After months of speculation, the powers that be at Caesar’s have made an announcement that I’m not happy about. The final table of the Main Event will take place starting November 9th – more than three months after the 10th-place finisher is knocked out of the event.
Why do this? According to the good folks at Caesar’s and their media partners at ESPN, the delay lets them bill the final broadcast as more of a “must see” semi-live event rather than a taped show. (ESPN’s plan is to use hole-card cams on the final table and to broadcast the event within hours after it starts/finishes.)
Needless to say, the plan has drawn decidedly mixed reviews from the poker world. Those in favor of the plan (other than Caesar’s and ESPN) say the delay is actually good for the game, as it will give the media time to develop touchy-feely features on the players and play up the “schmuck next door donked his way into a million dollar payday” stories that everyone loves to hate.
Speaking of million dollar paydays, supporters of the delay also say the move will help bring additional revenue to the table as the last nine players will have better opportunities to score lucrative endorsement deals with poker sites like FTP and other businesses interested in promoting their wares to eager poker players around the world.
The pragmatist in me doesn’t like the aforementioned arguments, but I can see the merits of these positions. The argument that really tilts me, however, is the third “positive” that supporters of this plan cite in their reasoning: the break will give the remaining competitors the chance to recharge, study the opposition and, maybe, even work with poker trainers to plug leaks in their own games or devise strategies to help them win the bracelet.
For me, this just doesn’t feel right. I know there’s precedent for this kind of thing (as Howard Lederer recently mentioned, they do the same thing in the Poker Million), but I don’t think that justifies the change. The Main Event is a poker marathon unto itself. Part of the charm (if an 8,000 player event can have charm) is that the nine final tableists have fought and battled their way through this ridiculous field, and are now playing for what are likely the highest stakes of their lives while running on absolute fumes. It’s like watching the end of a Rocky movie – the cards are flopped in the center of the table and each player takes their best shot at knocking their opponent out. It’s drama.
When the final table starts, the nine players are working based on their experiences at the table over the past 12 days of play and on whatever reads, strategies and theories they’ve developed while starting at – and across – the felt. By giving them an extended break, they’re free to rest up and take time to analyze their games and those of their opponents, and to make changes they may not have been able to otherwise.
Howard may be right in saying that each player has the same opportunities during this break and that the time off doesn’t favor any single player over another, but I’m not sure about that. In the recent past when fields got truly huge, the player who has won the Main Event is the one who had the most stamina and focus at the end of the event. The one who was able to out-think or out-play his opponent in a key hand – maybe because he was sharper or his opponent had finally succumbed to the pressure and strain of so many days of consecutive play.
By delaying the final table, that stamina factor is effectively removed from the game and that, I think, does in fact help “weaker” players who may have not survived very long at the final table in the traditional format.
Of course, there are many more arguments both for and against the new delay and many people smarter than I have already weighed in on each side of this debate. When it comes right down to it, my opinion on this matter means absolutely nothing. The decision has been made, but that doesn’t mean I have to like it.
