Today is the first day of the main event at the 2005 World Series of Poker. The WSoP has grown a lot in the last few years. Hell, it's grown a lot since Joe played in it. It is estimated that 6600 players will play the event this year, and they'll be divided into not two, but three starting flights. Out of control!
In fact, as glad as I am to see poker continue to be on the rise, I'm also a little saddened by the size of the event now. For two years running, amateurs have won the big title. And with a field this big, I have to wonder if a "pro name" is ever going to squeak one out again. Sure, the skilled players win in the long run. And any one pro has probably got much better chances of winning than any one amateur. But we're now talking about so many amateurs.
I find it incredibly impressive that Dan Harrington was able to make the final table in both of the last two years. That says to me he's a hell of a player, much more so than Chris "Suck Out" Moneymaker, who avoid busting out of the tournament on at least a half dozen odds-defying occasions to win it in 2003. Greg "Fossilman" Raymer at least proved to be a better player than that. I'm not trying to say I'm against the notion of "anyone can win." Still, if we just get a new Moneymaker every year from now on... that's disappointing to me.
Even though this year's main event begins today and will conclude a week from now, it won't be televised on ESPN until October/November. I just don't understand this. I mean, I understand countless reasons why you, say, wouldn't cover it live or anything close to it. But poker is a pretty hot ticket right now. Why you would wait over three months to broadcast the event is totally beyond me.
In any case, perhaps in honor of the festivities, this past weekend was the first time I threw down and played some poker in nearly five months. The skills were a little rusty, I must admit, but not critically so. I managed to win overall, even if it wasn't really any amount worth mentioning. Mostly, it just felt good to be back at the table. You'll probably be finding me there a lot in the weeks to come.
7 comments:
i thought it was going to be televised on july 17th?
It starts to be televised in July... but probably like last year the first 10 shows or so will be the smaller tournaments (limit hold-em, women's no-limit, etc)... and then we'll probably have 5 to 6 weeks of the no-limit finale.
That way you can draw out the ratings - and with ESPN deciding not to renew the NHL contract (and why should they... poker gets bigger ratings and is less expensive to producer), you can use the WSOP to fill up the spots that were once filled by NHL.
They start broadcasting other events from the WSoP on July 17th. But the main event isn't up until October.
Not broadcasting the main event live is just plain bad programming. Couldn't they at least put it on ESPN2?
As far as a string of amateurs winning, I find it more refreshing than sitting through another round of MLB playoffs with the Braves, Cards, Red Sox, and Yankees. Whoopdie-frigging-doo.
Most hands of poker are really boring to watch, even to casual fans like me. I think it takes a ton of production and editing to make it interesting.
Besides, the format (huge elimination tournament) means that any of the early round stuff they would choose to cover would be likely to not matter to the overall tournament. As Evan points out, any given pro (the personalities worth covering) isn't likely to survive the grinder.
Now, with a ton of camera crews and tables with the hand cameras, and some white hot production crews working through the night, maybe they could squeeze out half an hour or an hour a day? But the production costs would go up dramatically.
Or am I full o' shit?
Yeah, Tom raised one major reason why live poker wouldn't be so great. Many hands are boring, boring, boring.
Secondly, airing it live would provide monumental opportunities for cheating. Even on a tape delay, you would still be able to know "hey, he bluffed on that last hand -- I'd better start calling him more often." That's information you don't get normally during the course of a game.
All good points, Evan and Tom. Consider my complaint withdrawn.
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