Poker News / Short-Stacked Shamus / 11 November 2011 / Leave a Comment

The comprehensive, nearly live coverage of the 2011 World Series of Poker Main Event final table was -- as commentators reminded us repeatedly -- unprecedented. While we've seen experiments in recent years with start-to-finish coverage of the final table, never before had we been able to see every hand including hole cards (albeit after the hands were complete). Not only that, the shows were not only streamed online but shown on cable television in the U.S. (on ESPN and ESPN2).

Like many poker enthusiasts, I found the 15-plus hours' worth of programming fascinating pretty much from beginning to end, my enthusiasm only lagging at all toward the conclusion of the long, hard-fought heads-up match in which the German Pius Heinz finally prevailed against Martin Staszko of the Czech Republic. (See recap here.)

I especially liked being able to see big hands play out in context, with players' bluffs or non-standard moves being shown amid a sequence of other, less unusual hands. And while there were a few instances in which players made what might be deemed missteps, for the most part the play was at a high level, including during that lengthy heads-up battle between Heinz and Staszko.

Now that the 2011 WSOP is over, thoughts turn toward the future and whether the experiment in essentially live, start-to-finish coverage will continue next year. Also in question is the whole "November Nine" idea of delaying the final table nearly four months, a change first introduced in 2008.

Waiting for Months vs. Going Live

It almost seems that with regard to the WSOP ME final table we've witnessed two developments that seem utterly to contradict each other, with the lengthy delay of the final table appearing to oppose this new trend toward the immediacy of live (or nearly live) reporting.

In 2003, the year of Chris Moneymaker's surprise victory at the WSOP Main Event, ESPN introduced the idea of a more in-depth presentation of the tournament by presenting seven one-hour episodes, the last two of which were devoted to the exciting final table.

Then came the "boom" and rapid increase in both the number of entrants and the amount of coverage, caused in large part by Moneymaker's win and the successful packaging and presentation of those 2003 shows. The next few years saw added coverage of preliminary events, plus more and more hours devoted to the ME -- nine in '04, 12 in '05, 16 in '06 and '07, and more than 30 each year since.

In 2005, Card Player offered live audio coverage of the final table from beginning to end. Then in '06 and '07 live video of the final tables was streamed online. For the next two years there was audio-only coverage again (presented by BLUFF magazine), then last year we once more had live video of the final table presented online. In none of those years, however, was the live (or slightly-delayed) coverage further augmented by the revelation of players' hole cards, thus making this year's coverage truly unique.

We await word on how the ratings were for the Sunday and Tuesday broadcasts. While the nearly live shows from the Main Event in July were well-received and drew higher-than-expected numbers in terms of viewers, the prepackaged, edited programs shown on ESPN from late July to late October saw ratings drop significantly from 2010.

There are many possible reasons for the decline in viewership for the edited shows, including the fact that having watched the shows in July some weren't as interested in seeing the same hands play out later on. In any case, when coupled with the mostly positive response to the (essentially) live shows, the less enthusiastic reception of the edited programs may well herald a major change in how the WSOP is covered on television going forward.

The Last November Nine?

News of the decision to show start-to-finish, nearly live coverage of this year's final table only came in mid-October, three weeks before the shows aired. However, even before we made it to last Sunday, many began to wonder about the need to continue with the final-table delay, among them representatives of the WSOP.

Speaking to PokerListings a few days before the final table commenced, WSOP Communications Director Seth Palansky suggested that perhaps 2011 might be the last year we'll see the four-month delay in place.

"If you're doing something live do you really need to delay it four months and try to build this anticipation to get people to watch?" Palansky told PokerListings, recognizing how the seeming contradiction "doesn't quite work" and noting that the WSOP will "revisit the concept" in the coming months.

When the idea for the November Nine was first announced back in early May 2008, several reasons were listed by WSOP officials as having precipitated the change.

One, stated in a press release from tournament organizers, was to offer fans "an enhanced way of following the excitement and drama of high-stakes tournament play." Clearly the move toward nearly live coverage of the Main Event was similarly motivated, and by most accounts seems to have created more "excitement and drama" than had been produced by the delay.

Another was the increased opportunity for the final nine players to have their stories told. As then-WSOP Commissioner Jeffrey Pollack said at the time, "instead of one star emerging from our Final Table, we think nine stars will shine -- and help lift the entire game of poker."

That first year (2008) did see some extra exposure for the final nine. I recall talking to Dennis Phillips that year a couple of weeks prior to the final table and him telling me it was the 155th interview he'd done since they'd paused the tourney in July! However, most of the other November Niners haven't proven as ready to seek such exposure during the delay, and I imagine this year many viewers tuning in were largely unfamiliar with all nine players.

A third oft-stated defense of the delay was to point out how it afforded players increased opportunities at landing sponsorships and thus additionally profit from having made the final nine.

Obviously Black Friday significantly affected the awarding of online poker sponsorships this year. (Recall how Full Tilt Poker sponsored seven players at last year's WSOP ME final table?) At this year's final table, a few players were patched up by online sites (all non-U.S.-facing, of course). And there were a couple of non-poker related sponsorships in evidence as well. However, it appears the potential for sponsorship-related benefits has waned considerably since 2008.

Looking Forward

That said, there may still remain reasons to keep the delay in place, including the way it allows players' friends and families to travel to watch the final table and what has by now already become something of a tradition that helps keep the World Series of Poker in prominent view for nearly half the year.

My sense is that once the concept is revisited by the WSOP it might be decided to keep the final table delay but shorten it, perhaps even positioning it prior to the start of the NFL football season or in some other calendar spot where the potential for attracting viewers is considered favorable.

Whatever happens in 2012, I think many poker fans and players were sufficiently intrigued by this year's experiments in coverage to be looking forward to what comes next.

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