Optimism, Excitement Marks WSOP Conference Call
The conversation began with WSOP Executive Director Ty Stewart looking back to a year ago -- not long after Black Friday -- when the poker world found itself wondering about the future of the game and the WSOP. Stewart concluded that the 'darkest days' were behind us as far as poker was concerned, and that 'poker was here to stay.'
With the 2012 World Series of Poker less than three weeks away, the WSOP held a pre-Series conference call for poker media on Tuesday afternoon for about an hour to discuss plans for the upcoming Series and field questions. Among the items discussed were expectations regarding turnouts, a few new rules regarding player conduct, and plans for events' television and online coverage.
The conversation began with WSOP Executive Director Ty Stewart looking back to a year ago -- not long after Black Friday -- when the poker world found itself wondering about the future of the game and the WSOP. Stewart concluded that the "darkest days" were behind us as far as poker was concerned, and that "poker was here to stay."
Resounding with that note of optimism were several other excited announcements about the upcoming Series, including expanded tables to accommodate tourneys and cash games.
The rule regarding table talk has been relaxed, permitting players to speak more openly about their hands as long as they don't expose their cards. Along the same lines, celebrating will be less restricted.
Seth Palansky came on to offer some opening remarks, including commenting that the WSOP does not feel the recent expansion of the WSOP to Australia -- the "WSOP APAC" series (discussed here last week) -- will weaken the overall brand and that caution is the word as far as further expansion will go.
During the Q&A period came more optimistic talk regarding possible turnouts for the Series as a whole, the Main Event, as well as the $1 million buy-in "Big One for One Drop." The latter is expected to sell out, in fact, meaning a capped field of 48 entrants.
Further talk included reference to ESPN's press release from earlier in the day regarding its coverage plans. This year will find the usual weekly edited coverage of the Main Event starting in August and leading up to the delayed final table in October. The "Big One for One Drop" will also be shown during the weekly telecasts, as will the WSOP National Championship.
Meanwhile, the almost live coverage of the Main Event (15-minute delay with hole cards) will be reserved for the final table only this year. Last year such coverage began in July with Day 3 of the ME. There will also be live streaming of preliminary event final tables this summer (with commentary, but no hole cards) via the WSOP website.