Behind the Scenes at WSOP Circuit Live Stream

One night at the recent inaugural RunGoodGear.com tournament series held in Downstream Casino, many of the pros were telling stories about the road. Suddenly, someone asked me if I had any interesting tales about commentating the World Series of Poker (WSOP) live stream last season (I was the host of the live streams during the 2012-2013 WSOP Circuit season). Unfortunately, WSOP decided not to renew the live stream for this season, but the memories live on.

Of course, there were the one-outers, incredible bluffs, amazing reads, and unbelievable blow-ups by the final tablists. However, someone asked me about the behind the scenes stories. I started telling some basic anecdotes about when one of my guest hosts swore while we were live, or trying to find a guest host to join me in the broadcast booth at 3 am. As I continued to elaborate, they told me that I needed to tell these stories to the public. Therefore, I decided to write them down and share them with the Card Player family.

Horseshoe Chicago in Hammond, Indiana:

We kicked off the WSOP Circuit live stream coverage at this location, which is traditionally the largest stop of the season. For the broadcast, I would typically fly in the night before the final table. Upon arrival at the venue, I would stop by the production room to see our booth and final table set-up. I would also see how many players remained in the main event, which would usually determine approximately when we would begin the next day. Typically, we would have no more than two tables remaining. However, here in Hammond, there were still 29 players remaining at the end of the night, setting up for a long Day 3.

As Day 3 began, we all hoped for a slew of quick eliminations. Although we got our wish early on, play began to slow down as we got close to the final table. We eventually began the final table live stream at 9:30 pm local time. However, with so many chips in play, the final table dragged well into the night and morning. With my flight back home at 7 am out of Chicago (which was an hour away), I had to reschedule my flight for later that day with three players remaining.

However, the battle between the final three was well worth the change fee, as the poker world was introduced to a new trio of players: third-place finisher Tripp Kirk (two-time WSOP Circuit ring winner, including the main event in St. Louis earlier that year), 2012 Hammond main event champion Josh Williams (who has final tabled two more WSOP ring events since) and a little known player at the time, second place finisher Ryan Riess. The Michigan native truly got his start at this event as he drove down from his dealer’s job in Lansing on a whim and entered the main event with his remaining bankroll. After surviving three days and besting more than 1,520 other entrants, Riess’ runner-up finish earned him $239,063. This near quarter-million dollar score allowed him to set up the bankroll needed to turn professional and the rest is poker history.

What a way to kick off the WSOP Circuit live stream with my first changed flight of the season and an exciting final table that would introduce the eventual 2013 WSOP main event champion.

River Rock Casino in Vancouver, Canada

Not all of the WSOP live streams that season showed the hole cards during the broadcast. However, the events that did were heavily regulated as you can imagine. With this event held north of the border, there were additional Canadian regulations as well. Of course, the production crew and commentators were secluded from the players. Since we could have no contact with the outside world, we had no Internet access, so I needed to literally have pages and pages of notes for the broadcast. I had three side tables/chairs set up to organize all the notes including past history and records of the WSOP Circuit. Additionally, we had to turn in our cell phones until the final table was complete.
However, this isolation was not complete. Although I knew that we were assigned a back production room, I did not realize that we were basically going to be locked up for the entire broadcast in a relatively small confined space. We only were allowed to move around in the production room with an adjacent outer room. A runner would periodically ask if we needed anything such as food or drink. Additionally, the casino provided a security guard not only to make sure that no one entered our area, but also to make sure that we did not leave!

An interesting experience to say the least. I felt captive for the entire 12-hour final table of the largest live cash buy-in tournament ever held on Canadian soil at the time. Eventually, Vancouver native John Crncic captured the tournament, taking home $286,382. Thanks to my co-host, poker professional Matt Affleck, for bearing with the long hours of imprisonment.

Palm Beach Kennel Club, Florida:

Most of the WSOP Circuit events are held at casinos, which are typically open 24/7. However, the Florida venue was at a race track. By law in Florida, these establishments must close at 5 am. The production team hoped that this legal issue would not come into play. When the fourth-place finisher was eliminated at 2 am, it seemed that we would finish in plenty of time. However, three-handed play began to drag out. Finally, the third-place finisher was eliminated at 4:10 am. As the remaining two played heads-up, the production crew began to develop contingency plans if they played until closing time. If these two combatants were still fighting at 5 a.m., we decided that they would have to bag up and return later that day. As a production group, we needed to determine how we would halt the live stream and return online later that day. As for myself, I began to look for later flights, as I was just about to cancel my 7 a.m. flight back home. Fortunately for all of us involved, with about 5 minutes left to spare, Jonathan Tamayo eliminated Clint Tolbert to claim the WSOP Palm Beach Kennel Club main event title, taking home $206,020. Thankfully, we never had to delve into our contingency plans and remarkably I still made my flight home to Massachusetts. ♠

Bernard Lee is a poker columnist for ESPN.com, author of “The Final Table, Volume I and II” and radio host of «The Bernard Lee Poker Show,» which can be found on RoundersRadio.com or via podcast on iTunes. Lee has over $2 million in career earnings and is also a team member of RunGoodGear.com. Follow Bernard Lee on Twitter:
@BernardLeePoker or visit him at www.BernardLeePoker.com.