You can deal ESPN in for the next big round of televised poker.
The network, which helped contribute to the massive increase in interest in poker in the past year by televising the main event of the 2003 World Series of Poker over and over again, is back with widely expanded coverage of this year's event beginning Tuesday.
But unlike last time, when the only event shown was the showcase no-limit hold `em tournament with a $10,000 entry fee, the finals of 12 other tourneys also will air as ESPN shows back-to-back one-hour highlights packages of World Series of Poker events for 11 consecutive Tuesdays beginning next week.
The last nine shows will be devoted to the main game, the culmination of the 33-event World Series of Poker that was held from late April through late May at the Horseshoe casino in Las Vegas. What's the lure about watching a bunch of strangers play cards?
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"Competition on any level really works for us," said Mike Antinoro, executive producer of ESPN's non-sports branch, ESPN Original Entertainment. "And the World Series of Poker is the highest competition. A $5 million pot_there's really nowhere else in sports you can get that, with the exception of maybe a heavyweight championship bout. Five million dollars, where literally anybody off the street can walk in and win_and sit down across from the Michael Jordan and Tiger Woods of this discipline. A chip and a dream is really all you need."
ESPN is getting ambitious by moving beyond showing Texas Hold `em.
"It's the most TV friendly game, with the two down cards and five (community cards) that everybody plays," Antinoro said. "Well see how those (other games) translate to TV. In seven-card stud, you could have 49 cards in play."
ESPN's focus on World Series, the Rose Bowl of poker tourneys_the Grandaddy of them all_coupled with the Travel Channel's coverage of the World Poker Tour and other networks joining to a lesser degree, has led to an increase in the number of poker tables in casinos nationwide.
The effect even has been felt locally. The two area casinos that deal poker_the President and Ameristar_recently have expanded their operations. And Harrah's, which closed its room several years ago, plans to re-open soon.
The fact that almost anybody can play poker also adds appeal for TV.
"That people can kind of see themselves sitting there is really attracting people," Antinoro said. "I can watch Tiger in 50 tournaments in a row and go out there and try to do what he does and it's just not going to happen for me. But you can watch a championship poker player, a Phil Hellmuth or somebody, and maybe I can pick something up I can use . . . in my Saturday night game.
"You watch it for entertainment value, but then at the same time you watch it almost as a tutorial because people are getting so into poker these days."
For example, the main event of the World Series of Poker drew 2,576 entrants_about four times more than last year's previous record field. And even though the buy-in was $10,000, many players won entries into the game by winning low-priced play-in tournaments. The winner_Greg Raymer, a 39-year-old patent attorney from Connecticut who went to the University of Missouri-Rolla and the University of Minnesota_got $5 million, and even fifth place was worth more than a million. ESPN has been airing the event since 1994, but for the second year is vastly enhancing the coverage.
"Last year we made a decision to really produce the event the same way we produce a football game or a baseball game or basketball game," Antinoro said. "When we attack games like that, we don't just turn the cameras on and follow the ball. We try to develop stories. These (players), their stories are incredible."
Play-by-play man Lon McEachern and wise-cracking analyst Norman Chad again will provide the commentary. And from a technical standpoint, 22 cameras are used - including the key "pocket cams" in the table's rail that allow the viewers to see the players' cards. An addition this year is a "rabbit cam," which was placed under the table next to the dealer and will show viewers the card that would have been dealt next should a player fold and the hand isn't completed.
And the ultimate pot in TV is ratings, and here's a big one - the average rating ESPN received last summer, when it aired the championship of the World Series of Poker in seven installments, was 1.2 - translating into more than 1.2 million viewers. "SportsCenter" has a 0.8 rating this year, and the NHL drew a 0.5 figure last season.
Source: Dan Caesar, St. Louis Post-Dispatch
