WSOP final table moves to November

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/poker/news/story?id=3375032

Now the whole thing won't be over before we even see any of it. Could drum up interest, as there will months of hype before they finish it.

 

I think that detracts from the integrity of the competition. It's supposed to test your endurance as well.

 

This has a lot of possible upside, as far as the marketing of the event.
However, it detracts for the integrity of the event.
Endruance and concentration are not as challenged if the pplayers get months off.
They also get to get additional coaching, change their games and bone up more on the others at the table.

 

I'm annoyed they've only got one day set aside for TV coverage of the $50,000 HORSE event.

 

This is a dumb idea and potentially destructive.

Part of the appeal of the event, in its current form, is to get a guy like Jerry Yang or Jamie Gold who goes on a wild ride from unknown to multimillionaire in the span of 10 days. Let's just say this year you have a Jamie Gold type who goes into the final table with a huge percentage of the chips. For that guy, the four-month break will be really tough. Do you lay low? Do you play a lot of poker? You're talking now about four months of side bets and guys trying to get a piece of you. It's also going to be dangerous, potentially, to walk around knowing you're "worth" a million bucks but not have it in hand for a long time. I could even see kidnappings, stuff like that. I remember Gold felt unsafe enough that he hired security for the last few days of the tournament because he was supposedly getting threats. Now someone will have to go through months of that?

 

I hate to pile on ESPN here, but this is yet another thing that's all about them.

This is almost the equivalent of playing the World Series in February. Four months is a lot of time, I know I'm playing a lot different today than I was four months ago and I'm sure I'll be in a different cycle, good or bad, in September than I am now.

 

What I really don't like about it is this: You will know the nine players who make the final table in July. Some of them are sure to be pros, some amateurs. This gives the pros four months to study what the amateurs did during the rounds that were already televised. Yes, it gives the amateurs four months to study what the pros did, too, but I would think the pros will pick up more tells off the amateurs than vice-versa.

With that in mind, I must ask this: Is this a move to give a known pro a better chance of coming away with the title?

 

No, it's a move to build viewer interest because in the past the WSOP's final result has been common knowledge long before ESPN got around to showing the final table.

 

This definitely benefits Harrah's and ESPN more than it benefits poker in general.
It give them four months of pump-up and exposure.
I don't think it will affect the TV rating for the final table much.
The people who like to watch poker. Avid players like me watch even after we know who won.
And I know plenty of very casual watchers. They don't play, but they'll watch poker on TV sometimes because of the money involved. Those people don't sit around saying - 'I already know Jerry Yang won. Why should I watch.' Those are the people who have made up the bulk of poker's TV audience for these past five years. Bridging the gap between the finish and the broadcast is not going to affect the audience size much.

 

I agree totally. Knowing who won doesn't take anything at all out of watching for me. I watch to see each individual hand. Who had what? How did he play it? And I'll watch it over and over again. I still put the old WSOPs and US Poker Championships on ESPN Classic nearly every night after I get home from work.

People who play and are interested in poker will watch whether the final actually was played in July or not.

 

I don't like this at all -- the charm of the WSOP is that it is a marathon -- that you must win a grueling eight or nine or ten days of poker and I think momentum is a big thing in poker. I don't like the fact that people can go back home and take four months to study their opponents and play a different game or change their game. I just think it takes something away from the final table that it is not a part of the tournament any more.

 

Agreed. And while mathematically speaking, there should be no such thing as a rush, there's no doubt that momentum is absolutely huge in poker. Having four months off kills that.

The ability to hone your game and study your opponents for four months totally changes the game.