By Bob Maheu: Nearly a year and a half ago, the World Poker Tour inked what some termed a head shaking deal.  WPT Enterprises contracted with the Chinese Government, not the most poker friendly bunch, to bring poker to the televisions of China.  If you just read that sentence, you would think this was a ground breaking deal that would set the course for poker in China, and give the struggling WPT back its cache as a dominant force in the world poker market.

But the poker game in question, the game that the WPT has now officially brought to air in China is – Traktor.  What is Traktor, you ask?  Traktor is the most popular poker game in China, but its existence outside China is virtually naught.  In a testament of how obscure this game is in the Western world, try to find the rules of Traktor in English on the internet.  Good Luck.

The easy question is why China, and the answer is obvious.  The real question was  - why Traktor?  Certainly, the game offers the WPT brand an entry into the Chinese market, which could one day be huge, if the WPT can figure out how to monetize the entry into China.  But, with episodes hitting Chinese airwaves next week, the penetration of the WPT brand into Chinese culture has begun.

With nine hours of programming about to enter the Chinese market, the WPT has launched an online and mobile platform where consumers can play the game, and connect with other fans.

If, by some miracle, the WPT can lead with real money Traktor play on the internet in China, this deal may go down as one of the focal developments in the history of online poker.  If, however, China stays its decades long course opposed to things like this on the internet, the question may still remain – why Traktor?