WSOP on ESPN...
 

So, I see they started airing the Main event tonight. That's cool, but what about all the preliminary tourneys? Seems kinda weird to air them out of order.

For example, tonight they were talking about Phil winning his 10th bracelet... won't it be a little weird when they air that, since anyone paying attention will know he is going to win it?

I heard it was because of ratings, but this doesn't make any sense to me since now the prelim events will be competing with the networks' Fall lineups. I'd much rather put my bigger event on at that time, but I'm not a TV exec.

As to tonights broadcast, kudos to Helmuth for not going broke in one of those first three hands, although I think any of those players could have broken him if they'd played differently.

The guy with the Aces played his hand BADLY. He could have broken Phil for sure if he just reraised preflop.

I agree with the absurdity of it all, but I think ESPN is just resigned to the notion that everyone who cares enough to watch poker on TV probably already knew what happened through another media outlet (i.e. CardPlayer). However, the fact that ESPN can actually SHOW what happened vs. just telling about it still makes it an extremely marketable venture. I, for one, will be curious to see how it plays out on TV.

Remember, this is the same station that broadcast the entire final table for a cost (and in our case, for free :D), so I don't think it's worried about the lack of surprise. I think the draw is more, "OK, we know Phil won his 10th bracelet. But what kind of antics does he pull en route to winning it?" Or, "Wow. Is this Jamie Gold guy really as big a dick as people claim?" This is the kind of stuff that only TV can show, not some blog.

To me, that's the draw of poker on TV, not watching some amateur suck out a runner-runner flush against some pro.

EDIT: Unfortunately, I didn't see any shots of you, TP. But I was looking.

I remember Cardplayer reporting how funny Brad Garrett was while he was in it. Yucking it up at the table and yelling across the room to Doyle (only to be busted by Doyle's grandson). I'm surprised ESPN didn't give us more of that stuff like they have in years past.

Really? Because I thought there was plenty.

In watching it, it seemed to me that they combined Days 1A and 1B into the first one hour episode and Days 1C and 1D were the second episode. That's 8773 people playing 14 hours of poker, showing in 2 hours ot tv time - minus commercials.

I realize it would be impossible to give much more coverage, especially for the early part of the tournament when it's complete insanity, but it just seemed weird to me to show people going all in in what looked like minutes, when for most of them, it was hours.

Also, Phil showed up nearly 2 hours late, but they made it look like he got there 5 minutes late, right when that first player busted.

I thought I read somewhere that they were going to do an hour long episode of each day 1, but I just looked through their website and can't find anything to confirm or deny this nor do I remember who was which day 1.

i had been looking forward to watching this for a while now, and it crossed my mind and i remembered 15 mins before the end of the second episode it was Tuesday and it was on. I checked to see if they were going to do the usual and air repeats around 2-4AM...nothing...

I will catch them eventually...

I find it kind of annoying that they are airing them out of order as well. I do not pay attention to what is going on in the WSOP other than forum members. I want to watch all the events on tv and see who wins what, this just seems to be ruining that!

Anyone watch last night? Joe Hatchem was acting like an ass. Dude has a hot temper.

Definately a complete 180 from his demenor on his first day

Yeah, it was wierd.

I think thats the way he is, they made him out to be too much of a goody two shoes in the '05 series...in the aussie millions he had a bit of a temper too

Unfortunate that the main event champ of last year is knockd out with all his money in preflop holding AA...

Its funny, because I don't remember this from last year, but from this ME, the Circuit event he was in and Poker Superstars was that he plays way too tight for big tourneys.

Kurn, I noticed that too. Except for the one time he had 42, and hit quads :thumbsup:

Sheez, how about the little cat fight between Prahlad and Jeff Lasandro on tonight's broadcast... Prahlad came off like an ass.

