The World Series of Poker Main Event is one of the most watched and followed televised poker tournaments out there today. It draws in between 6,000 and 7,000 players consistently, and features the “November Nine” which is the final table of the event. The idea behind this is that the final nine players are set in July, but have around a four month break until the play continues in front of a massive live crowd and huge television audience on ESPN and ESPN2. The final table schedule was set and ready to go, but Caesars Interactive Entertainment, who owns the World Series of Poker, recently decided to make a change to the format.
The idea behind the change is that it will help improve the TV coverage for ESPN and ESPN2. The November Nine was set to kick off on November 5th, and go through November 7th, but it has been changed to kick off on the 6th of November at 11:30am PDT. One other thing that changed in the format is that it was originally planned for players to take a day off from the action and for play to continue with two players in heads up play. The new plan is that there will still be a break in the action for a day, but it will then feature the final three players taking the stage at 5:00pm.
The televised coverage of the event will work very similar to how the live action worked during the Main Event, in which there was a small delay in the action. The November Nine will feature a fifteen minute delay, and players will also get to see the players’ hole cards, and hear the commentary as well.
The final table coverage will most likely feature some big names in poker, just as the Main Event did. The coverage of the 2011 Main Event drew in some commentary from players like Phil Hellmuth, Antonio Esfandiari, and Olivier Busquet, who all chimed in to give some analysis after they were no longer in the action.
The 2011 November Nine should draw an incredible amount of interest this year, as it features some of the young up and coming players in poker; as well as a wide range of players who have different styles of play.