My guess is, Days 1 and 2 are so massive that live broadcasts would be silly
and/or impossible to follow--in past WSOP, it has taken as many as four days to
finish Day 1. Also, the level of play would be like tuning into the World
Series of Baseball to watch a bunch of high schoolers (if that).
What I saw yesterday was interesting enough, but seeing every hand gives
viewers a little better sense of how the majority of hands in no-limit hold
'em tournaments end before the flop.
The most intriguing thing I saw was Daniel Negreanu (much beloved pro with
uncanny ability to read his opponents) folding a small pair when his opponent
raised big. He had to determine whether the bet indicated a bluff or a monster
hand. He guessed monster, he was right (opponent had three of a kind, aka a set
or trips), and because of the new broadcast setup, Negreanu was able to find
out a mere half hour later that his read was correct and that his agonizing
fold saved his tournament life. I can see where non-players might find all of
this monumentally tedious, but it's a great example of how poker really is a
game of skill. (Search for Negreanu on YouTube to see him look opponents in the
face and announce their exact cards without having seen them. He's like The
Mentalist, but for real, albeit limited to a specific environment.)
--Bill
Sent from my iPhone. (Man, that thing's really amazing.)
On Jul 15, 2011, at 1:20 PM, PGage pga...@gmail.com wrote:
I thought I had set a season pass for the WSP, but the first program that was
recorded was yesterday, titled Day 3, Part 2. There are some changes in the
coverage this year - I suppose to some extent a reflection of the troubles
poker has been experiencing lately.
First, they are televising the Main Event live (but on the Deuce). Usually I
prefer live, but in the case of poker, it means they can not show the hole
cards while they are playing (most TV poker uses a mix of commentary recorded
as play unfolds, mixed with commentary recorded later - and it is only this
latter that is done with knowledge of the hole cards). State law prohibits
transmission of the hole cards while the cards are in play. After each hand
is over they are revealing the hole cards. This is interesting once in a
while (to guess along with the players) but it is much more interesting to
watch on a steady basis when the hole cards are visible. Apparently, the
players are also a little worried about having their hole cards displayed in
almost real time to their opponents (the players can't communicate with any
associates monitoring the action on tv for 30 minutes after the play). I
guess to hedge on this, ESPN moves between two different tables, so only some
of the play of each player is revealed. It also means that, unlike in recent
years, we are not getting look-ins at players at other tables. So even
though there are thousands of players in the tournament, we only see around
20 of them.
A little looking reveals that ESPN3 is streaming Part 1 each day, then both
ESPN3 and ESPN2 show Parts 2 and 3. I can't tell if I somehow missed Day 1
and Day 2, or if they did not televise those days at all. In the coverage I
have seen they have not discussed poker's problems so far, and have not
really given much information even about ESPN's coverage plans. Apparently
they are still going to stop the tournament when they get to the final 9 and
hold the final table in November - though this seems odd, since it seemed
that they did that so they could string out 2 hours of taped and produced WSP
Main Event coverage every week from August to November to lead up to it. This
makes me think that maybe they are still going to have their regular recorded
coverage, in addition to this live coverage? If I knew they were going to do
that for sure I might skip the rest of the live coverage and wait for the
recorded package.
--
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