Thoughts On The Delayed WSOP Final Table

I wrote this piece on May 1st, the day that the announcement was made regarding the decision by Harrah's (or Caesars Entertainment, whenever they change the name). I'll be back after this to add on to what I wrote then:

A Troublesome Move: WSOP Changes Championship Event, Delays Final Table
by
Earl Burton

In a teleconference on Thursday, Caesars Entertainment (formerly Harrah’s) announced changes to this year’s World Series of Poker that could have long-term ramifications on the sport of poker, let alone the play of this year’s Championship Event.

Joined by Seth Palansky, the new Communications Director of Caesars Entertainment, Jamie Horowitz (the producer of the WSOP broadcasts for ESPN), and Jack Effel (WSOP Tournament Director), WSOP Commissioner Jeffrey Pollack announced that this year’s Championship Event, formerly scheduled to end on July 16th with the crowning of a new World Champion, will now be delayed until November 9th through the 11th, with the final table being a two hour broadcast on ESPN “almost live” the evening of November 11th.

“Our goal is to create anticipation for the Final Table and to create previously unimagined opportunities for the players. This will add new excitement to the World Series of Poker,” Pollack stated during the teleconference. “Instead of everyone knowing who has won the tournament when it is broadcast, there will be greater attention on the drama of who WILL win the event. It will truly be a cliffhanger ending to the most prestigious event in poker.”

The tournament, set to start on July 3rd, will play down to the final table roughly around July 14th. At that time, play will be suspended, the final nine players will receive ninth place money at that time and the players sent home for roughly four months (actual time is 117 days). They will reconvene at the Rio All Suites Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas on November 9th and will play down to the final two players, who will return the next day to determine the champion. ESPN will cover the action and turn around a broadcast for November 11th that will show who has won the title in what is now planned to be a two hour broadcast.

In an attempt to drive viewership for the Final Table, ESPN is also planning to have a one hour special on November 4th. This broadcast will focus on the final table participants and presumably will follow them around for the four months following their achievement of making the Final Table and their preparations for that event.

For many poker purists, this could be a tremendously troublesome move for what is recognized as the Olympics of poker. Poker is a linear event, played out under a continuous timeline that demonstrates the skill, stamina and expertise (or, admittedly, even the luck) of the players who are participating. To have a forced delay built in for the benefit of television coverage corrupts the very tenets that the game of poker is built on.

For their part, ESPN and Caesars see the change as something that will accentuate the Final Table rather than hurt it. “People didn’t like it when there were changes in baseball, such as the Wild Card implementation, or in NASCAR, with the Chase for the Championship,” Horowitz elaborated. “This will only add more drama and excitement for the viewers.”

The problem with those analogies is that they are apples to the WSOP’s oranges. Neither of those organizations mentioned delays their championships for an extended time period to build the drama. Even the NFL (the organization that new Communications Director Palansky came from) only delays the Super Bowl for two weeks from their respective conference title games. Could you imagine what would happen with delaying the Super Bowl, the final race of the NASCAR season, or the NBA Finals for four months from the time the combatants are determined?

This doesn’t even begin to approach the possibilities that exist for bastardizations that may happen with the delay.

The Final Table at last year’s World Series Championship Event paid out over $20 million to its participants. Although Commissioner Pollack addressed this issue by saying, “We will conduct the Final Table ethically and without adjustment and we hope the final nine players will as well,” the probabilities of collusion, chip dumping, pre-Final Table deals and other such shenanigans increases exponentially with the delay. Although they have seemingly addressed if someone cannot return to the November playoff (if a player doesn’t return, he will be blinded off and awarded the position in which he finished), the possibility of some (or maybe all) of the players reaching financial deals beforehand among each other is now a reality.

And let’s not even enter into the speculation of death, incapacity or other nefarious activities that may occur with the amount of money that is on the line.

Another thing that will become evident by the time the Final Table plays is the lack of continuity of the players. While former World Champion Johnny Chan, in a USA Today article that details the story, stated that “Poker is a game of skill. The hands are random. … It's how you play your hand. I don't believe in hot streaks,” the change will enable a player to come to the Final Table now with potentially a completely changed game. When we watch the broadcasts of the Championship Event that will lead to the Final Table, the styles of the players more than likely will have completely changed, affecting the continuity of what is supposed to be tournament poker.

Players will hire coaches (presumably professional players), drill themselves on the nuances of the game rather than their instincts (one of the charms of the game of poker) and scouted their opponents through the ESPN broadcasts or other methods. This doesn’t seem to be a cause for alarm for Pollack, who said “…it makes it more like a sporting event.”

Although it may appear that there are only negatives, there are potential positives to the move. The players will have more time to obtain sponsorships outside of the poker realm (Pollack said he envisioned the Final Table players “looking like NASCAR drivers”), there will more than likely be an increase in attention on the tournament (not necessarily viewership, but other mainstream media attention) and the Final Table will now have the opportunity to be stars, instead of just the winner. But do these pros outweigh the potential cons?

All in all, it looks like a troublesome move for the World Series of Poker and the sport of poker in general. The potential for skullduggery, the interruption of the basic concepts of tournament poker and the drive to make the WSOP more of a poker reality show than a sporting competition are all ominous omens for the game we love. It remains to be seen what will happen and whether the move will be a prosperous one for the WSOP or be its demise.

-----

Having had a few weeks to mull it over, there is a greater chance that this will build into something. I've talked with several people, including Robert Williamson III (who was on my radio show at Hold 'Em Radio) and other compatriots, who seem to think that we should give this a shot.

Oliver Tse, whom I have always respected for his insight onto matters in the poker world, sees this as a last ditch effort to save the game of poker on television. When you look at many of his thoughts (which are plentiful at 2+2 and other poker discussion groups), there is a logic to what the WSOP is doing. When shows like "High Stakes Poker" get dropped despite being one of the best shows out there, what will the game of poker do?

So now I have to adjust my thoughts...I'm willing to give this a look and see what happens. I still think the possibility of critical problems exist and, even with the 117-day delay to puff up the final table players, still don't think that it will save poker on television. I would love to be proved wrong...