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World Series of Poker - ESPN
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Overview
The World Series of Poker and ESPN's
coverage has gained enormous popularity since Chris Moneymaker won
it all in 2003 from an online satellite. ESPN has been showing the
main event for a couple of decades, and you can catch reruns of
older events on ESPN Classic. Unfortunately, these tourneys were
pretty dull to watch on TV until a few years ago when the hole card
camera was introduced into the featured tables. The WSOP is the
biggest poker event of the year, which has traditionally taken place
at the Horseshoe in Las Vegas. This year, the Rio bought the rights
to the event and they build a massive poker room to accommodate the
huge number of entrants in 2005.
The WSOP consists of many events held
over several weeks with different poker variations. The Main Event
is the biggest individual tournament, which has always been no-limit
Texas Hold'em. Due to poker's increase in popularity, ESPN now
televises most of the events. They show a new episode or two each
week, which typically will cover each of the preliminary events. The
Main Event, however, takes up several weeks. These tournaments are
open to anyone who buys-in directly or wins a satellite, so you'll
see many amateurs make the final or features tables. Fortunately,
you'll also see your favorite pros make the final tables. The WSOP
Main Event continues to be the biggest event in poker, and the
winner this year took a massive $7.5 million.
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Comments
In my opinion, ESPN does a good job of
covering these events. Unlike other shows that only televise the
final table, ESPN does a good job of setting up a "featured table"
during the entire Main Event. They do a nice job of balancing
coverage of side tables, and makes it interesting by returning to
some of the real characters at the event. The announcers are
humorous, knowledgeable, and poignant. The production is also
top-notch with excellent lighting, video quality, and just the right
amount of background insight into the lives of the players. Along
with Poker Superstars and the World Poker Tour, this is one of my
favorite poker shows on TV.
Score
Out of 10, I give the WSOP coverage an 8.
You can usually catch new episodes on Mondays during the Fall. View our interactive
Poker TV Schedule for repeats throughout the week.
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