During this time, the “WPT Format” was created featuring the WPT hole cam, interactive graphics and “live sports feel”. These ☀️ new features put viewers into the minds and at the heart of the action. The first WPT episode aired on ☀️ March 30, 2003, on the Travel Channel and became an instant success (the highest rated show in network history).

These events ☀️ are considered the main contributor to poker's booming popularity—increasing the number of entrants into live poker tournaments (at all levels), ☀️ the growth of online poker and the overall greater interest in the game—but above all others, the 2003 World Series ☀️ of Poker Main Event (and subsequent broadcast on ESPN) is most cited as poker's Tipping Point; commonly referred to as ☀️ the "Moneymaker Effect".

Although most poker shows on television focus on tournaments, High Stakes Poker shows a high-stakes cash game. In ☀️ this game professional and amateur players play no limit Texas Hold 'em with their own money (the minimum to enter ☀️ the game isR$100,000). This game has allowed spectators to observe differences between cash games and tournaments, and to see how ☀️ players adjust their play to the different format.[1]

Poker's growth in Europe led to the creation of two FTA channels: The ☀️ Poker Channel and Pokerzone. Both began broadcasting during 2005.

1 ESPN did not air the WSOP in 1996 or 1999–2001; The ☀️ Discovery Channel did air one-hour specials of the 2000 & 2001 Main Events