On Tuesday, Pennsylvania native Joe dude904McKeehen dispatched his last remaining opponent, New Jersey’s Josh asdf26Beckley, to win the coveted WSOP Main Event gold braceletand a $7.6 million payday. The final table was spread out over three days for the first time in the tournament’s history, while being televised nearly live on ESPN.

According to WSOP spokesperson Seth Palansky, this year’s format was a hit with audiences. “I don’t want to speak for ESPN, but we’re pleased with what we see from the ratings and think this is probably the path forward,” Palansky told the Las Vegas Review-Journal before the last day of play.

Televising live the final three days, the network saw a big jump in viewership for the two days preceding the final broadcast. On Sunday, ESPN saw a high of 810,000 viewers, compared with 592,000 last year. The jump on the second day was even larger, with the network pulling in a high of 709,000 viewers compared with 439,000 last year.

On the final day, ESPN drew 1.147 million viewers, just under the 1.159 million poker fans who tuned into watch the final last year.

The November Nine format saw its viewership peak when it was first introduced in 2008, drawing 2.364 million eyeballs. Ratings dropped in the following four years, reaching a low in 2012 of just 735,000 final table viewers. In 2013, the ratings picked back up, almost doubling the preceding year with 1.234 million viewers.

So how did the WSOP fare on the final day compared with the rest of the day’s TV programming? The Republican presidential debate drew by far the biggest audience with over 13 million viewers. Broadcaster Lou Dobbs boasted the second-largest crowd with around 4 million viewers, with popular sitcom “The Big Bang Theory” coming in behind it at 2.3 million.

This year’s three-day split was great for those who like to get to bed at a decent hour. During the three days, the action never went past 10:30pm Las Vegas time. Third place finisher Neil Blumenfield (pictured) called it “a big improvement.”

“One thing, you’re not playing 12 hour days, and especially when you’re starting at 5 o’clock, it’s rough to get going until three, four, five in the morning,” he added.

While ratings were strong this year, some believe other changes can be made to make the game even more appealing to casual fans. One issue highlighted during the final table was the excessive amount of time Zvi Stern and Pierre Neuville took to make seemingly simple decisions.

Many poker players complained that the excruciatingly slow pace of action led to a boring broadcast that would be a turnoff for casual fans. “I’ve heard some remarks regarding that,” Stern said. “Actually, I just have a lot of factors, a lot of considerations when I have to make decisions. I do realize sometimes it may seem like it’s too long, but for me it’s rather crucial to take another moment and consider more variables to make my play optimal.”

The situation has led some prominent poker pros to call for a “shot clock”to force players to make decisions more quickly. “WSOP said they will introduce a shot clock today. Jack is gonna bring a shotgun and point it at whoever takes more than 10 seconds to act,” joked 2014 Main Event champion Martin Jacobson.

Others pointed out that given a specific limit of time to work with, players might use up their entire allotted amount for every single decision, exacerbating the problem.