Chinese Television Airs First Poker Competition

Chinese television has progressed as the first government sanctioned nationally televised poker competition began to air this month. The new series is called the Traktor Poker Tour and is sponsored by the World Poker Tour.

The first season of the Traktor Tour will air a total of nine hours and is being created by Via Nanjing Entertainment Television. There is a ban on land gambling in the country and WPT Enterprises had to work around the ban. They created a cashless tournament series that was approved by Beijing officials.

The game is a variant of poker and uses two decks of cards with jokes as a team sport. Points are earned with each “trick” won by teams and trump suits still exist. Although this new game is accepted by the government, promoters for Texas hold’em are still trying to get Chinese officials to televise its games.

The show has been airing in the Jiangsu province, one of the wealthiest Chinese provinces and will also air in multiple provinces in China. Ads can be seen during the shows broadcast that promote WPT China’s recent launch of internet and mobile platforms.