With all of the ceremony surrounding the World Series of Poker (WSOP) and the World Poker Tour (WPT) over the last few years, it seems as though people seem to have forgotten about the United States Poker Championship (USPC).

The USPC started in 1996 and at the time featured several high buy-in tournaments including a $10,000 championship event. It was popular amongst many of the best players in the game with previous champions including Daniel Negreanu and Men “The Master” Nguyen along with final table appearances from poker greats like Phil Hellmuth, John Juanda and Erik Seidel.

However, time was not kind to the USPC and over the course of time it lost more and more players to WSOP events, the WSOP circuit events and of course the WPT which exploded in popularity right around the same time that the USPC started its alarming downward spiral.

2006 was perhaps the year that the USPC hit rock bottom because that was the year that ESPN decided not to broadcast the events. With only 52 players at last year’s main event, the USPC had to decrease the tournament entry fee in this year’s tournament to $5000 in order to draw more players.

However, things might be looking up for the USPC as they have managed to get another television deal. A deal signed with Compass Entertainment will see episodes of USPC events air on Spike TV, one of the better known television stations. The main event and several other high profile events will air during these episodes, allowing people to see just what the USPC is all about.

USPC events take place at the Trump Taj Mahal in Atlantic City, New Jersey and offer people an excellent east coast option for major poker tournaments should they not wish to make the trip out to Vegas.

All in all, the USPC seems to have a ray of hope to get back to its former glory after the signing of the television deal. As in all things however, only time will tell if they can get back to the top echelon of televised poker along with the WPT and WSOP events.