You're a Bunch of Factors

The 2009 World Series of Poker kicks off with event number 2 (Event #1 being the casino employee's event), the 40k buy-in No Limit Hold'em event. Looking at the calibre of players, this event is freakin' stacked.

Anyone else follow the WSOP Live? Last year it snuck up on me much like it has this year, since I thought it started like a week from now. This year you can even watch some of the Final Tables stream live online: http://www.pokerlistings.com/select-wso ... line-41326

It's snuck up on me this year since it was only November when the Main Event finished!

They aren't doing that again are they..?

I believe they will be.

Edit: Jul 15, 2009 Wednesday 12 PM Day 8 (Play down to 9 players)

Nov 7, 2009 - Nov 10, 2009 TBD Final Table

Yep.

What were everyone's thought on the whole "November nine" situation?

Granted I didn't follow it as closely as I would have liked but I reckon it would have killed a lot of the momentum in terms of excitement levels unless you live in the US where they'd no doubt be crapping on about it non-stop until November.

Wasn't the guy who came 2nd basically on a hot streak just before final table and then he had to cool his heels (and effectively waste that streak) ?

Novemeber nine worked in theory, all of the players on there had sponsorship deals.
A lot of sites listed the backgrounds of each player.

Demidov and Eastgate have backed their WSOP ME FT with a few solid performances.
Obviously it will start getting more of a superstar feel to the ME, rather than hoping for one or two pro's to get there.

Plus 4 months off, means you can rest up and make better decisions at the table.

demidov is a gun player, yeah i think he went over to europe and got in the top 3 of the ME of over there

I think it worked in that it allowed "neutral" viewers to feel more connected to it, as they watched their weekly shows, which culminated in the FT shows not really out of sequence, all the while being told in the media how awesome this was going to be.

I'd also like to think it might have suckered a few more fish onto online sites - which means i only lose money slowly, not ludicrously fast

That's a good point mafau.

I guess the whole theory behind it was to give to even more exposure and suck in some more of the neutrals. That definitely would have worked.

Was it possibly to the detriment of the players though, albeit they get to have a rest and spend some time sizing up their known opponents (not to mention picking up sponsorhips).

When I say detriment I'm thinking in terms of in that particular tournament, at that particular time (just before final table).

I think overall, it worked.

I was looking forward to it, but I also watched all the episodes previously to get a feel for the players.

Eastage had the perfect hand and board when he won, to get all of Demidov's chips in.

Just saw on www.worldseriesofpoker.com that along with the live updates and chip counts there is also live "tweets" from various players twitter accounts. Example...

"Chris Moneymaker
Posted less than 2 hours ago
495k at the break. moved to table with lederer, tony g and devilfish"