They did live streams in 2007, back when they had the infamous "poker tent." A few events were shown that year, including when Phil Hellmuth won his 11th bracelet. Howard David and Robert Williamson did the commentary.

Update: You can see the final hand of the tournament Hellmuth won on Youtube.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B-QDOTtV5Ac

Guy goes all in for 500,000 at 60,000 / 120,000. Commentators criticize PH for calling with a dominated A3. Lols

Isn't all that old stuff still available on YouTube anyway?

I remember that. They only scheduled about 5 events to be covered and added Hellmuth's only because he was on for 11.

OP seems to be implying they streamed almost all events since 2008, which isn't the case from memory. IIRC, the Tuch marathons didn't start til about 2012 when ESPN scaled back their coverage to only show the ME.
I may be completely wrong though..

Instead of complaining and wanting to boycott them
perhaps just consider

Supporting them and subscribing
At least till the end of WSOP

Give them a legit chance to improve upon last year.

I'm arguably the OP's worst enemy in this fight, in that I am what can only be described as a "loyal but dissatisfied customer."

I pay the $100 per year (actually, it was $79 for me) because a) what I DO get is still worth that amount, and b) I don't really have much choice when it comes to the WSOP. My sub recently renewed, so I guess that's the "loyal" part.

However, I completely agree with Srsly and the OP that PokerGo's coverage of the 2017 WSOP was lacking, mostly for a few aforementioned reasons: they generally streamed NLHE only, with some of the great events – particularly those that would reach poker's more diehard fans – left off the broadcast schedule. Even if they insist on maintaining their production quality, such as the sets and crew size Srsly referenced, I would greatly prefer they chose their events more judiciously.

Thus, one of your possible solutions/alleviants would be to target people like me. I'm an existing customer, and any business puts more energy into retention than into acquisition. If you (or anyone else) would provide reliable contact information, I'd be happy to voice concerns about the WSOP coverage to the literal whom it may concern. The only addresses listed on the website are for technical support and customer service, but none for programming. (I just sent an email to the latter, asking if there is anyone I can raise such concerns.)

Yeah, yeah, it's not much, and it might not move any needles. But a complaint directly to PokerGo from one of the customers might have a better chance than, say, a complaint in a forum.

You have the same name on YouTube, right? You've been killing it, dude.

2nd year I felt they should have been able to host 75% of events a tleast, expecially if they hired tuchman

Not seeing how WSOP coverage goes is shortsighted imo because it doesn't allow for the biggest year-over-year improvement.

That being said, I can't imagine they're so unaware of their base that they don't do at least the 50K. That alone would probably buy a lot of goodwill/retention.

I am surprised no one has established a pirate stream for PokerGo.

Momma always said you were "special."

A point of particular emphasis in my email:


For my money (literally), I would prefer the WSOP feature the high-buy-in events, regardless the poker variant. This was my example of a good, solid broadcast schedule. You will notice that it isn't that much different in length from PokerGo's NLHE-heavy 2017 slate:

And yeah, it likely will result in zero changes. I'm willing to give it one more year of WSOP coverage. But I go back to this: an email sent directly to PokerGo from a subscriber may have a better chance of affecting some sort of good change than our usual complaining on an online message board.

I signed up for PokerGo but when I realized 99% of the broadcasts is NLH I declined to renew. The fee is non-issue, I would gladly pay way more if they cover everything at WSOP, especially more obscure games. And I did send them an email complaining about it.

I had it during WSOP and enjoyed it. Could they have had more events? Sure but they did announce the deal right before it started. With the new studio I don’t think it’s out of line to say they’ll expand their offerings.
Will people still complain? Absolutely.

Where do these subscription services draw the line on content tho? Probably somewhere above poker..although I suppose it could be a good fit for ESPN+. The problem is that they aren't going to drive many subscriptions from poker content. The poker market is literally too small for Amazon/Netflix/Hulu to care about. That being said live content is in demand. WWE's stock has tripled in the past year.

In regards to complaints I have a few more:

1) In March there was a Super High Roller Bowl in Macau. I recall PokerCentral branding on the event and yet the event was never broadcast on PokerGo. This was very disappointing. I ended up watching the stream on DouYu which is like a Chinese version of Twitch. I couldn't understand the commentary but it looks like the players were having a good time.



2) PokerGo needs more flexibility in airing WSOP final tables. I'm not one that actually cares about the prelim events much but if Hellmuth is going for history or if Phil Ivey makes his return with a final table they need to air that ****. Last year they ended up airing some final table that nobody cared over one with a huge name making a run.

3) I love that PokerGo covers every day of the main event. However, last year they did not have live coverage of the entire day...it was more like 1/2 or 2/3rds of the day. Air the entire day!

