Column: We Don't Need The WSOP Final Table Delay Next Year

The WSOP delays the final table until November and in this column we argue why this should actually be changed again.

When it was first announced that the WSOP final table would be delayed until November, there was a lot of confusion and derision. Most of us thought it was needless hype, and that it cheapened the game.

But, it worked. Sponsors seized the opportunity to patch up players who were guaranteed television time, ESPN enjoyed an increase in viewing figures, and poker players got to dream about million dollar sponsorship deals.

In fact, it could be argued making the November Nine was a more enviable prospect than winning a preliminary bracelet. Most guaranteed signing with one of the two biggest poker rooms and enjoyed massive signing on fees and bonuses. Even players who missed out on the final table but made a deep run enjoyed large sums for making televised feature tables, many of whom made more for wearing a patch than for cashing in the main event.

The November Nine worked, but poker has changed, and I don’t think we need the final table delay next year.

The three benefits I can identify for the final table delay were to hype the show, to give us all an opportunity to get to know the players, and to reward the finalists with life changing endorsement deals.

Endorsement Deals

The landscape of online poker has changed exponentially in the last three months, and the prospect of signing a major endorsement deal is no longer on the table. You couldn’t move for agents at the Rio over the last two years, but they are nowhere to be seen now, and most tables are ‘patchless’.

Right now there are no poker rooms going to be willing to sign a North American player (of which the final will be invariably made up of), or at least none offering the life changing sums we associate with being a November Niner. Europeans will have more options of course, but much less than before. The fact that nobody would be seen dead in a Full Tilt or UB patch now has levelled the playing field in that regard for the smaller operators.  

That will change in years to come, as the American market is a sleeping giant. There will be major US online poker rooms again, whether that’s ones we know or new ones (I’d guess Google Poker) remains to be seen. But when poker returns to the States, it will likely be heavily regulated, with potentially heavier restrictions on logos and advertising. This will put off potential sponsors, who are be more reluctant than ever to tangle with Uncle Sam.

Televised Poker has Changed

The excellent live coverage from ESPN this year has also potentially eradicated the need for the other two main incentives for a final table delay.

There has been hours upon hours of live, same day, and next day coverage of the main event this year, both televised and online. Viewers have had plenty of time to get to know the players this time around, we don’t need to wait three months to piece together information from interviews and local press clippings from their home town newspapers.

If anything, we arguably know them a lot better than before, as we see them stripped bare and unedited during the live footage.

This also means we don’t really need to build the same level of hype around the final table, as the coverage has been doing that for us. The money and final table bubbles are going to be broadcast live after all, and those are arguably two of the most enthralling aspects of the main event. If you also include the wave of controversial stories that have surrounded poker this year, we already have more than enough drama to guarantee an audience.

Poker is finally heading towards the same level of coverage that other sports enjoy, and the audience demands instant gratification more than ever. Nobody would stand for a three month delay of the World Cup Final, and poker is no different now that it has caught up with mainstream sports coverage.

The final table delay is the cliff-hanger we don’t need any more.