WSOP seats awarded by online sites?

[GrannyMae]

i just saw a messgae at stars that they have already awarded almost 600 seats. so, you have to assume that they will award maybe 1,500? maybe more? 2,000?

add to that the paradise seats, prima seats, UB seats, absolute seats etc etc. then Party. how many seats coming from party and all the skins?

seems like there will be 4,000-5,000 awarded by online sites.

then there is the B&M's.

Bellagio and Foxwoods alone are running sats for a ton of them. NONE of this includes the seats that will be coming from Harrah's properties and new site.

i'm telling you. no problem on hitting the 6,600 cap and i bet they could have sold 10,000 seats.

this is going to be an amazing year methinks. and the more that play, the more attention it will get. the more attention it gets, the better year that poker has from july onward.

now if we can just get ABC and CBS to join NBC in televising events, it will be INSANE!

http://smilies.sofrayt.com/%5E/r/happy.gif


don't forget the heads-up sweet 16 SUNDAY at noon on NBC (ET). it usually is saturday, but looks like sunday this week

http://smilies.sofrayt.com/%5E/u/tv.gif http://smilies.sofrayt.com/%5E/u/tv.gif

finally, here is tomorrow's local sked. WTF is that partypoker.net thing??

http://www.playpcpoker.com/satpoker.JPG

[J.R.]

[ QUOTE ]
NESN is taking the rivalry between Boston and New York from the field to the felt with PartyPoker.net’s Boston vs. New York Poker Challenge at Turning Stone Resort & Casino. It’s a unique team based no-limit Texas Hold’em challange where six poker players from each city play for both individual and team cash prizes.

Tune in every Sunday following NESN’s Red Sox coverage and again at 8 p.m.

Meet the Players:

Boston
Fred Kaplan, Sharon, MA, commodity trader
Robin Galloway, New London, CT, entrepreneur
Nicky Dileo, Melrose, MA, former artist/pro poker player
John D’Agostino, Seymour, CT, pro poker player
Jerry Maffeo, Melrose, MA, restaurant manager
Leo Alvarez, originally from Newton, MA, pro poker player

New York
Mariealena Calabrese, Egg Harbor City, NJ, pro poker player
Adam Schoenfeld, Brooklyn, NY, former internet research analyst/pro poker player
Alfonso Silvestri, Oakhurst, NJ, restaurant owner
Mark Donovic, Yonkers, NY, accountant
Larry Levy, New York, NY, institutional trader on wall street
Tonio Scali, New York, NY, screenplay writer/pro poker player

[/ QUOTE ]

NESN link (http://www.boston.com/sports/nesn/programming/shows/party_poker/)

[AngusThermopyle]

NY v Boston (http://oneidanews.net/viewcontent_full.cfm?key=3&id=1520)

AOL?

[playersare]

[ QUOTE ]
WTF is that partypoker.net thing??

[/ QUOTE ]
I think I saw it in a bar last month. random Red Sox fans and random Yankees fans talk s**t and square off for a modest prize.

[MicroBob]

There is a guy over in the WPT forum who is kinda/sorta keeping track of how many seats have already been awarded by site. And he includes the number of 'guaranteed' free-seats that each seat is giving away too.


In the next 50 days or so I expect Stars to give-away at the most about 10 seats per day...or about 500 max.

Just a VERY rough estimate.

i think they will get to 1,000...but I don't think they'll make it to 1,500.



They had a release a couple weeks ago that pointed out that they gave away 39 seats in 2003...and then 512 seats in 2004...and that they had just reached that many seats for 2005.
Still pretty phenomenal stuff.


Also remember that some of those participating in the WSOP sat's on stars have already won their seats and are just trying to win another $10k in W$ that they can either sell or that they can use to participate in the other WSOP prelim events (Stars is letting you use W$ to directly buy into select prelim events).

Thus...for every satellite that Stars run they are not necessarily giving away another seat (if it is won by someone who has already qualified).

[lorinda]

now if we can just get ABC and CBS to join NBC in televising events, it will be INSANE!

At the risk of saying nice things about the hideous "The poker channel" over here, you guys showing taped shows are now living in the dark ages.
Live poker, with live betting is the way forward, recorded poker is a dinosaur.

We have one show with near-live internet poker every night, and the british poker open, (which had heats from at least five major sites, and quite possibly seven or eight) was a great live event with real people.

Get with it USA!

Lori

Edited: Live to Near live for ch 226.

