair business practice?

Further, while China may have these utopian practices for businesses that operate within their borders, they don’t exactly offer the same free-trade policies to the U.S. entertainment industry. Read about those practices here and here.

And let’s also take a look at the Great Firewall of China for a list of websites that are blocked in the country:

Wicked Chops Poker – Blocked
Tao of Poker – Blocked
Full Tilt Poker – Blocked
Bodog – Blocked
World Poker Tour – Blocked…but let’s check that again in a couple of months and see where the above sites stand as well

Clearly, under Lipscomb’s logic, one of the guiding pillars of capitalism is censorship.

The most depressing point in all of this is how awful the self-serving nature of both the WPT and the WSOP is going to ruin poker in the long-run. The pissing contest between Harrah’s/WSOP/BLUFF and WPT/Card Player makes for fun coverage, but for terrible long-term prospects for poker.

If poker stands a chance to keep growing, thriving, and becoming a respectable form of competition that would attract major corporate sponsors, these organizations should all be figuring out ways to work together, not apart.

Steve Lipscomb Poker Game

Look at the PGA or (to a lesser degree) the WTP. They work because there is a defined tour with defined majors and ranking systems that ultimately work to promoting the overall health of the game and individuals who compete in them. While it’s (really, really) easy to not like Card Player or the WPT and their exclusive agreement with each other, its not like the WSOP and BLUFF aren’t doing the same thing to Card Player. What good does this do?

Simply, poker needs to be consolidating, not splintering.

But as the streams in this pissing contest get longer, the likelihood of a tour consolidation between the WSOP and WPT with defined majors, rankings, and schedules, which ultimately most agree would be best for the game, looks bleaker and bleaker.

Maybe we’re wrong. Maybe not. But since China apparently is a bastion of free enterprise and smart capitalistic practices, we’ve decided to book flights for ourselves to this great nation and see what self-serving lessons we can learn from them, just like Steve Lipscomb did.*

Steve Lipscomb Poker Player

* Not going to China.