Celebrities in poker are nothing new. Gabe Kaplan and Chill Willis had been a few celebrities concerned within the early days of the World Collection of Poker (WSOP), and the Golden Nugget in Las Vegas used to carry celeb charity occasions that included Dionne Warwick and Mr. T.
Throughout the “Poker Increase” of the mid-2000s, an inflow of celebrities ventured into the sport together with Jason Alexander, Kevin Pollak, and Jennifer Tilly, all of who dabble to today. There was additionally the Celeb Poker Showdown, which ran for 5 seasons on Bravo from 2003-2006.
Nonetheless, the occasions of 2011’s Black Friday dramatically modified the poker panorama, with most TV exhibits dedicated to the sport disappearing from the airwaves. Whereas celebrities made sporadic poker appearances on TV, totally on ESPN episodes of the WSOP, they weren’t a giant a part of the sport.
That every one modified in 2024 when the poker world was inundated with celebrities. The PokerStars Massive Recreation received within the motion by inviting the likes of Arden Cho, Michael Ian Black, and Rob Gronkowski, but it surely was truly a brand new tour that introduced a whole bunch of celebrities to poker.
The Celeb Poker Tour (CPT) accomplished its first season in 2024 and kicked off Season 2 on February 7. The CPT hosted eight occasions in its first season and the celebrities had been a mixture of conventional sports activities stars, comedians, and TV personalities, in addition to extra modern-day celeb streamers, vloggers, and web personalities.
The CPT was the brainchild of Blake Wynn, the 25-year-old CEO who’s taking celeb poker to the following degree in a brand new day and age of the sport. PokerNews chatted with Wynn to get the story behind the Celeb Poker Tour, what they realized in Season 1, and what kind of issues they could have in retailer for Season 2 in 2025.
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Q&A with Blake Wynn
PokerNews: When and the way did the thought for CPT start and the way lengthy did it take to make occur?
Blake Wynn: The thought for the CPT virtually kind of occurred accidentally. After we threw the primary match, which was the Enclave Celeb Invitational in August 2023, I believe that was the second that we realized that, versus having that be a one-off occasion that we did in partnership with PokerGO, there was a starvation for the thought of getting distinctive personalities collectively, celebrities being the epitome of that, and pitting them towards each other.
That grew to become clear as a way of participating and thrilling content material as quickly as we threw that first one. So instantly following that one we labored with the PokerGO crew and we determined that 2024 was going to be the inaugural 12 months of the Celeb Poker Tour. The primary occasion was on February 8 which was about 5 months after that first occasion had taken place throughout which era we had been determining who we had been going to solid for every occasion, creating the branding, and all the backend work that goes with launching a enterprise.
The precise thought for it got here from inside my home the place I’ve a poker site and we play low-stakes video games with celebrities and I’d oftentimes have people like Alexandra Botez, Austin Ekeler, Joey Hamilton, Princess Love, Bryce Corridor, and others come to my home and we’d play low-stakes poker. It was so entertaining that if we had been capable of movie it, we thought that might make for some unimaginable content material, in order that’s how the thought got here to be and that is why we did the occasion that we did in August of 2023, however the CPT was a results of that occasion.
How do you’re feeling concerning the CPT after your first season?
You realize, while you’re somebody who’s working one thing and also you’re making an attempt to convey your imaginative and prescient to life alongside your crew, you at all times really feel like you may do extra, however that being stated I do not by any means really feel like we fell brief. We had a powerful 12 months, we got here capturing out of the gates, and we have thrown a number of the most-watched poker occasions within the historical past of the sport.
“If you issue within the battle that they might have with each other, you’d find yourself with some actually thrilling soundbites and moments, to not point out the character of the playing cards is fairly dramatic.”
A number of the viewership numbers most likely exceeded my preliminary expectations, however my expectation going into the 12 months was that if we received fascinating individuals in a room and created an setting the place you’d have a senator sitting subsequent to a comic sitting subsequent to an athlete sitting subsequent to an influencer sitting subsequent to UFC star and so forth, it will be the type of melting pot that might be must-see tv.
If you issue within the battle that they might have with each other, you’d find yourself with some actually thrilling soundbites and moments, to not point out the character of the playing cards is fairly dramatic. These sorts of moments are precisely what did occur, so from that respect, I’d say that it met expectations.
What did exceed my expectations was how individuals had been in collaborating from house. We had been permitting individuals to both put actual cash or faux cash on it by selecting who they thought would win or head-to-head matches on the Fliff app, and once we noticed how a lot of our viewers truly participated in that, it was extremely fascinating. We had Elon Musk tune into a number of occasions, so there have been undoubtedly issues like that that most likely exceeded expectations.
Who had been a number of the breakout stars of Season 1 in your opinion?
I believe the results of having breakout stars being girls for us in Season 1 with 5 wins out of eight occasions created a outcome through which our viewers additionally grew to become largely girls. I believe that is a really thrilling factor for the way forward for the sport.
I additionally assume there have been some intriguing individuals like Tana Mongeau, who by no means truly gained an occasion, however positioned within the high two or three a number of instances and everybody’s ready for her to win.
Bryce Corridor actually grew to become a star. He went from getting within the very backside portion of the participant pool within the first occasion to changing into a CPT champion himself later within the 12 months. Aljamain Sterling was one other enjoyable one which we had who had a few deep runs, so there have been plenty of breakouts.
I believe the Celeb Poker Tour was the breakout star typically as a result of each single participant that we had was not part of the poker world with the exceptions of Maria Ho, Wolfgang, Rampage, Princess Love, and a small handful of others.
So far as you possibly can share, what’s in retailer for 2025?
That is going to be an exceptional season. We have realized a lot about what works, what does not, what individuals need to see extra of, and we’re implementing it. The most important factor that individuals need extra of in relation to CPT is they need extra content material, so along with the eight occasions that we’re having this 12 months, there’s going to be a wealth of content material that comes out throughout our social media, throughout YouTube, and different shops that did not exist this 12 months.
In 2024, if you happen to checked us out on social media, you noticed many participating graphics, you noticed numerous loopy moments labored up into clips that showcased a number of the signature moments, however you did not actually see lots of different content material apart from that. This 12 months, there can be a wealth of it.
Along with that, we’re including a match that we did not have final 12 months which is on the very starting of August. We’re having a Summer time Invitational following the NBA Summer time League so we will get numerous NBA gamers concerned as a result of this 12 months individuals preferred watching Mike Bibby, Mario Chalmers, Kenyon Martin Jr & Sr, and a number of the NBA guys that we had like Dwight Howard. However this time we’ll have a giant NBA occasion and I believe that is going to be extremely thrilling.
Are there any new celebrities coming in Season 2 that you just would possibly be capable of tease?
Sure, there’s going to be properly over 100 new celebrities that we’ve in Season 2. Individuals tended to love the comedians, they preferred us having streamers, they usually preferred the skilled athletes, all of which could have new faces from every of these classes.
Additionally, no matter stars that social media creates in 2025, you possibly can anticipate we’ll attain out to them to hopefully get them on the felt for CPT Season 2. You’ll be capable of find out about all of the celebrities main as much as occasions by following us on socials at @celebritypokertour.
*Pictures courtesy of Celeb Poker Tour / Blake Wynn.
Chad Holloway
PR & Media Supervisor
