American TV series or program
Poker Dome Challenge Gameplay in the Poker Dome Also known as MANSIONPoker Poker Dome Challenge Country ♠ of origin United States No. of seasons 1 No. of episodes 43 Production Running time 2 hours Original release Network ♠ Fox Sports Net
The MANSIONPoker Poker Dome Challenge was a 43-week series of speed poker tournaments offering a grand prize of ♠ US$1,000,000. The tournament aired in the United States on Fox Sports Network from May 2006 to March 2007. The tournament ♠ featured a number of technological gimmicks in an effort to increase viewer interest and excitement. Commentating duties were shared by ♠ rotating hosts including Barry Tompkins, Jon Kelley, Michael Konik, Michael Gracz, Joel Meyers and Chris Rose with Leeann Tweeden serving ♠ as co-host/exit interviewer (occasionally covered by Nafeesa DeFlorias). Matt Savage was the tournament director.
The series consisted of single table tournaments ♠ of six players each. Five of the six competitors qualified through daily freeroll tournaments held at mansionpoker. Another competitor came ♠ from the National Pub Poker League, an amateur poker league that partnered with MansionPoker and qualified its nightly bar tournament ♠ winners into a private weekly freeroll.[1][2] Winners of the online qualifiers were flown all expenses paid to Las Vegas, Nevada ♠ and receivedR$500 in casino chips and other amenities.
Professional poker players Tony G, Dennis Waterman and Perry Friedman and reality television ♠ personality-turned poker pro Rob Mariano have appeared in the Dome. Nevada casino author Al W Moe appeared in the Dome ♠ and his wife, Shannon R Moe, was an alternate selection a month later.
Players started with 50,000 in tournament chips and ♠ play continued until one player had all 300,000. The tournament was single-elimination and only the winner of each table received ♠ prize money. Players had just 15 seconds to act on a hand before it was ruled dead. Each player was ♠ given one 30-second time extension that could be used at any time. When the table got to heads-up, each player ♠ received another 30-second time extension (although if a player hadn't previously used the extension he or she did not then ♠ have two). Betting was pot-limit pre-flop and no-limit post-flop until heads-up play, when it became all no-limit.
Each preliminary winner pocketedR$25,000 ♠ in cash and advanced to the semi-finals. After each set of six preliminary tournaments, a semi-final single table tournament was ♠ played among the six winners, with the winner of that table takingR$50,000 and advancing to the final table. After the ♠ six semi-final matches were played, the finalists played one more single table tournament for theR$1,000,000 winner-take-all grand prize. Each of ♠ the other finalists won a prize package from Mansion Poker worthR$13,000.
The Poker Dome [ edit ]
Tournaments were played in front ♠ of a live audience in a structure called The Poker Dome. The audience couldn't be seen or heard by the ♠ players and players were screened before entering the Dome to ensure they were unable to communicate with anyone outside the ♠ Dome. The high tech table featured an LED display for the dealer button, hole card cameras, automatic card reading technology ♠ (described on-screen as "computer chips," possibly passive RFID tags) and built in LED hand timers. Two dealers worked the tournaments ♠ to maintain the fast pace, and players were attached to heart monitors. Players' hole cards and heart rates were displayed ♠ for the live audience and in particularly stressful situations like all in bets, heart rates were displayed to the home ♠ audience.
The Tropicana Resort & Casino hosted the first eight Round 1 preliminaries and the first Round 2 playoff prior to ♠ the completion of construction at the Neonopolis, where a top-floor movie theatre was reworked into the Poker Dome set. Eventual ♠ Poker Dome Challenge winner Rodel Tuazon won the first preliminary held in the Neonopolis studio, in an episode also featuring ♠ Tony G.
Tournament results [ edit ]
Final table [ edit ]
Finish Player Total cash winnings 1 Rodel TuazonR$1,075,000 2 Dennis WatermanR$75,000 ♠ 3 Rob SherwoodR$75,000 4 Ben LudwigR$75,000 5 Andrew RogersR$75,000 6 Jerry SchraderR$75,000
World Pro-Am Challenge [ edit ]
On July 12, 2006, ♠ The Poker Dome played host to the World Pro-Am Challenge, with a US$1,000,000 prize pool. Three professional players were pitted ♠ against three amateur online qualifiers, who had access to three other pros for coaching. The top three spots paid, and ♠ if an amateur cashed the prize money would be split with the coach. Each amateur started withR$20,000 more in chips ♠ than the pros and each amateur/coach team was allowed two time outs, one called by the player and one by ♠ the coach.
