For those of you who haven’t heard, a decision has been made to play the 2008 WSOP final table 3 months after the final 9 players are decided!!
Harrahs’ said that “the 16-week gap between the “end” of this summer’s WSOP and the main event’s conclusion in November will give the players an “unprecedented opportunity to capture the world’s attention” with the help of ESPN and the world’s media outlets. He believes it will help create buzz by giving poker fans the opportunity to speculate on who will win the main event while it’s being broadcast, instead of talking about who already won.”
The first time I heard of this I immediately thought of the TV show Survivor, where the winner is decided usually months later in a studio in front of a live audience, and I think broadcast on live TV. Next I thought of Daniel Negreanu, who is a big fan of survivor, but also a member of the WSOP Player Advisory Council (PAC). Indeed, he is a supporter of the delayed final table as expressed in 2 blog posts since the announcement: The WSOP Blockbuster News Story, and Harrah’s and the WSOP.
In Survivor, the participants have had time to clean up, put on weight and usually look almost unrecognizable when they shoot the last episode. The same will happen in the WSOP Main Event; the final table participants will not only look different, but likely they will play very differently as well with the opportunity to ‘get trained’. After all, they will be playing for what will most likely be more than $6 million. Who knows, they might even play well!
I don’t think this is a bad thing. Obviously a means to increase profits, I think it has a great chance to increase the profile of poker. Certainly these 9 players will become celebritys, and I imagine most of them will have gained a contract with a poker site before the final table is played out. As Daniel says, if it doesn’t work, they can always go back to the old method the following year.
I can see both the positive and negative points for the delay. Like you mentioned, they’ll be able to really hype up the final table and make it public viewing which will hopefully generate more interest and add some fish to the rapidly drying up pool!
On the flip-side though isn’t part of the magic of the WSOP main event the fact you play for a 3-5 days, often 14-18 hours at the final table to emerge victorious and obviously pretty damned rich too?!
I can see why they are doing it but I think they are selling out the WSOP brand IMHO.
Yes. The more I think about it the less I like it. It is turning the Main Event into a satellite for a single table sitngo 3 months later. However, as Daniel Negreanu says, lets give it a go and if it fails they can switch back for 2009 (that is my bet on what will happen).