WSOP returning to ESPN

The long breaks have all been terrible and you are effectively breaking up a single tournament into two or more and the final table being across three days is one of the worst things you could do to what it supposed to be the flagship NLH tournament of the year. The break from when the Main Event final table has been determined to when it starts should be at most like three to five days so that the final table still happens DURING the WSOP. The last event is July 15th, the FT starts on Aug 3 which is just effectively and add on to the schedule and somewhat forces players who aren't Las Vegas local to make two separate trips to or sit around twiddling their thumbs for 20 days when the action had died down considerably. Also with the long break people start to lose interest in what they had presumably been watching for the previous days. Imagine watching a movie, but you only get to watch the final 20 minutes 20 days after you had gotten to the point 20 minutes until the ending.

I can read the room and know why the Vegas casinos and the people behind them want the Main Event to be delayed, but I don't see it actually doing what they think it does or is supposed to do. No poker pro or viewer wants to be in Vegas in August spending money unless they are one of the fortunate people to have made the final table or are friend and family of them, you are looking at maybe 1000 additional people to be in LV who otherwise wouldn't be there and they aren't really there to spend money. Having a bigger ending in July would bring in significantly more interest and money to Las Vegas than this drawn out bullshit they keep trying.

I was neutral on the November 9 and understood both why they tried it and canned it. I'll wait and see what the new delay is like this year.....BUT

100% this. Some years ago in the PokerGO era they tried this and it was quickly shelved. It's a terrible viewing experience and they run the risk one of the days only lasts a laughably small amount of time.

Hellmuth at final table of 10K O8. Would have been nice to see, PokerGo would have aired it

Todd Brunson, James Obst, Scott Clements there too.

WSOP owned all those old rights (some potentially in conjunction with espn). PG only had term rights to stream and those are now gone. So no PG will not be putting back up the older WSOP shows.

However, WSOP is actively putting them all up via their YouTube channel. So prior years are now or will be available there for free. Free at least for now.

It's a tough spot no matter how you do it. If you do it in 1 shot and it goes 14 hours hardly anyone will hang for the whole stream. What time do you start it? If you start early, in case it goes a long time then a bunch of people are upset it's starts mid work day.
I think by doing 3 days they are hoping viewers can hang for 3 5 hour broadcasts vs 1 long and also more likely to be able to watch from the start each day.

I think it was 2018 or 2019, it ended at like 7am eastern time

I don’t quite know how it looks from a rec viewer sense, I’ve been a in the battlefield too long but I can tell that they are making an effort to bring it back to a sporty type feel with the commentary and production.

I only watch it on YT and wonder what if feels like to the TV scroller(?) who randomly tunes in.

I can say that with all games they have a 20-25 year cycle where the get to relive their hay day, pool, chess, DND style games AND Poker.

It does seem like the interest is peeking

I'm really not watching either, I'd rather watch the 10k mixed game stuff too but most viewers do not so it's what it is. Maybe holdem is just boring to me now but plo tournaments get really tough to watch sometimes.