ESPN WILL televise 2006 Trump Taj USPC

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The official word from ESPN Spokeswoman Keri Potts: ESPN WILL televise the $10000 buy-in Championship Event of 2006 Trump Taj Mahal U.S. Poker Championship on October 3-7.

This is consistent with what Trump Taj Mahal Poker Room Manager Tom Gitto told me in July for an article I wrote:

http://pokerbiz411.com/2006/08/10/marketing-trends.aspx

The Trump Taj Mahal signed a 5-year deal with ESPN Original Entertainment (EOE) in 2004, according to Gitto.

Knoxville, Tennessee-based RIVR Media is under contract to produce the USPC for EOE.

I managed the track down the source of the rumor, a marketer for leading online poker "school" F---T---P----.NET.

This marketer asked a member of the 441 Productions crew, which produced the WSOP, whether 441 would produce the USPC. He mistook the "no" answer to mean that EOE would not produce the USPC. EOE had always used a different company to produce the USPC, though the on-air talent for both productions are the same: Lon McEachern and Norman Chad.

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The handful of players who have consulted with me will all play the USPC, in a few cases choosing the USPC instead of the WPT at Borgata, because of ESPN TV coverage.