Oh well, $10 per month isn't too bad.
We've been spoilt getting it for free for the past x number of years

This Poker Central pay model is terrible. Stop trying to reinvent the wheel. Just put the streams on twitch like everyone else.

I'm sure having to pay for the rights for a sporting event makes airing it for free on Twitch a non-starter. The $10 a month is completely reasonable as long as you can cancel easily.

It seems like their subscription rates could fall like 90% outside of the summer. For that reason, I'd say $10/mo is too cheap for the summer months, but what do I know? I thought WWE Network's price of $9.99 was too cheap too.

The November 9 changes and overall addition of the Poker Central offering seems like a clear step forward, but losing streaming coverage of 70%-80% of the overall schedule is definitely 2 steps back, at least for me. I hope there is still more to come on this subject.

Im happy to pay as long as its not all NLH and the commentators include high level players that I can learn from. As a form of entertainment I would not pay .01, but if its a good learning tool then great. I dont really understand why anyone would pay for more entertainment based poker shows as there are so many for free.

How many consecutive years have they been streaming the side events? It seems like some years they do and some years they don't. Or maybe it's just that they've done such a poor job of advertising the streams by hiding them away on WSOP.com. Last year's free streams definitely should have been on twitch. Regardless, I'm glad they are getting a 3rd party to handle this.

Why does anyone pay for UFC PPVs when there are so many MMA events out there for free? Fact is, a lot of us don't really care about those other poker shows. This isn't just another poker show. This is the World Series of Poker. Some people watch college basketball religiously during March Madness. Others watch Big Brother 24x7. I'll be lucky to see sunlight for 2 weeks in July if they live stream the entire main event.

FYI you can get an idea of how they will be handling the schedule by looking at this page: https://www.pokergo.com/category/live-events

They will have coverage of every day of one drop & the $10k HU, and the final table of the $1500 6-max is listed (nothing else listed yet). So we could expect less overall final tables but more early day coverage of the bigger events.

I can remember watching Phil Hellmuth win a NL bracelet in 2006 or 2007 When they used make everyone play in a sequester room. I think they've been streaming the NL side events ever since then.

good

Thanks for the response. It does appear you are correct. I probably got confused with the move from ESPN3 to WSOP.com and also because I didn't have access to ESPN3 every year. I'm also probably thinking of the main event which I recall being live streamed back in 2011, but I'm not sure when else it was live streamed.

I just ran across an article from 2015 where the author suggests ending the November 9 and live streaming the entire main event. He also suggests instituting some sort of shot clock. I'm sure Will Kassouf's opponents wished the WSOP had instituted that change last year.

http://www.allinmag.com/poker/inside...wsop-broadcast

I agree . . . the early part of summer (June) is the best time to the year.

Same here. Jan - May is a working schedule for me. The summer has a lot of built in flexibility due to the fact that many others take their vacations during that time.

So when ESPN has it's live coverage timeslots will the same feed/commentary be available to watch live on PokerCentral's site?

Wasn't sure if this has already been posted?

https://www.pokernews.com/news/2017/...ergo-28018.htm

No more free streams?

No matter how you slice it, this is putting lipstick on a pig.

In other words, I believe this is not a good direction for poker. This clearly is a confirmation of less, much less, sponsorship money (and I don't mean patches on punter's shirts) going into poker coverage. It's why the title sponsor of WSOP was a beef jerky company for crying out loud. This is basically ESPN saying that major television advertisers aren't interested in spending big dollars on poker television, so it's being relegated, in part, to Poker Central and out of the ESPN ecosystem, one step at a time.

Cliffs: This is about money (advertisers/sponsors) exiting the poker economy, not money entering the poker economy.

ESPN is relegating poker out of the ESPN ecosystem by signing a new tv deal with the World Series of Poker?

So $20 would cover you for 2 full months and the complete WSOP and more. Sounds ok to me assuming its lots of coverage that won't be on TV.

I guess day 1 of SHR Bowl is Free to check out how it will work on May 28th.

Plus the documentaries might be interesting.

Does anyone have a link to the ESPN coverage schedule?

Why do you post without reading the OP?

The ESPN deal has been extended. ESPN will now be showing coverage from day 1 again, which it hasn't done for 4 years or so.

Instead of steaming the side events themselves, they've farmed it out to someone else and by the sounds of things, it won't just be final tables.

Try the OP....

As a side note I actually always enjoyed sweating/watching day 1 coverage when it was still put into the episodes by espn.

Will be looking forward to railing more efficiently in real time this year.

Oh yea I knew I saw it somewhere before. lol

Only Main Event coverage. That sucks. I will for sure pay $10/mo for 2 months to see all the pokergo coverage.

You are dead wrong on this I'm sorry. They could've just let their contract expire, there was zero obligation for ESPN to extend beyond this year let alone through 2020. It makes a lot of sense to have some cheap content during the summer given the cutbacks they are having to make in other areas due to absurd rights fees for the NBA and NFL.

You sort of made my point. ESPN, whether due to its own internal issues, or due to advertising rates and interest, appears to be lowering the amount of money invested in the WSOP. They won't be renting the entire Penn & Teller Theater for a week in the fall, and all the associated production costs of the November 9. If advertisers we're foaming at the mouth for poker content, I believe there still would be the November 9 concept. But the interest is less than it was years ago, and therefore the financial commitment is less. It doesn't mean they are dropping to zero coverage!