The United States Poker Championship (USPC) at the Trump Taj Mahal, a major circuit stop for tournament poker players for over ten years, will once again return to broadcast television, thanks to a new 5 year contract with the Spike cable network.

The USPC, which boasts such past champions as Daniel Negreanu, Men "The Master" Nguyen, John Hennigan and Toto Leonidas, for years was broadcast on ESPN but was dropped from their schedule after the 1996 episodes, leaving this prestigious event to seemingly slowly wither away, without a viable method to continue to get national attention. 

However with this new deal, created by the Las Vegas based television production company Compass Entertainment, LLC, the USPC may now not only continue to be known as an important event, but perhaps as part of a major show on a new network, could even bring some new faces to the game.

The 2009 United States Poker Championship preliminary events began yesterday (11/2) at the Trump Taj Mahal in Atlantic City, and will continue on until the (now televised) USPC $5,000 buy-in main event begins November 20th.


Story by Mark Anderson