Please stay in your seats until the captain has parked at ESPN’s gate

(in 104 days.) Ahhhhh, smoke if you got em. Harrahs! Harrahs! Harrahs!

How do we love thee? Let me count the ways.

That’s pretty hard to do. When they don’t muck up they attach a horrendous rake to it.

The WSOP has been through a lot. Mr. And Mrs. Becky Binion damn near did it in. The Feds have beat on it a bit. But, through it all we keep a ten-spot for a stale bit of food while giving more rake than Home Depot’s fall garden sale. So, I imagine we’ll come though this.

The concept is interesting. They tried it to a degree in the last WSOP. You could purchase final table coverage of the events. Some almost worked. With or without hole cards, you have to be passionate about the game to have signed up for them. I have only one acquaintance that bought it. Might have been another; didn’t ask around much.

The reason is simple. By the time ESPN, edits and broadcast, the media has made sure every person speaking English has heard the outcome. There is little suspense. That became how instead of who. And that doesn’t really rattle the cage for non-players as well.

Using isolation they tried to do it last year. One of the great things you might see on the WPT is family and friends cheering on their loved one. Makes a human interest story for the WSOP too as folks jump up at crucial point and run to the rail to get some encouragement. This time they might also get relayed how so-n-so is playing – even if there is a tape delay.

With that and more in mind, there will have to be some draconian rules implemented to keep it on the up and up. If they do pull it off, the winning order will change. The guy so tired he was walking into walls will be fresh. The shuffle will change. It’ll still be an honest shuffle but it won’t be the one they’d have seen at the Rio. But, “That’s Poker!” or what passes for it in Harrahs’ hands.

I guess we should point out that you don’t get a whole lot for ten-thousand-dollars these days other than horrid rake, blinds from hell, and 100+ days between hands for 9 people. All this so ESPN can show 15 or so hours off fold, fold, fold fold, raise, fold, fold and fold. Of course those 15 hours will also include the two hours worth of drama – sometimes less – that you’d get from the edited version.

Congratulations to Bluff and Pokernews on your exclusive final table coverage. You’ve been PWND!

I wish they’d bought my treatment of this reality show called the WSOP. Mine has them standing on rickety perches with alligators thrashing at the players feet as Linda deals the cards! (Jamie Gold will split with me if I can get him the immunity card protector idol.)

If you want to read it all then stop by: http://www.worldseriesofpoker.com/news/article.asp?newsid=2008

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 1st, 2008 at 5:32 pm and is filed under Journal, Site Talk. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.