The WPA (wpapoker.org) is a more appropriate "union" of professional players. I've heard for many years about players wanting to organize to get money added to the prize pool, better sponsorship, unified tournament rules, etc. This could be the best chance they have so far to do something. There's been enough organizations that have attempted to do this (remember the WPPA?) that were failures almost from the beginning.

IMHO I think it's going to be a huge fiasco & probably will be the only year they do it. Horrible. Really just a travesty.

lol @ wsop

wtf happens if ppl got other commitments @ that time of year

attend first daughters wedding or play poker

whats my line espn?

u can prolly reschedule private events 4 months in advance but many ppl have jobs where they just cant take time off at certain times in the year (not everyone likes to quit the job as soon as they make some money, and the last place in the FT is still less than 500k if i remember correctly).

9th place last year was $525,000
9th place in 2006 was $1,500,000

If ESPN ask you to introduce yourself just say you are 'Bob' from 'England' and I don't think you are in any danger of being tracked down and robbed. It's usually stupid people that advertise where they live just after winning the lottery that need to look over their shoulders.

Or just use the same people Samo uses!

Oh yeah and fwiw there are probably a few people around worth over a few million that don't stay awake all night rigid with fear

That would be a good name for a blog......


I agree with you completely btw and if this is going ahead I won't be playing any sats. I grudgingly tolerate ppl filming a poker tournament I happen to be playing in, but as soon as the tv becomes the driving force, I'm really not interested. I don't see why I should finance a tv show with no expectation of a share in the revenue.

[QUOTE=qwertyas;3926680]lol @ wsop


attend first daughters wedding or play poker
QUOTE]


Is this even a decision? Pay for daughter's wedding costs you money. Pitching up for ME FT is definitely +EV.

FYP

Well said.

I'm pretty open to the idea, but this was the main concern I had also. After some deliberation, though, I guess I would assume (hope) that quality players would realize that their not getting a complete picture of an unknown's play by watching espn coverage.

Wish they would have done it a few years ago.

They could do a entire story on the guy from Texas who get's busted in September for running a gambling ring and won't be playing because of his sentence.

They could have exposed Jaimie Gold for all of the productions he never did and all of the celebraties he doesn't represent.

Or followed around Matasow, while he is displaying his drug induced behavior and busting out of the final table in the first 30 minutes.

Yea, the world needs to know more about what total f***k-ups most of these people are as human beings.

Wow, I'm going to be on the edge of my seat for 4 months.

All I know is if I made that FT as a cl I'd go into hiding for the next 4 months. With that much money on the line I wouldn't be surprised if one of the shortstacks put a hit out on my life.

That should be the smallest problem. All the players can watch the broadcast and can adjust and exploit how they appear there accordingly...

Or, if you're a real history buff, here's an originaller thread on the idea:

http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/sh...SOP#post623754

This might make some sense if at least part of the final table (i.e., heads up portion) was live. Why not do it live? It would be so much better and then you could actually "crown" the champion live, instead of this terrible idea to broadcast everything two days later and have a fake crowning ceremony.

It isn't the possibility of coaching that makes this a bad idea. That actually opens up more marketing possibilities.

It's the substantially increased possibility of a scandal coming out of this that makes it a bad idea.

One positive thing to come out of this might be that the $50k HORSE FT will become a big focus of the WSOP this summer, and we'll get a high standard of play at a FT instead of a donkament shove-fest.

True that Biko!

They will never b able to uphold the "hype" to anywhere close to 4 months anyway. I never understood all those massive delays in poker broadcasts in the first place. All other sports they show live, and with poker its like ages later... I mean they can also show the final table live with holecams, not a technical problem, they just need to make sure, the players and the audience do not see it, should not be a problem in the 21st century, just make a separate area, collect all their mobile devices, those who get out do not get in again....

I wouldn't go that far. They haven't released the TV schedule yet, although what this may do is move the HORSE coverage before the Main Event coverage.

Harrah's/Caesars press release regarding the changes.

It'll be great to see the guy who barely made the final table with like 3 big blinds left have to wait 4 months, fly all the way across the country, and then bust in the first hand.

Here's the tentative TV schedule on ESPN, two hours every Tuesday starting July 22 at 9pm:

Link to ESPN article

• July 22 - Event 1: $10,000 pot-limit hold 'em
• July 29 - Event 2: $1,500 no-limit hold 'em
• Aug. 5 - Event 3: $1,500 pot-limit hold 'em or Event 4: $5,000 mixed hold 'em
• Aug. 12 - Event 5: $1,000 no-limit hold 'em with rebuys
• Aug. 19 - Event 45: $50,000 HORSE
• Aug. 26 - Event 50: $10,000 pot-limit Omaha
• Sept. 2 to Oct. 28 - Event 55: $10,000 no-limit hold 'em main event
• Nov. 4 - Event 55: WSOP main event final table preview show
• Nov. 11 - Event 55: WSOP main event final table

So preliminary events get 2 hours (reducing HORSE from 6 to 2), while the Main Event gets 20 hours of coverage.

You can't show poker live to a mainstream audience, particularly a 14 hour final table, because to the average viewer, even the average poker player, its about as interesting as watching somebody mow their lawn.