With Greg Mersonwinning the WSOP Main Event live on ESPN early Wednesday morning, poker on TV has been a hot topic of conversation this week. I missed him winning it, though. We watched all night while playing cards, but the game broke up sometime after 1:00am and I went home and watched another hour before calling it a night. Then, I had to be at my business the next day fairly early, so I was up around 7:30am and was only mildly surprised that they were not only still playing, but also still playing three-handed.

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Sometime while I was in the process of getting ready and driving to work, play dropped to heads-up and finished with Merson winning a well-deserved and hard-fought title. It was an interesting final table and the overall level of play seemed strong. I didn’t analyze every play, but a broad observation was that most of the players at the final table, especially those who lasted a while, were quality players who had strategies and plans that they did a relatively solid job of implementing.

There will, and should always be, debate about which strategy is best in certain situations, but overall these guys were clearly strong, thinking players.

Live poker is a tough bull to lasso for television. The major sports have events that vary in length of time to complete, but not by huge margins. TV execs can deal with a little filler or running over into the next scheduled program for a few minutes. However, 12 hours of three-handed play is impossible to schedule for.

When do you start the broadcast? For an event as significant as the WSOP Main Event, you want it in prime time, but do you start in prime time or try to finish in prime time? Did anyone really watch all the way through? Could the diehards who wanted to record and watch it later figure out all of the “SportsCenter” and “NFL Live” episodes they had to set their DVR to record in order to see everything?

Poker is becoming mainstream enough that there is a demand for it, and, if cultivated, that demand will continue to grow. TV coverage is a huge element of that and the challenges are tremendous. This final table had some great storylines, top-notch play, and plenty of excitement. But, most of that was lost due to the overall length and the time of day that things were happening.

As a poker player and a general fan, what would you suggest ESPN do differently and how would you overcome the challenges of an unknown time frame? “That’s just how poker is” isn’t the solution. Coverage of other events has evolved and improved over time (think about the new camera angles in football as one example). Poker is just starting to creep into the mainstream enough to get the attention of the right groups of people who can get the ball rolling on creating a viable media product to grow and improve the game.

The Moneymaker Boom in 2003 was tremendous. Is adding live footage to edited coverage the way to go and, if so, how will it work? I expect that in 10 years, we will look back and be impressed with how far poker TV coverage has come, but for right now I can’t even see which direction the road goes, much less what it looks like along the way.

Court Harrington has worked on the business side of the poker industry in roles including tournament reporting for PocketFives, radio hosting for PokerRoad Radio, coaching for the WSOP Academy and privately, and a variety of behind-the-scenes responsibilities for poker media businesses. He also plays in cash games and tournaments. Harrington is currently doing consulting work and exploring business opportunities outside of the poker industry. You can contact him at Court@CourtHarrington.com.

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