ESPN’s WSOP Main Event Coverage Begins

Posted on August 24, 2009 
Filed Under General

The wait is finally over, as this week ESPN finally began to air their coverage of the 2009 WSOP Main Event. For the last three weeks, ESPN has been showing three of the WSOP preliminary events, but at least two of those (The Champion Invitational and Ante Up for Africa) felt like tacked-on tournaments that were designed specifically for television and not necessarily as interesting events that could stand on their own sans media coverage. The $40,000 Anniversary Tournament was more on track with what we would expect out of the normally outstanding ESPN WSOP coverage, but really it’s all meant as an appetizer for the always entertaining main event coverage.

Now, every Tuesday night for two one-hour segments, the WSOP main event will be broadcast until we get to the final table and this years November Nine, which will be filmed and shown on Tuesday, November 10th. This year, ESPN seems apt to focus even more on non-card related aspects of the main event, such as identifying a villain, celebrity player coverage and possibly even discussing the circumstances surrounding the hundreds of players that were shutout from playing the main event due to overfilled registration.

No official storylines have been leaked, but it is known that each of the four starting days will be given their own full days worth of coverage (two hours each). And while there are still a number of viewers that are quick to complain about the televised delay of the series that began last year, don’t expect much to change, as the delay resulted in a more than 50 percent increase in viewership for 2008, with similar interest expected this year thanks to the inclusion of poker superstar Phil Ivey in the November Nine.

“This is the most excited I’ve ever been for a season of the World Series of Poker,” said Jamie Horowitz, the coordinating producer for ESPN. “It’s long been discussed in poker — could a pro ever win the main event [again]? Having Phil Ivey as part of our November Nine has just added a new level of interest in poker, not just on the blogs but even within ESPN … There is just an elevated sense of excitement for this season.”

Ready to watch? Episodes air at 8:00pm EST.

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