The latest innovation to sweep the poker tournament world is live streaming. Recently the WPT Final Table at Vienna was screened lived on the Internet, with full hole cards shown and commentary from Mike Sexton and Jesse May. The stream attracted thousands and thousands of viewers and Jesse May proclaimed,
"This is the way poker was meant to be watched."
Since then many other big events have had their final tables streamed live over the Internet and the WSOP is to follow suit. A total of 55 bracelet events will have their final tables aired live over the Internet when the series kicks off on the 31st May 2011.
In order to preserve integrity and to abide by gaming regulations the coverage will be screened with a five-minute delay. The final tables will be aired on WSOP.com and they have already secured a sponsor through Jack Link’s Beef Jerky. The tournament announcer will describe the betting amounts and you will receive a wide shot of the overall table and a flop camera as well.
This means that for the first time ever all 58-bracelet events will receive some form of coverage. ESPN3 will also be streaming segments of the $25k Heads Up Event, the $50k Poker Players Championship and the Main Event.
The only drawback is the delayed coverage will not be showing any hole cards or providing live commentary. Basically, the experience you will receive at home will be the same as the spectators on the rail.
Contributed by Alex Corcoran, a poker player who writes articles for poker sites like this one, poker is one of her favourite past times but you can also find her writing articles for other casino or bingo sites.
