Say Anything Blog

How do these guys keep their jobs:

LAS VEGAS – May 1, 2008 – The World Series of Poker® (WSOP) Presented by Milwaukee’s Best Light today announced a groundbreaking change that will more closely align the televised presentation of the world’s largest, richest and most prestigious poker tournament with other premier sports broadcasts.

The last nine players of the $10,000 World Championship of No-Limit Texas Hold’em, known as the Main Event, will compete on November 9-10 instead of the originally scheduled date of July 16.

“Our intent is to provide an even bigger stage for our players,” said Jeffrey Pollack, Commissioner of the World Series of Poker.  “Now fans and viewers will ask ‘who will win’ our coveted championship bracelet instead of ‘who won.’ The excitement and interest surrounding our final nine players will be unprecedented.”

ESPN is owned in large part by the American Broadcasting Company, the same group that made a disaster of the Olympic coverage in 2000 from Australia.

No doubt we will be seeing profiles of all the contestants leading up to the finale. This will include all the usual fluff commemorating past performances and generally investigating every detail of the players lives. The idea, of course, is to have viewers develop an interest in the players and in doing so increase ratings. The dilemma is that these events are usually relegated to the more obscure cable channels and the observers are confined to a small subset of interested parties; surreptitiously placed between “Cooking With Anna” and “A Travel Guide for Egypt”. Poker players and not a plurality of them, watch poker.

Leave it to the television executives to completely obliterate the excitement surrounding the event. Huge crowds are drawn to the chosen venue, enthusiasm is elevated by the concomitant events, you reach the thrilling climax then…wait until November.

If I were a player on the final table I would have mixed feelings about this. The added coverage may or may not be desirable, but the wait would be excruciating. Compound this with the break in playing (you reached the table with your “A” game, will it be there four months later) and who knows what else may occur in the intermediary period and you arrive at, if you’re a contestant, with LETS GET THIS THING OVER WITH!!!