Got this from rec.gambling.poker and Matt Savage (who was the tournament director for the WSOP)


Fox Sports Net will be broadcasting a $10,000 No-Limit Hold'em Championship
Event LIVE on the 14th of July. The event will be held in Verona New York at
Turning Stone which is a place I have never been, but I have seen pictures and
it seems like a pretty incredible place. I will have more information in the
coming days and will hope to see some of you there.

Turning Stone = "incredible"???

I think not.

I'm thinking live poker will make for bad television.

The only thing that will save live poker is having characters at the table that entertain with interesting banter. Even that can help so much.

I'm thinking live poker will make for bad television.

I'm inclined to agree, but there are a couple of ways to possibly make it halfway tolerable:

1) If there are multiple tables, having cameras at all of them and switching to where the action is might work. But I suspect that would take a lot of skill, especially since there's no editing.

2) Or perhaps follow one of the more talkative and/or open players. The risk here is that he could get eliminated early and he'd either have to kibitz from the table itself (highly unlikely) or head to where the announcers are (interesting, but unlikely to offer anything new).

But I suspect poker is one game that's far more fun to play than to watch live on TV.

The only thing that I have seen worse on sports TV than poker is when I saw a Magic (yeah that card game) on there.

I know next to nothing about poker, but even I have been caught watching hours of the WSOP coverage on ESPN. That said, I'd rather have it pre-packaged for me. I don't think I know enough to follow it live, and I think the pace would be way too slow to enjoy - I think. For those in the know, how much "real" time is played out in those one-hour segments shown on ESPN?

It wouldn't be golf, that's for sure, but still probably not interesting enough for me to watch live.

Apparently, depending on the final table, they may put players on a hard clock (90 seconds) to keep things going.. and I believe they will have the lipstick cameras as well

Apparently, depending on the final table, they may put players on a hard clock (90 seconds) to keep things going..

I don't think the issue is really with waitin as players decide what to do... I think the problem will be that in most tournament environments, there are pretty long delays between interesting or pivotal things happening.

Unless they "juice" the rules to inspire aggressive plays, I'd think we'd have a lot of live coverage detailing one guy making a raise and nine other people folding pretty often. That's what gets edited out between "action hands" as they package the stuff we see on the WPT shows and the ESPN coverage of the WSOP.

Plus, you have the matter of the in-hand analysis, which adds a lot to the watchability of the game. The analysts have time to go back and explain what exact cards are the "outs" for the player who is behind, the network can splice in things like the percentages of who would win, and add things like definitions and so forth -- all that comes with a packaged product, rather than with a live event.

I'd like very much for this to work... I'm just unsure how you do it effectively.

Shuffling will be exciting to watch as well

The only thing that I have seen worse on sports TV than poker is when I saw a Magic (yeah that card game) on there.

Wow, and I thought I was the only one to catch such crap..........

"The Oneida Indian Nation's Turning Stone Resort & Casino in Verona,
N.Y. will host the first-ever live telecast of a poker tournament
final on television. Six finalists will battle it out live for
$1,000,000 in cash on Fox Sports Net, Wednesday, July 14, 2004 in
front a potential audience of over 70 million television households.
A maximum of 108 players will compete in a three day $10,000 buy-in,
No Limit Hold'em tournament, which will begin at noon on Monday, July
12. The field will be narrowed to 36 continuing on to Day Two with
the final six players competing LIVE on Fox Sports Net, Wednesday,
July 14 beginning at 6 PM Eastern.
The tournament will be held under the direction of Matt Savage,
tournament director for the World Series of Poker, and many of the
stops on the World Poker Tour. Registration is open to all players at
a buy-in of $10,000. Players can register at the Turning Stone Resort
& Casino's Poker Room by calling 315-361-8676 or by calling Savage at
650-278-0978.
"Poker is fast becoming one of the most watched sports on TV," stated
Savage. "Fox Sports Net's presentation of the first-ever live final to
air nationwide will give our viewers a front row seat to see and hear
what high stakes Poker is REALLY all about."
Ray Halbritter, Nation Representative of the Oneida Nation and CEO of
Turning Stone, praised Fox for its innovative approach to televising
poker.
"Poker is exciting by its very nature, but televising it live to
millions of people will make it that much more of a thrill for
television viewers," said Halbritter. "We're pleased Fox Sports chose
Turning Stone to showcase this exciting new venture."
Turning Stone, which celebrates its 11th anniversary about the time of
the telecast, is located in the rolling hills of Upstate New York
about 30 miles east of Syracuse. It rapidly has grown into the premier
golf destination resort in the Northeast, with the third of three
championship caliber courses opening this summer. In addition, Turning
Stone is completing a $308 million expansion, which has added a luxury
all-suites hotel, a 19-story tower hotel and 5,000-seat events center.
The resort is just one of 15 different business enterprises operated
by the Oneida Indian Nation. Proceeds from all of these businesses are
used to improve the quality of life of Members of the Nation, which
was the first ally of the colonists at the time of the American
Revolutionary War."
from rgp.....

they will be on a five minute delay with card-cams..... should be interesting....