New WSOP TV Format

[lwestatbus]

I was flipping through the channels last night and went into a major panic when I saw WSOP 2011 ME Day 3 Part 2 listed and sure enough, there was poker. But it was very, very different from the previous coverage. It was Lon McEachern and Antonio Esfandiari, no hole cards, no Normal Chad, and just a very different feel. My first thought was this is just one more nail in the coffin of my poker life. However I did some online research and found...

It turns out that ESPN is rushing out unedited versions of the event with 5-min and 30-min delays and will be starting the edited versions with Norm and hole cards beginning July 26th.

Here are a couple of informative URLs I found.

http://www.wsop.com/2011/2011-ESPN-TV-FAQ.pdf

http://espn.go.com/poker/story/_/id/6758265/the-world-series-poker-broadcasts-espn-undergo-major-changes-including-live-coverage-2011

[HalfSugar]

They thrashed out a deal to televise certain events of the WSOP this year on ESPN for the first time. They put it on a 30 minute delay but even so, players have already said (DN for example) that they have friends watching at home ready to pass on information to players about what cards their oppo was playing in certain spots.

[lwestatbus]

I'm not surprised that folks would set up that sort of arrangement. It absolutely doesn't seem right to me to have feedback on bluffs especially but also cards in general making it to a table while the involved players continue to play each other.

In one of the pages I found checking into this I found the official WSOP statement on TV and exposing hole cards and it was basically, "Take it or leave it." They very clearly state that signing up to play gives permission to be on TV, have your cards shown, etc.

[HalfSugar]

It's similar with the PokerStars Sunday Million/Big Event replays where all hole cards are shown. That obviously gives players a ton of restrospective information to take forwards but then so does all televised poker I suppose so it's just part of the modern game. One good thing perhaps is that it forces players to evolve so that they don't develop obvious patterns in certain spots.