Live Pay per View on the Main Event Final Table?

[Reel Deal]

Heres' some additional info I found at the SportsBusiness Daily website:

ESPN To Offer Live PPV Showing Of WSOP Main Event

ESPN will offer a live PPV showing of the World Series of Poker Main Event final table on August 10 that will be available both on TV and on ESPN.com, according to Bill Ordine of the Baltimore SUN. Also, the net’s usual edited airing of the Main Event will begin on August 22; last year’s event ran about three months after the finish. ESPN “hopes that the quicker turnaround” on the edited version will “bolster ratings that sagged” in ’05. The live PPV show will cost $24.95 and will begin at 3:00pm ET. The rail camera that shows players’ hole cards to the home audience on the taped shows “will not be part of the live broadcast.” ESPN Producer Dave O’Connor said that not showing the rail camera “is for security purposes.” O’Connor: “The difference between first and second will be worth millions. Any information that might trickle back to the players, we have to be concerned about.” Ordine noted ESPN’s live telecast will feature “pre-recorded features and a parade of poker pros and analysts commenting on the final table” (Baltimore SUN, 6/20).

- - Published June 21, 2006

[Robbie Robb]

wow, I don't know if I'd want to watch poker on television without the hole cams, let alone pay $24.95 for it. (well okay, I have free American satellite so I won't have to pay anyway...but still...)

That said, I'm glad that they're not using them. I presume that they also will NOT be showing the mucked cards after the hand as well, as that information, if given to another player, could be a huge advantage as well.

One thing though - it'll be cool to see TP live on TV!

[Boobie Lover]

Who would pay $25 to see poker without the hole cards being shown? Wouldn't it be more practical to have like a twenty minute delay and see the cards than do this?

[Talking Poker]

The problem is, unless they took the measures I described above (in additiona to not letting even the PLAYERS leave the room - they'l have to be escorted to ap rivate bathroom, even), it would be too easy for info to get back to them. "So and is is raising with garbage. So and so had QQ on that one hand when you mucked TP. So and so stacks his chips in even piles with his right hand when he is weak." Etc, etc, etc.... With people watching an analyzing the on camera play, if any of that info got back to any of them players, it could be a huge advantage.

They simply can't show anything that the players can't see on their own. Not until the tourney is over.

[Zybomb]

I agree 100%. Like TP said... Even with a 20 minute delay, players could relay the type of hands other players were playing, how they were betting them, what they did with draws, if they spotted any tells, and can let other players know about what their opponent had if they made a 'big laydown' etc. It's just unfeasable

[Talking Poker]

I could see them doing ONLY the Heads Up like this... keeping the players isolated and all cell phones, etc, out of the room. But even THAT would be uncomfortable for the players. And broadcasting however many hours of Final Table action like this (live with hole cards) would just be impossible. And a huge, huge, huge mistake.

[Talking Poker]

Indeed it will.... Indeed it will.

No way would I pay for this unless someone I knew was at the FT. For anyone who hasn't done it, let me tell you - watching live poker (like from the bleachers) is boooooooooooooriiiiiiiiiiiiing. Even when an exciting hand happens, you usually miss most of the action and only see the result. Watching live on tv would be a little bit better, I guess, but not much, IMO.