CNBC story on WSOP

[MicroBob]

Maria Bartiromo is doing a story on her 'Special Report' program on the upcoming WSOP.

she has Norman Chad and Chris Moneymaker on via satellite.

basically, she's trying to hit on the rising popularity of poker.

they're in a commerical break now but are continuing the discussion after the break.

problem is, maria doesnt seem to know much about poker.

i suspect they re-run Maria's show later in the evening.

CNBC has been running a lot of partypoker.net ads lately as well.

[MicroBob]

okay...here's my review.

Maria sadly was way way out of her element tryng to conduct this interview and the questions she tried to ask reflected that.
it's not really her fault...i think she kind of got thrown to the wolves on this one....and Norman Chad and Chris Moneymaker were very enthusiastic about their love of poker and represented the game very well and answered her questions pretty well, etc.

Also - it looks to me like Moneymaker may have lost a little weight. Adkins diet perhaps?? maybe i'm imagining.


i dont really fault Maria for not knowing. she's incredibly knowledgeable when it comes to stocks and money-market funds, etc...but she has little knowledge about poker.

Maria asked Norman about the quick 2-hour turn-around time to show the prelim events compared with the main-event which isn't being shown until June.
Norman had to explain that the prelim events will start airing in June and the main-event doesnt get shown until the Fall. he quickly steered the answer towards explaining that they like to build up the drama and let the viewers get to know the players etc.

maria simply didn't have the right facts to even ask the right questions.....and had no idea that a better angle would have been the fact that poker's popularity has resulted in ESPN actually broadcasting all of these other events and expanding their championship event coverage...etc.

but again, if her fact-checkers dont help her out a bit here there's not a whole lot she can do.

it would be about the equivelent of me trying to interview the Israeli Prime Minister on the battle over the Gaza Strip. it's something i know absolutely nothing about and that fact would be obvious just by the questions i ask.