Just call me LuckyDog, the casual poker TV viewer, this time around.
I won’t be in Las Vegas covering the most-anticipated and hyped WSOP main event final table, which starts shortly after 10 a.m. today out there.
I won’t be glued to my computer all day today, following hand-for-hand action on any of several Web sites, as the November Nine are whittled down to the November Two. Ditto late Monday night when the heads-up battle is waged to determine the 2008 champ.
I will, however, morph (just for a couple of days) into a non-hard-core poker viewer — exactly the type of person the WSOP and ESPN are hoping to entice into watching this ballyhooed final table prime-time telecast Tuesday evening just 18 hours or so hours after the action ends. Like most viewers tuning in, I won’t know who won — a big goal of the crunched-timing plan.
I’ll listen to Lon and Norman deliver hastily prepared banter, watch nine heretofore largely unknown players stress over millions of dollars at stake, root for my favorite (I have two, actually, but I’m not saying who), and groan or marvel at the players’ performances — which should be at their peak since they’ve had four months to prepare!
Then — because I like to share! — I’ll dash off a review of the telecast right here at luckydogpoker.com, mainly assessing whether the Grand Pause of poker’s biggest tournament worked or not for the casual viewer (that’s me, remember), based only on what I see on the telly.
Check it out late Tuesday or sometime Wednesday, won’t you? And, as always, your comments are welcome!
If delaying the final table for 117 days yields a record TV poker-show audience, the controversial experiment will be deemed a success. If it doesn’t, or if the production is sketchy, then it probably means the WSOP/ESPN tweakers will go back to the drawing board for 2009.
Meanwhile, remember the $24,527,416 still up for grabs (what was left after the final nine were paid ninth-place money of $900,670 in July)? Well, Harrah’s invested it in a Treasury-only money market account to accumulate interest and boost pay-outs to the top eight players.
Enter the stock market crisis!
Everyone who’s watching their 401K portfolio crash and burn in recent months probably will be jealous to learn that the conservative investment of a mere $24.5 mil yielded a gain of — ta-dah — $98,179 in interest. Maybe that’s what we all should have done with our millions (cough, cough).
Anyway, the new final table pay-outs look like this:
1st place — $9,152,416 (up $32,899)
2nd — $5,809,595 (up $19,571)
3rd — $4,517,773 (up $14,421)
4th — $3,774,974 (up $11,459)
5th — $3,096,768 (up $8,756)
6th — $2,418,562 (up $6,052)
7th — $1,772,650 (up $3,476)
8th — $1,288,217 (up $1,545)
9th — $900,670 (no change)
Care to bet whether any of these guys will run out and buy a ton of stock with their loot?
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