Poker champion Daniel
Negreanu and the mass media MTV group will be teaming up shortly
to air the former's "Stacked" Texas Hold 'Em video game
to an audience of millions come Fall 2005.
"Stacked" has been attracting widespread interest as the
first video game to present very advanced and constantly evolving
artificial intelligence (AI) technology to the public. "Stacked's"
Poki artificial intelligence robot is a state-of-the-art system that
continually adapts to every opponent's playing style in real-time.
The game also features in-game video and voice tutorials, instruction,
strategy, and years of poker insight from Negreanu, Card Player's
2004 Player of the Year.
MTV and Negreanu's distributor Myelin Media will work together to
deliver the high-paced action and intense experience of poker to the
MTV audience through on-air, online, mobile, and other platforms,
as well as developing programming based on the "Stacked"
brand to air around the time of the game's release.
MTV exec Jeff Yapp describes the alliance as a major evolution in
poker and says: "Texas Hold'em is the hottest poker game
of choice amongst celebrities, athletes, hardcore and casual players
alike, and we are looking forward to bringing this fun, and technically
brilliant experience of poker, video games, and some of the world's
top professional poker players to our audience via various broadcast
platforms across the MTV networks including MTV, MTV2 and mtvU."
In addition to Negreanu, "Stacked" features poker pros Evelyn
Ng, Erick Lindgren, Jennifer
Harmon, David Williams, Josh Arieh, and Carlos Mortenson.
Supporting plans for the venture include its own multi-table tournament
system called "Stacked Masters" and official "Stacked"
sanctioned online tournaments through MTV.com.