PokerStars WPT Broadcast

[heyrocker]

I don't know if this is old news, but PokerStars has setup a virtual table representing the final table of their WPT event, and is going to be broadcasting the action through this table live beginning at 3:00 EST (ie like ten minutes from now.)

Go to the WPT tab, the tourney is PokerStars WPT Final Table Broadcast. Should be fun, dont know if they're showing hole cards or not (I assume not.)

[eastbay]

Hey, thanks. This should be interesting. I wonder if this will look and feel much different from any other final table of an online tournament.

(just started)

"Gus makes a face and asks for a count..."

I like the commentary...

[eMarkM]

Just got underway. Obviously much slower pace than watching an online tourney, but not too bad.

As I write this Schrijvers just went allin against Hansen. Message says "Gus makes a face and asks for a count". He calls and it's AQ for Gus AJ for Schrijvers and Gus takes 224K down. Man, this is pretty cool.

[eMarkM]

Short stack D'Agostino allin JJ vs Q9 for Hansen. Q flops, down to 4. Wow, quick work.

[eastbay]

Gus's draw of the K! What a hand!

This is great fun...

eastbay

[eMarkM]

WPT won't have much of show if this goes on. Be over in 20 minutes at this rate, lol.

[heyrocker]

How are they going to make a show out of this? Its going to last like ten minutes! /images/graemlins/shocked.gif

[heyrocker]

Did I see that wrong or did Negreanu have a flush against Corkins' 22 in that hand? Yet, they gave the hand to Corkins. Was there something I missed there? Or maybe a bug in their playback code?

[eMarkM]

Obviously messed up the hand in the relay.

[eastbay]

Did I miss something on Negreanu's all-in?

Hmm...

[symphonic]

Am i missing something? Daniel went all in with A3 /images/graemlins/diamond.gif and hoyt called with 97o and a 9 came on the turn and daniel only had A high, yet daniel still won?

[heyrocker]

I assume it was a bug in the replay. This happened earlier too, Daniel showed a flush, but Hoyt won. They issued a correction later, hopefully they will do the same here.

[eastbay]

That's at least the 2nd they've screwed up...

[Gamblor]

[heyrocker]

NICE TEN

man that guy has brass balls

[eastbay]

You know, I just can't figure Gus. He seems to play like an idiot and get lucky all the time, but I know that's not true - he just wouldn't make as many final tables as he does.

He's a tough player to crack, that's for sure.

[Lee Jones]

For those that are wondering about the technical details of the simulcast of the PokerStars WPT event on the PokerStars site...

Terrence Chan (HostTerrence at PokerStars) and Jacob Ottesen (HostJacob at PokerStars) were parked in a conference room a hundred yards from the theatre where the final table took place. They had a video feed of the table (including a camera being operated by Howard Lederer), and the audio feed that included Linda's or Mike Ward's announcing.

As the hands would play, they would transcribe the cards into a file, ship the file (via a recalcitrant 44K satellite link) to PokerStars Pan-Galactic Headquarters, and the file would be input into a program that drove a PokerStars table client, just as user input would do on a regular table.

Even with the video feed, it could get confusing if, for instance, Linda said "The flop comes 9-5-2 with two diamonds". And they're looking at a fuzzy monitor trying to figure out which two cards are diamonds, and what the suit of the third card is.

When they couldn't figure it out, they would call me on my deck phone (the shipboard equivalent of a cell phone), I would run to Jan and say "What was the turn card on hand 61?"

Needless to say, I owe Jan big time, and will find some appropriate way to compensate her in the near future.

Yes, there were a couple of times when Terrence and Jacob thought they had the right card, but didn't, or else they mis-transcribed, or whatever. The probability that a pot was pushed wrong is .000000000001% [1]. There was a dealer, two players, Linda, Mike Ward, Jan, Howard Lederer, and God only knows how many people watching.

Regards, Lee

[1] I sent this earlier to a different forum (honestly don't remember where) but they were suggesting a pot was pushed wrong.

[eastbay]

Thanks, Lee. I was kind of curious how they pulled this off. And you can extend thanks to those who put the required effort into this, a lot of us had a great time watching this tournament in the "language" of the online game that we play so often. It sounds like it was quite an operation.

Regards,
eastbay

[wayabvpar]

Wow...that is quite a production! Reminds me of the old days of radio broadcasts of sporting events where the announcers would read teletype and make their own sound effects to recreate the excitement of the game =)

I didn't get to see all of it, but I did enjoy what I DID see. Thanks to all at PS for making the effort!