November 11, 2009

ESPN's WSOP Main Event Coverage

WOW is all I have to say. Talk about some bad TV...we got to see roughly one hand per commercial break and the hands we did see - about 95% of them were preflop all ins. I don't really watch that much poker on TV these days other than HSP...but boy this was downright terrible. Unless you are interested in seeing suckouts/badbeats/Joe Cada run like GOD - this was incredibly terrible coverage. I'm not kidding you when I say that the most entertainment I got from that 2.5 hrs was the clips they had of Humphrys, Ivey's elderly superfans. The husband was wearing a button the size of a watermelon with a picture of Ivey...HILARIOUS.


I had not watched the FT at the ME for several years...but this year I had to check it out - the one and only PHILLIP HORATIO IVEY was somehow able to navigate through the minefield of 6k+ players and make it to the final 9. I can't imagine what a boost the ESPN ratings got since he made it to the FT. We are all just playing in his lil world of poker...where he is a god amongst men.

There were literally ZERO interesting hands that played out - aside from Joe Cada's insane ability to flop sets, Darvin Moon's desire to bloat pots out of position with no pair/no draw...you really didn't get much value. The only interesting hand I took note of was the A9dd vs 77 where Ivey xc'd the flop, turn was xx, Ivey led the river after his draw bricked off.

Does anyone have any info about the hand where Darvin Moon xr bluffed a flop with KQ high and then folded to a 3b shove getting like 400-1? He went back to his wife and told her that he had QUEENS. Either a) he misread his hand...which I highly doubt because there is no way he would have folded or b) he just decided to lie to his wife on national TV. Did he not think she was going to going to see the coverage?

So while the FT ME coverage was shit...if you want to get your fix on some high stakes action - check out the action running on Full Tilt lately. Durrr has been battling a Sweedish action junkie by the name who goes by Isildur1 at MANY A TABLE of 500/1k. These guys have been putting in some MARATHON sessions and the only thing that has slowed the action has been Durrr's apparent liquidity problems - which he has been working on since he's been getting pretty tuned up by this new Nordic phenom. I think Bruechips will be posting later this week about this high stakes bloodbath - stay tuned.

Congrats to Joe Cada...I'm especially glad that he took it down for one very special reason. With him eclipsing Eastgates record last year for the youngest person ever to win the ME...now Phil Helmuth is officially something like the 172nd youngest person ever to win the ME. LOL. Yer still the greatest Phil...I'm sure you have at least 11 more bracelets coming your way. Make that a double LOL.

-BRACKCHIPS

3 comments:

ZachSellsMagic said...

I think it ultimately boils down to ESPN's target audience. The casual poker fan loves the drama of big bets and all ins, and huge pots and suckouts make for great television. You're exactly right in saying that the actual poker content was pretty low, but as far as entertainment goes, there were several spots, automatic or otherwise, that were exciting to watch.

TODD said...

look forward to your durrrr HU analysis. the hands i've seen are crazy. lots of river overbets and thin call downs. pretty exciting stuff.

Memphis MOJO said...

The poker coverage is like other stuff, they dumb down to a low denominator. Monday night football which is now Sunday night football is another example. The announcers say the dumbest things that even a casual fan would know, B-O-R-I-N-G.