ESPN Enhances WSOP Coverage

[RFKFREAK]

I would much rather see Lon and Gabe Kaplan working together as I can't stand Norm.

[todd1007]

wtf??? mccarron is the weakest link here...he is a clown amosngst clowns...put kaplan and chad or kaplan and tuchman but for the love of GOD... kill LON

[olivert]

The "TV arena" area at the 2007 WSOP has definitely been improved from last year:

1. 3 banks of stadium-style jump seats now surround the arena, replacing the awful metal bleachers from the past.

2. There is an overhead arena-style "jumbotron" with bright flat-panel video displays on all four sides, replacing the white cloth screen and video projector from the past.

3. There is also a "beer lounge" perched on one side of the arena, allowing spectators to have a bird's eye view of the TV final table.

We will get a chance to see the TV arena in use for the first time on Sunday.

[olivert]

[ QUOTE ]
Actually I think Norman Chad is pretty damn popular to the average viewer. I know my friends complained when I watched TV poker a lot because of the boring ass commentary on everything but ESPN coverage. He might not ever say anything really groundbreaking strategy wise, but he is entertaining.

[/ QUOTE ]

Exactly.

Norman Chad uses an "acerbic" style (a la MSNBC's Keith Olbermann), taking "smart a--" shots at players who deserve to be shot at for the way they look (i.e. unshaven players), the way they dress, or the way they conduct themselves (i.e. rule or etiquette violations at the table.)

ESPN is going after 1.0-1.5 million U.S. TV viewers per show, not 350,000 viewers per show (i.e. GSN's High Stakes Poker). Some of you guys who want every show to look and sound like HSP will disagree with the way ESPN does the WSOP and will disagree with me, but I understand your point of view.

[pacino]

That's not Norman Chad poker right there.

[MikeRice]

Lon is a "pro" announcer. You need a straight face man and a color guy. The guy does everything watch any fringe show on ESPN and he'll be there. K-1 kickboxing, Bodog fight, gymnastics hell I stumbled across a scrable championship and there was Lon. He's seemingly clueless about every show though I don't even know the rules to scrabble.

[EC10]

i'd take norman chad and lon over gabe kaplan and AJ benza any [censored] day. benza is just retarded, and kaplan never shuts the [censored] up whether he's telling a terrible joke, saying how he would have played the hand (guess what no one cares), or just talking for the sake of it

[dlorc]

Norman Chad needs to jump off a cliff.

Anyone who finds him remotely amusing after 5 minutes of his lame jokes that are told better by 10 year olds has serious problems.

[dfkdfk]

I enjoy the WSOP commentary especially Norman Chad... I'm looking forward to the additional coverage of this years WSOP. The 50k horse event should be interesting.

[MicroBob]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
- Some sort of new 3-D graphic that displays holecards, community cards, and players' actions

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Hopefully they'll put this up (minus hold cards of course) for the spectators in real time. The overhead cam on the board was a good improvement last year and adding some chip stacks and action might make live poker marginally watchable.

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I wouldn't count on this.
Tacking on some graphics for board-cards and chip-counts in the edited version that airs later on ESPN is one thing.

Having somebody there trying to do it live just for the screen is an extra person and is probably not worth the effort for them imo.

Maybe it's easier to do this than I think. But somehow it strikes me as being pretty complicated and overly cumbersome to do something like this live for the whole final-table.