WPT Enterprise launches World Poker Tour Academy
11 October 2006
LOS ANGELES, California -- (PRESS RELEASE) -- The company behind the poker television phenomenon, WPT Enterprises, Inc. (Nasdaq: WPTE), today unveiled the next breakthrough development in poker -- World Poker Tour Academy(TM). A comprehensive web-based poker education center that uses authentic poker play, WPT Academy is designed to provide a compelling, interactive learning tool for both poker enthusiasts and novices alike. To ensure everyone in the poker community can experience WPT Academy, full access will be available on a free subscriber basis for a limited time.
Leveraging a database of over 1700 final table hands during 13 World Poker Tour® (WPT) Season I tournaments -- including 900 hands that never made it to air on the Travel Channel -- WPT Academy offers a vast database and ground-breaking features, including:
* HANDSIM(TM): HANDSIM is a graphically compelling and sophisticated hand search engine and simulator. Utilizing hole camera data, bets and actions, and play-by-play details, HANDSIM allows users to search the database for players, hole card values, card combinations, odds percentages, position, pre- and post-flop and much more. For a full list of HANDSIM capabilities, visit WorldPokerTour.com.
* VIDEO SESSIONS WITH THE PROS: These short, engaging video tutorials are hosted by WPT stars, including WPT Player of the Year Gavin Smith, WPT Ladies' Night® stars Evelyn Ng and Vanessa Rousso, among many others. These entertaining, educational videos cover a variety of topics which include "Win It Now," "Aces," "Bluffing," "Aggressive Play," "Short Stack," and "Maximizing Value."
* INTERACTIVE COMMUNITY: Enhancing the WPT Academy's interactive experience, poker fans will be able to log on and comment on their favorite hands, submit their own analysis, rank hands -- creating a community for WPT fans to share their thoughts about thousands of hands and reflect on how they were played. * FOLLOW YOUR FAVORITES: Poker fans can follow their favorite players -- even the hands they folded. WPT Academy features final table play-by-play from pokers' best, including Scotty Nguyen, Doyle Brunson, Gus Hansen, John Juanda, Phil Ivey, Phil Hellmuth, Kathy Liebert, Antonio Esfandiari, T.J. Cloutier and many more.
"Bringing together the depths of our content library and the vast number of WPT resources, WPT Academy provides for the poker community THE foremost edge on all things poker," said James Revell, Vice President of WPT Interactive. "We will continue populating the database, integrating fresh content and distributing new video lessons on a regular basis so that people will come back again and again to increase their knowledge in a fun and creative way. It's an exceptional tool for the serious student to the person who just wants to win a bet on the best way to play pocket sixes."
"WPT Academy is the most innovative and comprehensive community-driven learning environment on the Internet," says Steve Lipscomb, founder and CEO of WPTE. "Coupled with additional content pieces, such as articles, pictures and educational pieces, the WPT Academy will deliver the full circle poker experience -- watching WPT on the Travel Channel, honing your game with the WPT Academy, and maybe even playing poker in a WPT tournament."