I'm starting to wonder whether they are going to show any prelim events this year at all. The WSOP is just over a week away, and no broadcast schedule has been released other than the Main Event and One Drop.

There's something very funny about this idea that PokerGo just threw everything together at the last minute. Obviously that's impossible, given all the manpower and resources needed to put on such a high-level production. But the fact that you believe that's what happened says a lot about the perceived quality of last summer's broadcasts.

It's also really strange that anyone would consider that a reasonable excuse for ****ting the bed and blacking out half the games. Imagine if this happened with a traditional sport.

EDIT: not trying to single you out, btw. A lot of people have said the same thing.

Didnt the WSOP tease a big announcement for this week? Wonder if this has anything to do with the streaming of their events?

I think whether or not this is true irrelevant; that Pokergo hasn't started hyping a wsop schedule yet says a lot about their direction.

There may simply not be a schedule. Last year having one backfired. Sometimes fan favorites like Jason Mercier and Daniel Negreanu would make final tables, and nobody could watch them because they had planned to show a different event that day.

If you're going to not show a bunch of tournaments, it makes sense to flex schedule them at least.

yeah its absolutely BONKERS more events are streamed, its easy to get tuchman and someoen else to switch off days. the guy is also right, I remember a couple years ago Ivey, hellmuth and scotty nguyen were all at a FT for an o8 events and they decided to air that instead of a NL event. that needs to happen more.

basically stream ore events. also I just went on youtube to find previous livestreams and i cant find replays.

sucks that when **** was free we were getting better ****ing content and way more volume of it also.

I dont want to ****ing hear anyone saying "but its year two" last year you could make an excuse. not this ****ing year

I will now ask what is probably the dumbest question in the thread (that I have only skimmed):

Has the PokerGo live stream schedule been announced for 2018 WSOP?

This could be. I guess it's the complete radio silence that's telling to me. Even if the plan was "we're not setting tourneys in stone so we have the most opportunity to feature fan favorites" you'd think they'd want to publicize that.



And to answer mods question: No. No schedule announced.

I've been a subscriber since last year with no regrets, the content is well worth $10 a month. That being said, if they don't broadcast the prelim events, and incude more mixed games than last year, I'll be cancelling on principle. If they don't want to broadcast the WSOP they should sell the rights or let someone else stream it rather than blacking it out.

Looks like they finally announced the schedule:

02-Jun 4:00 PM 1:00 PM 10:00 PM WSOP 2018 $3K No Limit Hold’em Shootout Final Table
04-Jun 4:00 PM 1:00 PM 10:00 PM WSOP 2018 $100K No Limit Hold’em High Roller Final Table
05-Jun 6:00 PM 3:00 PM 12:00 AM WSOP 2018 $10K Omaha Hi-Lo 8 or Better Final Table
07-Jun 4:00 PM 1:00 PM 10:00 PM WSOP 2018 $1,500 No Limit Hold’em Final Table
08-Jun 4:00 PM 1:00 PM 10:00 PM WSOP 2018 $10K Heads Up No Limit Hold’em
09-Jun 4:00 PM 1:00 PM 10:00 PM WSOP 2018 $1,500 No Limit Hold’em 6-Handed Final Table
11-Jun 6:00 PM 3:00 PM 12:00 AM WSOP 2018 $1,500 Eight Game Mix Final Table
12-Jun 6:00 PM 3:00 PM 12:00 AM WSOP 2018 $10K No Limit Lowball Draw Final Table
13-Jun 6:00 PM 3:00 PM 12:00 AM WSOP 2018 $1,500 Stud Hi-Lo 8 or Better Final Table
14-Jun 6:00 PM 3:00 PM 12:00 AM WSOP 2018 $10K H.O.R.S.E. Final Table
16-Jun 6:00 PM 3:00 PM 12:00 AM WSOP 2018 $1,500 Pot Limit Omaha Final Table
19-Jun 6:00 PM 3:00 PM 12:00 AM WSOP 2018 $50K Poker Players Championship Final Table
20-Jun 6:00 PM 3:00 PM 12:00 AM WSOP 2018 $10K Seven Card Stud Final Table
22-Jun 6:00 PM 3:00 PM 12:00 AM WSOP 2018 $25K High Roller Pot Limit Omaha Final Table
23-Jun 6:00 PM 3:00 PM 12:00 AM WSOP 2018 $10K Limit 2-7 Lowball Triple Draw Final Table
25-Jun 6:00 PM 3:00 PM 12:00 AM WSOP 2018 $10K PLO Hi-Lo 8 or Better Final Table