ClubWPT is the newest show to come out of the World Poker Tour family and the first to premiere on Fox Sports Net, and, well, I expected better.

Let me start by saying that I’m a fan of the WPT and have been since I was employed in their accounting department. I always secretly pull for the WPT to do well. And in truth, despite my criticisms of the company and its decisions at times, I feel that they’ve weathered some storms and still managed to put together a quality product every time. That is why it pained me to watch ClubWPT when it premiered on Saturday.

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Courtesy of the World Poker Tour

Scratch what I said about Men “The Master” being on a hot streak. John “The Razor” Phan is having an unbelievable year and just added another notch to his belt early this morning by winning his first World Poker Tour title.

The final table at the Legends of Poker at the Bike had some potential to be a good one, as several semi-notable pros were seated there with Phan. Amit Mahjika, the chip leader coming into the final table, held his lead for the majority of the night but found himself heads-up with Phan, and that battle lasted nearly 3 1/2 hours with the two players trading the lead over and over. Both were quite determined, as evidenced by the WPT live updates, and Mike Sexton called it the “greatest heads-up match in WPT history.” Finally, at about about 1:40am, Phan did it and claimed his first WPT victory.

Finishes were as follows:

6th place: Kyle Wilson ($176,035)
5th place: Trong Nguyen ($211,245)
4th place: Paul Smith ($246,450)
3rd place: Zach Clark ($281,645)
2nd place: Amit Makhija ($563,320)
1st place: John Phan ($1,116,428)

Phan’s year has consisted of five WSOP cashes (two of which were bracelet wins) and four WPT cashes (three of which were final tables and one of which was this victory). Not only was the WPT win his first, as were the WSOP bracelets, but his 2008 tournament winnings now top the $2 million mark. The year of the Razor, indeed.

Uh-oh.

The stock price for WPT Enterprises has been consistently falling, with the exception of a minor fluctuation in early July, since it dropped below $1 per share in late June 2008. And despite CEO Steve Lipscomb’s “don’t worry, be happy” attitude about it, NASDAQ isn’t cool with that mantra. In the next 180-day time period, if WPTE’s price doesn’t stay above $1.00 for 10 consecutive days, the company will be delisted.

Here is the statement released today:

WPT Enterprises, Inc. Receives Nasdaq Staff Determination Letter Regarding Minimum Bid Price

LOS ANGELES, Aug 19, 2008 (BUSINESS WIRE) — WPT Enterprises, Inc. (NASDAQ:WPTE) today announced that the Company received a Nasdaq Staff Determination Letter on August 14, 2008, notifying the Company that it was not in compliance with the minimum stock listing price requirements of Nasdaq Marketplace Rule 4450(a)(5) as a result of the closing bid price for the Company’s common stock being below $1.00 for 30 consecutive business days. This notification has no effect on the listing of the Company’s common stock at this time. The Nasdaq Marketplace Rules provide the Company with 180 calendar days to regain compliance, which will require the bid price of the Company’s common stock to remain above $1.00 for a minimum of 10 consecutive business days. The Company will continue to execute its business plan to provide an opportunity to demonstrate value to the investment community and regain Nasdaq compliance.

As Dan mentioned in his Steve Lipscomb interview post, there were some layoffs at WPT Enterprises last week. My sources tell me that there were approximately 10 people let go, primarily from the online and interactive departments that handle the WPT store and website content. This is starting to hit home with me now because two of those people were friends from my days as an accountant at the WPT offices, and while the majority of the employees are said to have been on edge about the possibility of layoffs, it always hurts to be let go from a company to which you’ve been loyal for four or five years.

WPTE wouldn’t confirm the number of people let go, if there would be more, or what departments were trimmed, but Lipscomb did provide an official statement:

“WPT Enterprises is undergoing a reorganization to meet the future demands of our business and changes in the marketplace we inhabit. All decisions affecting members of the WPTE family are extremely difficult decisions, but this reorganization is vital to creating and sustaining a growing business. WPTE has taken great care to ensure smooth and successful transitions for all former and existing WPT staff.”

You, too, can own a piece of the World Poker Tour. Maybe by tomorrow, shares will be on sale at the 99 Cent Store.

The stock price for WPT Enterprises, Inc. (WPTE on NASDAQ) hit $1.00. I’m not kidding.

While some people are buying it up in the hopes that someone will throw Lipscomb a life raft, word is that the WPTE employees are handing out resumes faster than players can buy in to a $1500 NLHE event at the WSOP. Even so, the World Poker Tour is still planning to hit Vegas for the Bellagio Cup in a few weeks to film the first episode of Season VII. Could be an interesting vibe over there!

For a few million dollars, you might be able to make an offer for the World Poker Tour.

If you only have $2 million, consider this. It’s a site called PokerRPG, and it is up for sale. Yes, you can own this website that “combines the wildly popular online poker with the role playing genre” and “includes vast community and social networking features that truly bring poker to web 2.0.” Seems to want to combine poker with World of Warcraft somehow, but the whole concept is unclear. It does have a poker tutorial, though, that describes the flop, turn, and river, as well as hand rankings. (Does a flush beat a straight? I forget.)

Thanks to Michael Cheser for the tip!

P.S. - If anyone decides to buy this site for $2 mil, please forward your photo to Pokerati so we can make fun of you. Thanks.