Poker From The Rail
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Posted by AlCantHang | Filed under Bloggers on the Rail
What’s Right, What’s Wrong with the ESPN WSOP Coverage
by Jason “Spaceman” Kirk
by “Tuscaloosa” Johnny Kampis (in italics)
While there are always things that can be improved, I think that the WSOP coverage on ESPN tends to get better from year to year. Just take a look on YouTube at a final table from even a few years ago and it’s hard not to notice the little differences that add up to a better product. (Remember those “Here’s how you play Texas Hold’em” segments, anyone?) That doesn’t mean the ESPN crew can’t make improvements, but all told the 2010 WSOP was a better watch than past years’ coverage. A few of the high notes:
- I enjoyed the fact that the hands shown this year had a lot more information for me as a viewer than they did in the past, something I think is particularly important since ESPN has chosen to market poker as a sport. From knowing each player’s position without having to be told by a commentator, to seeing statistics on how aggressive each player had been, to knowing how different players’ stacks had risen and fallen throughout the day, there was a fuller picture of the tournament on display than ever before. I expect that the presentation of these stats will continue to involve as ESPN looks to improve its product.
While I also appreciate what ESPN has done to increase the information available to use hardcore poker fans and players, these statistics need some context. Did a player voluntarily play 30 percent of his hands because he was overly aggressive or a card rack that day? Did a player win a high percentage of hands because he was playing against a weaker table that let him run them over? And please separate the percentage of ties from the overall winning percentage of each hand. This is confusing and misleading.
- The cuts away from the Main Event to other bracelet events that Johnny mentioned in his second point really helped to establish that the WSOP is more than just its final tournament. I would love to see these cutaways expanded into longer segments that highlight some of the year’s bracelet winners, especially those who have a good human-interest backstory or a long history in the game. Maybe I’m crazy, but I really think that giving the general audience a better sense of the sheer scope of the WSOP – in terms of both the annual event and its long-term history – can never be a bad thing.
Perhaps they could take this a step further and show viewers the entire scope of the WSOP area, from the satellites to the daily tournaments to the registration desk. This might encourage more average Joes to make their way to Vegas if they knew there was more to the Series than $10,000 and $50,000 tournaments.
- The Tournament of Champions was an excellent addition to this year’s coverage. Every other sport covered on ESPN has its own all-star game, so why not the WSOP? The new format is perfect for television, especially considering how the Main Event is touch-and-go each year in terms of how many recognizable pros go deep enough to warrant coverage. Since the ratings were strong when the TOC was shown and dropped later after the public had been exposed to about 578 episodes of the Main Event, maybe ESPN should consider devoting a few more episodes to the fan-friendly TOC.
Tags: AlCantHang, Bloggers on the Rail, ESPN, Guest Posts, Jason "Spaceman" Kirk, Tuscaloosa John, Tuscaloosa Johnny, WSOP
Posted by AlCantHang | Filed under Bloggers on the Rail
World Series of Poker Commissioner Jeffrey Pollack
Photo credit: Flipchip at LasVegasVegas.com
You really really know it’s getting close to go time at the Rio when it’s time for the annual conference call / new conference with WSOP Commissioner Jeffrey Pollack. It involves a handful of the top poker media personnel and a boatload of main stream media looking to ask the most insane inane questions. Some people bogart the question session (showing my hip side. Do the kids still say ‘bogart”. Or “hip”?). I considered putting myself through the misery because there is actually some good information to come out of the process.
Fortunately for me regular guest poster “Tuscaloosa” John planned to attend saving me the good times. Even more fortunate for you the reader since he’s 100 times the writer as me. Below are his notes and views of what was presented.
2009 World Series of Poker Media Conference Call
by Johnny Kampis
It’s now less than four weeks away.
The 40th annual World Series of Poker will begin on May 26, with 57 bracelets events on the schedule this year. In preparation for the granddaddy of poker tournaments, WSOP officials held their annual conference call with members of the poker media on Tuesday afternoon. Here are some of the highlights of that session:
Tags: 2009 World Series of Poker, AlCantHang, Bloggers on the Rail, Guest Posts, Tuscaloosa John, WSOP
Posted by AlCantHang | Filed under Bloggers on the Rail
As the WSOP Commisioner keeps telling everyone who will “listen” on twitter, the 2009 World Series of Poker is less than a month away from kicking off. Full Tilt Poker is in the process of putting together a team to bring you all you need to know from the floor of the poker room to the backroom interviews with your favorite pros to the pre-game post-game parties and festivities. No stone will be unturned.
As we quickly approach the series, we will start running some profiles of various Full Tilt pros as they attempt to put their stamp on poker history.
Gavin Smith is our first profile from Tuscaloosa Johnny. I’m very familiar with Gavin from his exploits around the poker world as well as the skill he shows at the table and the generosity away from it. Back in the fall of 2006 I was running a little charity function for Cystic Fibrosis and Gavin offered his time and services. In no time flat we had ourselves a little $1,000 charity SnG with all the proceeds going to charity and the prizepool coming from the man himself.
Then he stuck around and the rest was Gavin Smith lore.
Gavin Smith is one of a kind
Known for both his prodigious talent and ability to have a good time, Full Tilt Poker pro Gavin Smith is a fan favorite among poker connoisseurs.
It was actually another casino game that got Smith hooked on poker about 15 years ago. He traveled with some friends to a charity casino in Ontario to play blackjack. A $5-$10 limit Hold’em game broke out and Smith took a seat and won. He kept playing the game for fun and side money until 1998 when he went with a friend to Foxwoods Casino in Connecticut for the World Poker Finals. Smith made two final tables and was hooked. He went home and sold out his interest in an underground poker game he helped run and hit the tournament trail.
“It was impossible. It was so hard,” Smith said of his start into the poker life.
Tags: 2009 World Series of Poker, AlCantHang, Bloggers on the Rail, Gavin Smith, Guest Posts, Tuscaloosa John, WSOP
Posted by The Captain | Filed under Bloggers Corner
As our man on the ground, Tuscaloosa John’s coverage of the events in Vegas surrounding the 2008 WSOP continues:
Friday, 11/07/08, 10 pm
Hand for hand play lasted an eternity Thursday at the Rio. I’m sure it seemed that way for the short-stacked participants, at least. The most amazing story was that of Argentinean Fernando Gordo, or more accurately his stack. Gordo did not show up Thursday to play his 140,000 stack and was blinded off as the day progressed. When the money bubble burst his stack was still alive, but down to 1,500. That stack earned him $21,230.
Tags: Tuscaloosa John, WSOP
Posted by The Captain | Filed under Bloggers Corner
At long last, the time has come for a dispatch from our man on the ground in Sin City. For those of you just joining us, Tuscaloosa John was the blogger who claimed victory in the Battle of the Bloggers Write Your Way to the 2008 WSOP competition last month. Since then, he’s spent several weeks in Vegas taking in the scene and playing in various tournaments.
As of the beginning of the Main Event, he’s been keeping tabs on the action as he’s experienced it first-hand – and here it is:
Tags: Tuscaloosa John, WSOP
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