ESPN to Provide Nearly Live Coverage of WSOP Final Table

Thanks to the overwhelming success of ESPN’s “nearly live” coverage of the World Series of Poker, similar coverage is now planned for the final table in early November.

The agreement between Caesars Entertainment Corp. and ESPN will allow television viewers to see the final table on just a 15-minute delay. The deal was also approved by the Nevada Gaming Control Board.

The November Nine will reconvene on Sunday, November 6^th, at 11:30 am local time. They will play – with coverage provided by ESPN2 – until there are only three players remaining. Those three players will then return to the Rio on Tuesday, November 8^th at 5 pm.

As with the coverage from the rest of the Main Event, viewers will not immediately know the cards players held during each hand. Instead, hands will only be revealed if a hand reaches the flop, and then only when a hand is folded, reaches showdown, or wins after all other players have folded.

"This coverage shifts the paradigm for poker's potential on television and will showcase our championship with unprecedented richness and scale," World Series of Poker Executive Director Ty Stewart said, according to a report in the Las Vegas Review-Journal. "For the first time, we will truly be represented as live sport versus just being broadcast on a live sports network."

Interestingly, this deal necessitated a change in scheduling for the World Series of Poker. Originally, players were intended to play on Saturday, November 5, with a champion being crowned on Monday, November 7. However, ESPN likely wanted the tournament to be played on Sunday and Tuesday instead to avoid conflicting with popular existing programming. Saturday is the day during which college football is played throughout the United States, which makes up nearly all of ESPN’s live coverage on the day. ESPN is also the home of the weekly Monday Night Football game, which would have conflicted with the original final table schedule.

The final nine players will return to the Rio in an attempt to win the grand prize of $8.71 million. The chip leader heading into final table play is Martin Staszko, who has just over 40 million in chips.