Earlier this week ESPN television 
announced this week that it will be expanding its coverage of the 2011 World Series of Poker in Las Vegas by more than double. For the 6-day period of July 14 – 19 the station will be running constant coverage of the main event, including showing players’ hole cards unedited with only a 30-minute delay. In all they’ll be adding over 34 more hours of coverage to their WSOP 2011 broadcast.
The 2011 WSOP coverage will air on ESPN, ESPN2 and ESPN3.com in high definition, broadcast right from the Rio All-Star Hotel & Casino where the action will be taking place.
For the first time ESPN will be showing all hands completely unedited, every day of the main event. They’ll be alternating between 2 featured tables where all the action will be show, including hole cards after the flop. Play by play will be provided by David Tuchman and Lon McEachern with an assortment of poker pros stepping in to offer analysis along the way.
Starting Thursday, June 2, ESPN3.com will also be streaming live (or with a 5-minute delay, really) the latest WSOP Grudge Matches, rejoining heads-up opponents from previous WSOP Main Events for a rematch. Slated for this round include Chris Moneymaker against Sammy Farha and Phil Hellmuth against Johnny Chan. Fans will vote on the third re-matchup. Hole cards will not be shown in the Grudge Matches. Following these WSOP Grudge Matches will be the $25K Heads-Up Championship on June 3 and the $50K Poker Players Championship on June 6.
I have been watching WSOP 2011 and to my dismay players hole cards are not being shown. Can’t stand it. Is it just me or do others feel the same way? What happened to Norman Chad? He was so much better than David Tuchman. He added so much humor to his broadcast. ESPN should just pay him and get him back. Tuchman sounds like Phil Hellmuth’s brother! Not in a good way!!
I am also disappointed that the hole cards aren’t being shown,
The normal ESPN broadcasts you’ve become accustomed to begin next week. What you’ve been watching was Live coverage.
Where’s Norman Chad? A few morons complain and they take him out? Congratulations on making poker boring! This is ridiculous!
Never mind. Chad is coming back for the tuesday nighters for the regular broadcast.
Needs more Norman Chad. I like that the hole cards are being shown at the end of each hand and not during – gives more insight into how each play goes down when you have to wait till the hand is over.