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World Championship Poker
Published: 2005-03-01
 World Championship Poker
Official U.S. PlayStation Magazine, March, 2005 by Joe Rybicki
The game is Texas Hold ’Em. You’re holding a pair of kings and the flop comes K-K-2. The turn is a 7. You now have the absolute nuts—your hand cannot be beaten. What do you do?
If you’re a casual player, you might go all in. If you’re a pro, you might make a pot-sized bet, hoping to fool your opponents into thinking you’re trying to buy the pot. But if you’re a computer-controlled opponent in World Championship Poker—on Professional difficulty—you’ll check the hand all the way down.
For those new to the game, I’ll explain: Checking this hand down—that is, not betting at all—is the next-to-worst thing you could possibly do (the worst being folding). Picture a game of Madden in which the computer-controlled receiver, after catching the ball, repeatedly runs toward his opponent’s end zone.
That’s just one complaint about a wholly disappointing game. Why can’t you have more than six players at a table? Why can’t you choose to show your cards when the table’s folded around to you? And with 12 different games, where is the currently white-hot Omaha 8 or Better?
The game does try to redeem itself with EyeToy support for online play, which is a neat idea that’s pulled off surprisingly well. But with the kind of players I’ve come across online, you’re likely to tire of the online experience quickly.
Newcomers might find World Championship Poker entertaining, but they’ll also probably learn a number of bad habits that will ensure losses if they ever play for real.
AA Neat EyeToy support; only poker game on PS2
72 Lobotomized A.I. players; annoyingly slow
Pub. Crave Dev. Coresoft ESRB E MSRP $19.99
Try Instead
If you have a PC, there are plenty of poker rooms online where you can play against humans for free. They’re faster and better looking than World Championship Poker, and you might actually learn something. Try www.ultimatebet.com or www.pokerstars.com for two of the best.
Copyright © 2005 Ziff Davis Media Inc. All Rights Reserved. Originally appearing in Official U.S. PlayStation Magazine.
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Investors ante up for piece of budding poker empire's hand
Published: 2005-03-14
 Investors ante up for piece of budding poker empire's hand
Los Angeles Business Journal, March 14, 2005 by Kate Berry
LAST week, Steven Lipscomb, president of WPT Enterprises Inc., described his gaming company in a conference call with analysts as "a little poker Disney."
Never mind that West Hollywood-based WPT Enterprises, which produces the "World Poker Tour" television programs for the Travel Channel, had just missed analysts' fourth-quarter earnings estimates. Or that its success is built on the potentially fleeting popularity of televised poker tournaments.
WPT executives and its fans on Wall Street point out that the stock has nearly tripled in the past seven months, to almost $19 a share last week. With just nine employees and one key product, the "World Poker Tour" TV shows, WPT Enterprises sports a lofty market capitalization of $335 million.
Nicholas Danna, KATE BERRY an equity research analyst at Sterne, Agee & Leach Inc., in Birmingham, Ala., said the WPT brand is "monetized" to sell all kinds of new products--though none has come to fruition.
"You can compare them to anything from a mini-Walt Disney to Playboy Enterprises to Marvel Comics," Danna said. "But it's the idea that if you brand something, it opens all sorts of different avenues."
WPT Enterprises was spun out of another publicly traded company, Lakes Entertainment Inc., based in Monnetonka, Minn., which retains a 66 percent stake. Lakes Entertainment, which manages the Grand Casino Coushatta in Kinder, La., spun off a 4 million-share stake in WVF Enterprises last year, raising $32 million from the public.
Its stake in WPT Enterprises has helped boost Lakes Entertainment's stock to above $16 last week, from below $3 in 2003. The company's 12.5 million shares stake in WPT Enterprises is worth $237 million. Insiders own 80 percent of the company.
WPT Enterprises Chief Executive Lyle Berman is chairman and chief executive of Lakes Entertainment.
Berman came under criticism in 2000, when Rainforest Cafe, where he was chairman and chief executive, was being sold to another company he headed, Landry's Restaurants Inc.
Several large shareholders objected to a provision in the sale that called for Rainforest to pay a $2 million fee to a unit of Lakes Entertainment. A proxy advisory firm advised institutional shareholders to reject the sale, but it ended up going through--and the fee was paid, prompting a shareholder lawsuit.
Berman did not return calls.
Televised poker
Todd Steele, WPT Enterprises' chief financial officer, said the idea to create a poker tour came from Lipscomb, who produced and directed "On the Inside of the World Series of Poker" for the Discovery Channel in 1999. Lipscomb was executive producer of "Cruisin' to a Million," for the Travel Channel, in which a poker tournament takes place on a cruise ship in the Mexican Riviera.
Lipscomb came up with the idea of a branded poker tour. He also found a way to make the game more exciting for viewers with a so-called "WPT Cam," which films the face-down cards that players are holding. Viewers can follow the game, with play-by-play commentary from poker players and celebrity announcers. "World Poker Tour's" third season begins airing this month with 16 tournaments at various casinos from Las Vegas to Paris.
Of the company's $10 million in annual revenues, 95 percent is generated from licensing television rights. Now Harrah's Entertainment Inc. and ESPN are fielding a competing televised poker tour.
Looking for other growth areas, WPT Enterprises plans a second-quarter debut of an online gaming Web site, WPTonline.com. Bets would be prohibited in the U.S. but officials expect big demand from Latin America and Asia.
"We've decided only to operate in jurisdictions where it is legal because the Department of Justice has put pressure on U.S. players for wagering online," said Steele.
Last year, WPT Enterprises signed a deal with slot machine maker International Game Technology to create "World Poker Tour" poker machines, and a licensing agreement with video game maker Take-Two Interactive Software Inc. for interactive poker games.
The online poker market is potentially $2 billion in size, said Danna, the analyst, noting, "If they can get 10 percent of that, then you're talking $60 million in revenue."
WPT Enterprises Inc.
[GRAPHIC OMITTED]
YEAR (Jan. 2) 2005 2004
Revenue (millions) $17.6 $4.3
Total Expenses (millions) 16.9 4.6
Operating Income (millions) 0.7 (0.4)
Net Income (millions) 0.8 (0.5)
Earnings Per Share $0.04 ($0.04)
SUMMARY
Business: Television poker tournaments
Headquarters: West Hollywood
CEO: Lyle Berman
Market Cap: $335 million Dividend Yield: None
Total Liabilities: $4.9 million P/E Ratio: N/A *
Long-Term Debt: $0
* Company is not profitable
Staff reporter Kate Berry can be reached at (323) 549-5225, ext. 228, or at kberry@labusinessjournal.com.
COPYRIGHT 2005 CBJ, L.P.
COPYRIGHT 2005 Gale Group
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