WPT creates special father, son tournament

The World Poker Tour (WPT) announced today that it is producing a special father and son poker tournament that will film at the Foxwoods Casino Resort in Mashantucket, Conn. The tournament will feature some of poker's most prominent families who will play for a $25,000 seat in the WPT World Championship.

The show, titled "Fathers and Sons," will have six father-son duos that will play as a team starting with $250,000 in tournament chips. Instead of a normal WPT final table, they will play as a tag team. The sons will start the tournament playing against each other, and at any time, the fathers can tag in, even if they're in the middle of a hand, to take over.

The players are Doyle Brunson and Todd Brunson; Barry Greenstein and Joe Sebok; Barry Shulman and Jeff Shulman; Steve Stolzmann and John Stolzmann, who was the Season 3 WPT World Poker Open champion; Romeo Simon and Michael Simon, the Season 4 WPT World Poker challenge winner; and WPT host Vince Van Patten and his father Dick Van Patten.

"We wanted to create a unique special that would bring a fun and emotional perspective to poker playing families," said Robyn Moder, WPT executive vice president and co-founder. "Millions of Americans engage in weekly family poker matches and pride is often the biggest stake in the prize pool. What better way to show our viewers how the pros handle the pressure."

Adding a twist to the end, the father-son team that outlasts the other teams will then go heads-up against each other for the seat in the WPT World Championship taking place April 2007 at the Bellagio in Las Vegas.

Poker fans can catch the special "Fathers and Sons" broadcast on the Travel Channel on Father's Day, June 17, 2007.

News Added: 16 November, 2006

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