World Series of Poker Players Advisory Council Involved in Recent Decision to Show Hole Cards on 30-Minute Delay

The World Series of Poker announced last week that for six consecutive days, July 14-19, ESPN will offer unprecedented access to the 2011 WSOP main event, including live unedited hole cards on a 30-minute delay. There will be more than 34 additional hours of coverage in high definition on ESPN, ESPN2 and ESPN3.com from the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada.

The decision was a six-month process that involved officials from the WSOP, ESPN, the Nevada Gaming Board, and the WSOP Players Advisory Council, which is comprised of 16 poker players (names of all 16 players on the PAC are no longer being released by the WSOP) and is overseen by WSOP Tournament Director Jack Effel and WSOP Executive Director Ty Stewart. Read on below to see how the process played out among these entities and how they reached the final decision that led to last week’s announcement.

ESPN first approached the WSOP and they wanted to push the envelope with an innovative plan for poker coverage on television. They wanted to build on the November Nine and the access those changes brought about and build on the live streaming of WSOP final tables without hole cards on ESPN3.com on a five-minute delay. The WSOP Europe pushed things further when the final table of the main event was streamed on a five-hour delay. All of these changes gave players more information and fans more access than ever before. The most important consideration in taking the next step to provide players hole cards on a 30-minute delay from the 2011 WSOP main event was to preserve the integrity of the tournament.

The WSOP took the proposal from ESPN to show hole cards live and the discussion started from there with the WSOP PAC, a lot of discussion in fact. During multiple phone calls and exchanges of information the WSOP estimates 50 hours have been spent discussing this decision. One thing that players were uncomfortable with was showing all hole cards preflop and that concern was reflected in the final decision. There is no formal vote during the process, but more of an open discussion where all feedback is taken into account before a joint decision is made. “Quite simply if the PAC wasn’t on board this wasn’t happening. They really are the voice of the player to us and we really respect their opinion. They are a diverse group of people with different opinions and viewpoints. We really took that to heart and planned accordingly,” said WSOP Communications Director Seth Palansky.

After the WSOP PAC came to an agreement on the ESPN proposal the Nevada Gaming Control board, which sanctions the event and provides the WSOP with its gaming license, got involved in the process and stated what could and couldn’t happen with the new proposal. The Nevada regulators shared their views to ensure integrity and fairness. They made suggestions on what needed to happen for their approval to take place and then those suggestions were taken back to the PAC and ESPN for a second round of discussion. “It all goes back to the stakeholders who it impacts. There were some issues that impacted ESPN so now maybe they don’t want to do this thing if they have to live with the 30-minute delay. Now it’s up to them if they want to move forward under those conditions. It has to be a true meeting of the minds where everyone is comfortable once things get to the final stage,” said Palansky.

The final scenario chosen to move forward with this year is a compromise to meet at a place where all the stakeholders are comfortable. Players, tournament staff, broadcasters, and the gaming control board. After the second round of discussion took place, final approvals were signed off on by ESPN and the Nevada Gamming Commission. Finally, the WSOP took those suggestions to the PAC before the trigger was pulled to enact the plan. “The response was overwhelmingly positive, even from individuals who expressed more hesitation early on. They helped shape how this evolved, with the 30-minute delay, with some of the nuances like no one’s cards being shown preflop, and with only players who were in the hand having their hole cards exposed,” said Palansky.

Barry Greenstein, poker professional and member of WSOP PAC had this to say about the process. “This is a long-awaited step to get live poker on television, and it represents another good collaboration between Caesars, the WSOP Players Advisory Council and ESPN to create a production format that maintains the integrity of the tournament while giving fans what they want to see.”

WSOP Live Main Event Telecast Schedule:

~no hole cards
*Play could run long

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