Now That The Main Event Is Over....

[HubDub04 0]

Do you think they will continue to delay the Final Table in future years for the WSOP? I have seen articles about better ratings due to the new format, so I think there is a very good chance of this becoming standard for all future WSOP Main Event Final Tables.Thoughts?

[Tehtoe 3]

I wouldn't doubt it, I think there's a few changes they could make though.

[Kuge 0]

At first I didn't like it. But looking back, I really did enjoy the 4 month delay when it was all said and done. I did enjoy not knowing who won until the final hand was shown (and me not having to look on FCP or ESPN for more than 24 hours to avoid the outcome). It would've been nice if they did edit it to where it was a 3 hour FT (after edit) and at least gave a decent amount of time showing HU play (well, adequate should be the more precise word).The only thing that seemed unnecessary was that next day HU play.Your thoughts on the 4 month delay?

[king_tanner 84]

I'd like to know how much more the players got paid in sponsorships compared to what final tablers in the past have gotten.I could see how it could have been really annoying for the players having to wait so long, but if they are getting paid a shitload then **** them lol. Delay it every year, except show more HU coverage.

[crowTrobot 2]

ESPN has indicated their ratings for the ME broadcasts are up quite a bit from last year. good chance it will stay the same. maybe next year they'll man up and do something actually live.

[NickZepp 0]

It probably did have a lot of good for it this year. The crowd was much bigger and seemed to have more excitement than most final tables. But they can make some changes. Why not show the HU basically live or with a short time delay? Or just go ahead and show both the PPV of the ME and have an edited version of the final table. I still feel cheated that we only saw 2 hands of HU when they played for 5 hours or whatever it was.

[HubDub04 0]

Good for poker overall imo.Would love to be in the final 9 sometime in my lifetime.

[NickZepp 0]

Good for poker, but they can still do things to make it better. Like show the final table live on PPV

[wsox8 10]

Good for poker, but they can still do things to make it better. Like show the final table live on PPV

I like this answer.

[Money022 0]

It would have been nice had ESPN not shown the results right after Eastgate won it though. I was sitting at a sports bar over my lunch break, look up, and there they have Peter plastered all over the TV stating he won. I was pissed. At least my sandwich was good.If they're going to put on a four month delay at least hold off on reporting it until after the event has been aired. I don't get that. Sure you could have gone onto the Internet and found out, but you would have had to of looked for it or at least visited a poker website. Oh well. It was still fun to watch.

[king_tanner 84]

It would have been nice had ESPN not shown the results right after Eastgate won it though. I was sitting at a sports bar over my lunch break, look up, and there they have Peter plastered all over the TV stating he won. I was pissed. At least my sandwich was good.If they're going to put on a four month delay at least hold off on reporting it until after the event has been aired. I don't get that. Sure you could have gone onto the Internet and found out, but you would have had to of looked for it or at least visited a poker website. Oh well. It was still fun to watch.

This won't ever change.The same thing happened with the Olympics. It happens with major championships in Tennis. You just have to just not look at a TV, or the internet for a day.

[dt1313 0]

Good for poker overall imo.Would love to be in the final 9 sometime in my lifetime.

This...

Good for poker, but they can still do things to make it better. Like show the final table live on PPV

and this...2 friggen hands. 2 !?!?!?!?!?!?!?! Come on now..... Where's the boat on the board hand ???. Show me at least 10-15 hands if you're gonna water it down.Dan

[Oziumrules 0]

It would have been nice had ESPN not shown the results right after Eastgate won it though. I was sitting at a sports bar over my lunch break, look up, and there they have Peter plastered all over the TV stating he won. I was pissed. At least my sandwich was good.If they're going to put on a four month delay at least hold off on reporting it until after the event has been aired. I don't get that. Sure you could have gone onto the Internet and found out, but you would have had to of looked for it or at least visited a poker website. Oh well. It was still fun to watch.

I agree ! I watched Sportscenter and ESPN news and they both said turn away or the change the channel we are about to announce the WSOP champion. Then the ticker on the bottom tells you the winner ! At least say SPOILER WSOP WINNER on the bottom ! Especially from the station that is airing the damn thing !

[FourFlusher 0]

There was a couple of hours of boring raise the small-fold...one after another. But, I think real poker players would like to see the whole thing with hole cards...I know I would. Maybe they could run a special after the show with the players mik'ed up, no Lon and Normie yelling and telling lame assed jokes...just poker for poker players. Hell, make it ppv, I'd pay five bucks or so.

[psujohn 0]

If they're going to put on a four month delay at least hold off on reporting it until after the event has been aired.

There's competing interests here. They want to have a crowd at the final table to generate excitement but at the same time they want to keep the winner secret so he's revealed when the TV show airs. If you go without the crowd you can require that the players not reveal their finish positions until after the show airs - like Survivor style reality TV shows. If you're going to have a crowd the information is going to get out. You can't exactly sequester a whole room theater full of people for 2 days. And as long as the info is going to get out ESPN is going to want to report it because CNN, SI.com, etc will be reporting it.

[FourFlusher 0]

I went all day without hearing a thing about it...if I hadn't have watched it on the Intertubes last night I wouldn't have known until tonight.

[No_Neck 0]

do the live PPV and no reason to wait 177 days whatever stupid amount they did. I mean come on! Why not have the 50k horse championship wrap up the season?

