World Series of Poker makes radical change in final table
Talk about your TV timeouts.
World Series of Poker officials are holding a press conference later today where they're expected to announce something that's been reported since last night by USA Today and rumored in poker circles for quite a while. The Main Event of the WSOP, the biggest poker event of the year, will suspend play when it gets down to a final table in mid-July and then resume on Nov. 9, a Sunday, to play out the final table with ESPN broadcasting the event two days later, Nov. 11, at 9 p.m. The timing means that the televised program will air about a half-day after the event actually ends giving the telecast more immediacy. The edited final table telecast is expected to be a two-hour program.
In the past, the Main Event final table broadcast occurred weeks, even months after the tournament ended and the results had been known. The televising of poker has always been a challenge. ESPN's World Series of Poker telecasts have been considered the gold standard but they are much more a documentary than event coverage with painstaking editing that condenses hundreds of hours of card playing in order to create interesting story lines.
Apparently the WSOP, which is owned by Harrah's Entertainment, and ESPN are hoping for the best of both worlds with the change -- the drama and entertainment appeal they get from the documentary approach in telecasting the Main Event action leading up to the final table and the immediacy of event coverage by delaying the actual playing of the final table until they're ready to get it on TV.
The reaction of some poker pros, such as Daniel Negreanu, has been positive. Others, like Doyle Brunson, are not so sure. The long delay will allow players to be coached and even study their opponents on tape.
Photo: Associated Press
Comments
Now that is the first creative thing to happen in poker for a long time....
Posted by: Charles | May 2, 2008 9:13 AM
Good for TV, bad for Poker.
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Chief Disciple,
I like the concept generally because for poker to have staying power as a game, it has to have a mass media appeal. The closer it can get to real time telecasts, the better. I'm okay with suspending play to let the dramatic story telling of the first 10 or 12 days of the tournament catch up with the final table but four months seems exceedingly long. I also understand why that is and most of those reasons are all about TV, meaning filming and editing selected bracelet events and being locked in to a Tuesday night telecast for the first run. I'm not being too critical because I realize that the work ESPN is trying to do is time consuming.
-- Bill O.
Posted by: Chief Disciple of Poker | May 2, 2008 9:18 AM
I think this is the worst idea I have ever heard! When you play poker it is all about timing. If you are lucky enough to make the final table, that is your lucky time, Not 4 mos. from then.
I agree with Doyle that it will lead to people being coached and not playing on their own skills.
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Mike,
Probably the best example of what you're talking about was Jamie Gold just rolling over the field and the final table in 2006. Maybe his huge chip lead would have still held up after a long wait but certainly his momentum would have dissipated costing him the psychological advantage he held just then.
-- Bill O.
Posted by: Mike Brown | May 5, 2008 9:24 AM