[GrannyMae]

a poker channel would kick some butt here i think. but i still feel the only way that DoJ is just gonna give up is if all three networks are doing it. ABC and CBS's absence in showing any events is probably good for NBC with respects to gaining a poker base audience. but if the moral fuks that are involved in brain policing at CBS decide this is not right, i would expect them to drop a dime on NBC.
(or whatever the network equivalent is of dropping a dime)

the problem is that the UK is about 3 decades ahead of us with things like this.

[MicroBob]

i'm curious what kind of ratings the HUC is getting (and certainly we haveno idea what they were expecting).


I'm thrilled that a national network is covering (as well as creating) an event such as this. And i agree that it appears pretty classy on TV...but I'm not exactly blown-away by the actual coverage. Maybe I was just expecting too much.

[Kevmath]

[ QUOTE ]
i'm curious what kind of ratings the HUC is getting (and certainly we have no idea what they were expecting).


[/ QUOTE ]

Ratings for NHUPC (http://www.pokernews.com/news/2005/05/nbc-national-heads-up-ratings-winner.htm)

Kevin...

[GrannyMae]

wow, great link.

those are indeed good numbers for noon on saturday. nice to see that.

[GrannyMae]

AOL?

yeppers. and i love them.

let the flames begin

http://smilies.sofrayt.com/%5E/g/menani.gif

[Kevmath]

[ QUOTE ]
wow, great link.

those are indeed good numbers for noon on Sunday. nice to see that.

[/ QUOTE ]

The rating may be slightly affected by the fact many people don't know when the show is on (infomercials, Arena Football, etc.) Now that there seems to be a set time for the West Coast viewers (3pm PT) it may get another .1 boost. It also is good news for televised poker on the Big 4 that the numbers have gone up over the first week.

There's no way a major broadcast network will ever do live poker, although I could see maybe an ESPN PPV event for the WSOP in the next 2-3 years (if they keep broadcast rights after this year).

Kevin...

[MicroBob]

indeed. very interesting article. thanks for that link.

I agree that the numbers aren't exactly overwhelming...but it is Sunday at noon afterall.
'cautiously optimistic' is an appropriate term imo.



However...I would also be surprised if arena-football didn't do much better or worse than this.


Makes you wonder how the HUC (or other poker programming) would do if they went into a prime-time slot.

I still think the ESPN coverage of the WSOP is more important though. People identify more with the WSOP then an event that they have never heard of...and ESPN's trend to showing it over and over and over and over in all sorts of time-slots means that most people are bound to watch part of it at some time or another.

However...I was talking with a non-poker-playing friend of mine on the phone last week and he told me that James Woods had just won a hand against Johnny Chan on TV. So it is very possible I'm underestimating the reach of a major network like NBC.

[GrannyMae]

those ratings were from saturday, no? i have seen first 2 episodes on saturday. did first 2 repeat next day, or was the saturday airing just for the northeast?

[Kevmath]

Sports ratings for w/e May 1 (http://tv.zap2it.com/tveditorial/tve_main/1,1002,272|||sports,00.html)

NBC did air a Celebrity Poker Showdown on a Monday of the "West Wing" cast, which didn't draw a really good number (3.9, 6 share very bad 3rd place).

Kevin...

[Kevmath]

[ QUOTE ]
those ratings were from saturday, no? i have seen first 2 episodes on saturday. did first 2 repeat next day, or was the saturday airing just for the northeast?

[/ QUOTE ]

The first show was on Sunday May 1, 2nd show was Saturday May 7, 3rd show was May 8 (maybe your local station aired it Saturday?)

Kevin...

[GrannyMae]

James Woods had just won a hand against Johnny Chan on TV

JW played great it seems. i wish we got to see more hands but the PP v PH feature table was too good to cut away from.

also, i understand what you are saying about ESPN, but i just think we need to break the ice for all three networks. the important events can, and probably should, stay on cable. however, cool shows like that are a great thing for the networks. this is more like entertainment poker than serious poker.

hell, i was humming the theme song all day. then they did another music-vid type thing again last week. networks just do a better job at things like the openings, attracting sponsors and quality productions staff etc.

[MicroBob]

not bad....arena-football got half the ratings of NBC poker in a better time-slot (but up against stronger programming elsewhere like nascar and nba playoffs).

don't know what nbc 'sports special' is. maybe they had beach-volleyball or something. or this was just studio-desk recap of arena-football and MLB and NBA with Al Trautwig or whatever.


mostly, it looks like those numbers are reasonably competitive.
And I'm thrilled to see that nobody gives a crap about arena-football.

[Kevmath]

The NBC Sports Special April 30 was the Penn Relays track and field meet. The NBC Sports Special May 1 was the Ironman Triathlon replay.

Kevin...