Entertainment

TV: CBS will air 8 parts with players from around globe

11:25 AM CDT on Thursday, June 15, 2006

By MANUEL MENDOZA / The Dallas Morning News

No one knows for sure where Texas Hold 'Em was invented, but from the name you can tell it probably wasn't in Spain or China. That hasn't stopped the poker variation from spreading all over the world, with international players well represented among the stars of televised tournaments.

Now the Johnny Chans and Sammy Farhas of poker have their own made-for-TV show, The Intercontinental Poker Championship, which will air in eight installments on CBS starting Saturday. CBS is just the second broadcast network to produce a poker series, now commonplace on cable.

Played this spring at the Palms in Las Vegas, Intercontinental pits 21 players, each from a different country, in a series of matches leading up to a final table. The winner takes home $350,000, the runner-up $150,000.

"There really weren't any strangers at the table, but I never realized that there were so many nations represented in the world of poker," Doyle "Texas Dolly" Brunson, the U.S. representative and probably the best-known poker player on the planet, says in a teleconference interview.

Intercontinental was created for CBS Sports by Henry Orenstein, inventor of the hole camera that made Hold 'Em popular on TV. Since the World Poker Tour began using the camera in 2002, viewers have been able to see each player's down cards, turning every hand into a minidrama.

Mr. Orenstein says the first player he approached thought the professionals would never allow it. "I said, 'You don't know how much people want to be on TV.' "

"The top players just needed to suck it up," says Daniel Negreanu, who represents Canada in the tournament. "For the betterment of poker, this was essential."

Among broadcasters, only NBC has previously aired Hold 'Em tournaments, starting three years ago as an annual event against the Super Bowl pregame show. And two years ago, the network began airing The National Heads-Up Championship each spring, drawing an average of 4.2 million viewers per episode this year.

Intercontinental players include Antanas Guoga (Australia), Dave Ulliott (England), Eli Elezra (Israel), Marco Traniello (Italy), Thor Hansen (Norway), Hasan Habib (Pakistan) and Carlos Mortensen (Spain).

E-mail mmendoza@dallasnews.com

Intercontinental Poker Championships

Premieres at 4 p.m. Saturday, CBS (Channel 11). Other episodes air at 3:30 p.m. June 24; 4 p.m. June 25, July 1, 8 and 22; and 2 p.m. July 2 and 15. 1 hr. (except June 24, 90 mins.)