[mawalters 0]

This is part of a letter I sent to ESPN & Harrah's. A lot of good it will do, tho........As a poker player, I am a fan of the game and especially the WSOP. I have had the privilege of playing in some of the preliminary events but because of the time involved have not been able to experience the Main Event. I therefore look forward to the telecast on ESPN. It has been a let down having the outcome decided so far in advance of the telecast, and with the amount of time involved, it was impossible to avoid finding out the results before the final table was shown. For this reason I was excited with the opportunity to watch the play unfold (almost) live and was willing to leave the debate about the possible detriments of the delay to those better qualified to discuss it. All I had to do was to avoid sites on the Internet that would post the results between Sunday (11/09) and Tuesday night (11/11). The last place I thought I would have to avoid would be ESPN, as it would be in their best interest to keep the results unknown so as to have maximum viewership.So imagine my surprise as I was watching ESPN Classic at 9:00 am this morning and scrolling across the bottom of the screen about every 5 minutes was the final results. Wow! I can’t comprehend the thought process involved with this. The word stupid comes to mind. You go to all the trouble to delay the tournament 4 months and can‘t wait ONE DAY to post the results. THEN, to top that off, after bringing the top 2 players back the next day, they show TWO HANDS out of 4 hours of play.ESPN and Harrah’s have already shown how they feel about the poker players themselves by not adding ONE DIME of prize money to the tournaments despite having a VERY lucrative involvement with the WSOP. This latest incident, on top of the erratic broadcast re-run schedule this year, makes me wonder about the commitment ESPN has to it’s viewers.Disappointingly,Michael Walters

[rcgs59 15]

My suggestion in the televised version make it at least 4 hours long with 1 hour devoted to HU play.Show the hands of all players being elimatedfinished off with an Interview of the playerif possible do it live

[grocery_mony 8]

My suggestion is to do what they did but when they bring them back for the hu show it live.

[Dirtydutch 8]

Is it weird that I just completely don't care? I did watch a bit, particularly the preliminary events, but I just really don't enjoy edited TV poker-entertainment. I wish it all the success in the world, and I hope it has some impact in trickling money into my LHE games, but I just don't care that much.

[TB17 0]

Hmm....I think 3 hours woulda been more than sufficient for the FT + HU. I thought everything up to 4 handed was pretty good, I would've liked to see more hands after that, but an hour is more than enough I think.Live will never ever happen. Stop asking about it, it's suicidal for espn to even consider doing it.And def agree with the PPV. Not that I'd actually pay to watch it...but I did feel cheated knowing there was no video feed.

[AAsnake88 0]

This is part of a letter I sent to ESPN & Harrah's. A lot of good it will do, tho........As a poker player, I am a fan of the game and especially the WSOP. I have had the privilege of playing in some of the preliminary events but because of the time involved have not been able to experience the Main Event. I therefore look forward to the telecast on ESPN. It has been a let down having the outcome decided so far in advance of the telecast, and with the amount of time involved, it was impossible to avoid finding out the results before the final table was shown. For this reason I was excited with the opportunity to watch the play unfold (almost) live and was willing to leave the debate about the possible detriments of the delay to those better qualified to discuss it. All I had to do was to avoid sites on the Internet that would post the results between Sunday (11/09) and Tuesday night (11/11). The last place I thought I would have to avoid would be ESPN, as it would be in their best interest to keep the results unknown so as to have maximum viewership.So imagine my surprise as I was watching ESPN Classic at 9:00 am this morning and scrolling across the bottom of the screen about every 5 minutes was the final results. Wow! I can't comprehend the thought process involved with this. The word stupid comes to mind. You go to all the trouble to delay the tournament 4 months and can't wait ONE DAY to post the results. THEN, to top that off, after bringing the top 2 players back the next day, they show TWO HANDS out of 4 hours of play.ESPN and Harrah's have already shown how they feel about the poker players themselves by not adding ONE DIME of prize money to the tournaments despite having a VERY lucrative involvement with the WSOP. This latest incident, on top of the erratic broadcast re-run schedule this year, makes me wonder about the commitment ESPN has to it's viewers.Disappointingly,Michael Walters

Excellent first post.

[EStormOk 0]

I at first thought that the delayed final table would really suck. But I must admit it was kind of cool watching the ESPN telecasts leading up to the final table. I think the reason I felt more into it this season is that I didn't know who had won the tournament already. I, like many of you, was very disappointed with the final tabel show that was aired this evening. If you are going to have months of build up, give us more than a 2 hour condensed "re-cap" show. The WPT final table TV shows show much more of the actual hands than this show did. I agree with whomever said that a 4 hour show would have been very nice. A live show will never happy, ESPN air time is much to valuable to put on a show that could last from 8 - 20 hours. It is a much different station that it was back in the day when they showed the final table live on the street.

[Cappy37 0]

My suggestion in the televised version make it at least 4 hours long with 1 hour devoted to HU play.Show the hands of all players being elimatedfinished off with an Interview of the playerif possible do it live

Let's take it a step futher.. There's nothing greater for a sadistic american public that live interviews with players as they are eliminated.Better Idea: Run regular ESPN programming, with live updates of eliminations and big hands. Run the package show a couple days later.