Speaking of assholes, how about that Eric Molina brat? Kid was openly criticizing pretty much everyone he encountered, including Gold. Best moment of the show was when Molina took a $200,000 pot from Gold and said, "Thanks for the chips." Gold said, "You're welcome. I'll see you at the end. ... Oh, wait, no I won't."
Molina then let out a slight curse word (it was a low-volume f-bomb, but Gold heard it), and Gold said "Hey, that's a penalty!!" Kid protested but got booted off, with Gold left smirking.
Say what you want about the guy, but he's my new hero.

I'm pretty easily impressed, but Richard Lee's laydown of bottom 2 pair on the flop was impressive.

My 2 favorite TV poker moments so far:

1. Lisandro correctly tells that dork Friedman he's going to take his head off.

2. Snotty kindergarten kid Molina makes an absolutely moronic call and gets knocked out.

Where's Matusow now that we need him - "The kiddie game is down the street."

I like Prahlad more than I like Lisandro, but both were out of line there. Prahlad kept his cool, at least, and the only thing he did wrong was say "I don't trust you." Asking for them to review the tape was fine. Lisandro totally overreacted though. You can't bring physical violence, or even threats of it, to the table. I'm surprised he didn't get a penalty.

That Molina kid is the biggest bitch I've ever seen at the table. It makes me ill to know his dumb ass won > $300k, but I can rest assured that his cockiness will get the best of him and he'll lose it all.

You know, part of me thinks Prahlad was just trying to get under Lisandro's skin from the beginning of that situation. He seemed too calm and his comments were stupidly out of place and it didn't really matter either way, so I'm suspicious. After all, could it hurt to ruffle the feathers of the other talented player at the table?

I don't remember his name, but how about the creepy Carrot-Top looking guy talking to Allen Cunningham? LOL. Allen's facial expressions were priceless.

Those were just his usual facial ticks.

If all Prahlad did was ask for them to review the tape, and then leave it to the floor, I'd agree. But he harped on it and basically accused Lisandro of being a cheat and a thief.

You can't bring physical violence, or even threats of it, to the table.

In a perfect world, I'd agree 100%. On the other hand, there are an awful lot of dinks out there who think its OK to say anything they want to you with no risk. I think you need to be able to let someone who's acting like Prahlad was know that he's close to crossing a line he may not want to cross.

But, maybe that's just my Klingon alter-ego talking.:rolleyes:

There's a huge difference between needling someone and publicly questioning their honesty and integrity. The former is gamesmanship. The latter is (as they say) fightin' words.

Whether its in the poker room, the living room, the bar room or out on the street, there are some things a man does not say to a man unless he's willing to put up his hands.

for those of you watching it, have they reached this change up discussed ? I am sure that ESPN will not edit it so that is it possible to know if a player knowingly benefited from this error, but somehow I wouldn't be surprised.

When you are tryin to continue to legitimize poker there is absolutely no room for it at all. It wasn't prison or on the streets. While Prahlad might have been needling him you can not have players threatning violence on other players no matter what is said. Now if this had happened at a cash game that wasn't affiliated with the wsop then I would say to each his own.

...let's see here, coverage on a major cable network, corporate advertising, thousands of players...you think the WSOP/B&M tournament poker needs 'legitimizing'?

What I think and what the general public think is two different things. Are you saying Poker is accepted as any other "sporting" event by most of the US ?

Guess who I saw today?

He's smaller and just as annoyingly punkish looking in person.

Did you take his lollipop?

meh. ESPN obviously thought it was good TV.

And by the way, ESPN is not trying "legitimize" poker, its trying to profit from poker.

I'm going to say it again - publicly questioning someone's honesty and integrity is not "needling" him. If you can't say "f*ck" you shouldn't be allowed to call someone a cheater.

Besides, where was the friggin' dealer when the pot was short?

When do the other events start up on espn and what night and time are the first run shows on?

They started running some of the other events this past Tuesday. I believe they'll do that on each Tuesday night going forward from either 8-10 or 9-11 p.m.

Actually, here's the whole schedule: