PokerWorks

When the eighth season of the World Poker Tour began in July of 2009, the previous season of the WPT was still airing on Fox Sports Net. Now that the new year of 2010 has begun and Season 8 is more than halfway finished, Fox is prepared to air the most current shows and will premiere its first one on January 24, 2010, at 11pm ET.

For the second season in a row, Fox Sports Net has agreed to air the shows, which again will be sponsored by FullTiltPoker.net. The 26 episodes will begin on January 24 and continue each Sunday until the season is complete, and each week will bring two one-hour episodes of the World Poker Tour. In total, the shows will consist of the 13 WPT final tables of Season 8 (two hours of air time per final table), beginning with the $15,000 buy-in Bellagio Cup that played out in July of 2009. That will be followed by Bay 101’s Shooting Stars, Bicycle Casino’s Legends of Poker, and continue on with the remainder of the stops on the tour in the same order of the live tournament schedule. And commentators Mike Sexton and Vince Van Patten will be hosting the shows as they have for all eight seasons of the WPT.

Though Sunday will be the day/night each week that new episodes air, repeat broadcasts can be found on FSN throughout the week. And times may vary per region and cable provider, though many cities have listed the show at 11pm. Most channels will also broadcast the shows in high-definition for the first time.

David Sussin, Vice President of Programming for FSN, commented, “We’re excited to bring a new season of WPT events to our regional sports networks. The drama of high-stakes poker continues to connect with our audience of sports fans.”

No changes are expected to the Season 8 television shows on FSN as a result of the recent sale of WPT Enterprises to PartyGaming, though players and fans can likely look forward to changes before the start of Season 9 live tournaments.