I don't talk much about televised poker in this space because, well, because I don't watch televised poker. I think the last time I was a regular viewer was the year Moneymaker won the WSOP. I saw some of Hachem's run and probably haven't seen three hours of coverage since.
So you can probably understand my puzzlement as to why I found myself watching the live stream of the November Nine (WSOP final table) on Saturday night. It was being broadcast with only a tiny delay on ESPN3, the internet service of the ESPN networks.
No hole card cameras, no Lon and Norm show, none of that jazz. But you know what?
It was good.
Seriously.
It's easy to criticize ESPN for some of the things they do when they package up the WSOP for mass consumption. Sometimes the poker gets lost amidst all the 'entertainment'.
The November Nine stream was pure poker. Sure there was commentary (which was very well done) and some rudimentary graphics showing bet sizes and chip stacks but there is only so much they could do. Much of the coverage was just guys doing what really happens in poker tournaments: Folding.
I stayed up way too late watching and actually wished I could have stayed up longer. It was good TV despite not even being on TV. Kudos to ESPN for showing it.
***
Otherwise on the poker front I only played for a bit on Friday and had good times. I picked up a few bucks early but determined I really wasn't in the mood to play too seriously so I moved all the way down to the land of my people, the rush 5NL tables. Yeah buddy. The players, they were tight. And stupid. Tight/stupid. With the help of a bunch of large cards I abused them for several buyins. It was most enjoyable.
1 comments:
I really enjoyed their feed too.
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