Poker Superstars Invitational Tournaments

I don't know how many of those reading this article remembers what professional wrestling was like back in the 80's. In those days, Hulk Hogan was not yet a household name (and he still had hair), the WWF had not been legally forced to remove the "F" from their logo, and female wrestlers did not appear in lingerie/pillow fight matches. Also, during the televised wrestling shows, the big name draws always fought someone who looked like the guy who fixes your plumbing or reads your meter. This is kind of where professional poker is today. At the World Series of Poker matches or the World Poker Tour tournaments you can witness the biggest names in the sport matched against somebody who is using his vacation days from his office job just to be there. The Poker Superstars Invitational Tournaments are more like Wrestlemania. Viewer can watch the big guns shooting at each other.

Fox Sports Net, jumping on the popularity of poker, created the Poker Superstars Invitational Tournament to air on its cable station. The idea was to get the biggest names in the sport together to compete against each other and determine who the best superstar actually is.

At the conclusion of the innaugural season for this show, Howard "The Professor" Lederer came away as the best of the best. Season two featured Kathy Liebert as the champion. Season three saw the first non-American player take the crown as Antonio "The Magician" Esfandiari beat out the field of Superstars. His accomplishment was almost overshadowed by the actress turned poker shark, Jennifer Tilly, grabbing the runner up spot. This show has gotten mixed reviews to date. The lack of European players invited to attend along with a shifting game structure has limited the audience and made it difficult to follow from season to the next. All in all though, it is entertaining to see the biggest names in poker going up against each other without having to burst through a wall of internet fish. In the end it does what a television show is supposed to do, it entertains.