The WSOP main event debacle

[Joe Slick]

There have been some outstanding points made in this thread. There are good reasons for this change to be made and some not-so-good reasons.

I think that part of the reason is that people have never heard of a tournament with a multi-month break near the end, or have they?!

Maybe we need to think of what we call "The Main Event" as a sattelite to the "The Final Showdown" (or some other slick marketable name).

If you think about it in those terms, maybe it's not so bad. The only difference is that you start with the chips that you had. That preserves everyone's relative momentum somewhat. Everyone comes to the final table rested. Everyone comes to the final table better prepared, perhaps. It's not better. It's not worse. It's just different.

I just hope the officials are on the lookout for collusion between players because there is always a risk of private deal-making before the final table takes place.

Wouldn't it be funny if all nine players decided to make a deal and not play the final table? That would really frost ESPN!

 

[Inscore77]

Everyone has a right to thier own opinion.I don't like the new format!!!It's all about the almighty $$ and thats fine.If I had the rights to air the show,I would make as much as I could too.Now my (***hole),opinion.Everyone knows that the WSOP is a grind to play.That being said.What if a player is getting tired,frustrated,short stacked,etc..and decides the hell with it,I'll take 9th,8th,7th, because I can't take no more or that payout is fine with me.They and the rest of the players have to wait three months.Don't like it! I know they are aware of the time of play and that the final table is going to be played later.I'm sure they were told that well ahead of time by the officials.I just think when it comes to the final table,that it should be played then and if time is up for that day.Continue play the next day,like it has been done in the past.Why let someone have the chance of studing your play for the next three months when they were about to call it quits or take a final stand at that time.Don't fix something when it's not broken.O well,thats my two cents and my (***hole)opinion.

Um, I dont care how much of a grind it is, a person would have to be retarded not to continue and play for millions

 

[Dias Jr]

Some very good points from both sides. I've changed my stance a little on the delay for the final nine. Oz makes the most legitimate call in my opinion that it's all about ESPN and the tournament has no choice but to make the network happy lest they don't televise the event. Ultimately it's a decent attempt to grab ratings. I have a feeling though that this format will miss the ratings mark and the tourney will probably go back to the original format in a year or two.

 

[gnk2727]

At first all I could see was the cons of extending this out 4 months. But now I dont see a damn thing wrong with it. What was I thinking?????/

 

[bubbasbestbabe]

"One of the common outcries of the naysayers has been, “What if one of the players dies in the 10 week delay?” Well, as tragic as that would be, it’s simply so unlikely that it makes an absurd argument. Have any of the main event final table players passed away within 10 weeks of the final table in the last 20 years?"


LOL I had to laugh at this. We play poker. How many bad beat tales do you have? To say this is really stupid. What makes them think it won't happen?

 

[JimmyBrizzy]

As a person that already likes poker, my honest response is, "who cares? can it really effect you as much as you think?"

I don't see it changing that much. If I was going to watch a tournament for the skill level, this years mixed hold'em tournament and HORSE tourney (minus the drunkin Scotty) had better play and final tables anyway.

I really have not seen that much build up and I honestly don't expect that many people that were not poker fans to watch it just because they delayed the final table. So if it can't hurt, why not give it a try?

If they delayed the curling world championship I probably still wouldn't watch it, even if they promoted the hell out of it.

I don't know any of the pros (let alone care about amateurs), I wouldn't find it very exciting to watch, I'm not a big enough fan to be persuaded by build up and promotion to watch it, and I don't understand all the strategies and underpinnings of the game (if there are that many).

This final table will be a group of no names from what I saw, and it has the possibility to prove the cynical people of the world right. "See, you said poker was a game of skill, and yet these are all no-name amateurs sitting at the final table of the biggest tournament in the world! It's all luck!" they could argue. (My response, of course, would be 'play me')

And on the other hand you have the first time watchers who think, "hmmm. so there are a bunch of amatuers that got lucky enough/good enough to make it to the last 9 players....now they're going to be rich....I could do that/they're just like me!" Enter said fish to my tables in AC and on pokerstars.


In my opinion the effect of this change will seem about as important as this thread is in 4 months. The boom happened back when Moneymaker won. We can still add players, but nowhere near that effect. Prove me wrong, though, and I honestly wouldn't be happier as a fan and player of the game.

 

[daxter70]

"One of the common outcries of the naysayers has been, “What if one of the players dies in the 10 week delay?” Well, as tragic as that would be, it’s simply so unlikely that it makes an absurd argument. Have any of the main event final table players passed away within 10 weeks of the final table in the last 20 years?"


LOL I had to laugh at this. We play poker. How many bad beat tales do you have? To say this is really stupid. What makes them think it won't happen?

if it would happen, that would be the ultimate blind-out...

 

[artsmith1296]

I guess with more time to promote it they will draw a larger audience but mostly it will ge people who are interested anyway. I wonder if they couldn't have had the same effect but starting to promote the event earlier. As it stands, it would seem that they are cutting into the available promotion time for the next event.

 

[UF_Gators2007]

If they had a big name make it they would look like geniuses. Now because of no big names, looks like a flop IYAM,

 

[OzExorcist]

I guess with more time to promote it they will draw a larger audience but mostly it will ge people who are interested anyway. I wonder if they couldn't have had the same effect but starting to promote the event earlier. As it stands, it would seem that they are cutting into the available promotion time for the next event.

Erm... this doesn't really make any sense.

First of all, this can't do anything other than create more interested people.

And no, they really couldn't have had the same effect by starting to promote the event earlier, because the effect they're trying to acheive is to ensure that the majority of the television audience doesn't find out who wins before they get to watch it.

That has nothing to do with promotion - you'd have to come up with one hell of a campaign to pull the same numbers and overcome the problem of everyone already knowing who wins. Which also raises another point: why would you bother paying loads of advertising money to bump your ratings when delaying the final table achieves the same thing with roughly zero cost?!?

Also, this isn't having any effect whatsoever on the promotion time for the next event. The final table will be shown on TV about the same time that it's always been shown on TV (ie: three or four months after the end of the Series) - the only difference this year is that the final table won't have actually been played until just before it's televised.

One other thing to think about: threads like this prove that the idea is working. It's what, two months after the wsop finished up and we're still talking about it. Ordinarily we'd have moved on as soon as the "XYZ who won was such a donkey, don'tchyathink?" discussions died their natural deaths in mid-July. But we're still talking about the WSOP. The media is still talking about the WSOP. It's working, and you're all proving it.

 

[Dias Jr]

Oz you're right that we're still talking about it but in all honestly we are avid poker players who signed up for a forum to discuss poker. The goal here was to grab a LARGER audience. we'll watch it and talk about it regardless the setup.

Only time will tell if this new setup will get more people to watch. Trying new things like this (although i don't like it) is good for the game even if it doesn't work

 

[vtriclone]

I wonder if anyone will get an advantage by seeing how people play their cards prior to playing the final table in november... it will be intresting.

 

[gnk2727]

I wonder if anyone will get an advantage by seeing how people play their cards prior to playing the final table in november... it will be intresting.

Since they are all technically not poker pro's I cant see a difference one way or the other. Sure they'd get some info, but I dont think it will benefit them greatly.........