There was much controversy when Harrah’s & ESPN announced their decision to have a 4 month delay on the Final Table of Event #55 of this past World Series of Poker. The “Main Event” as it’s referred to would play down to nine players then take a four month break; and return to The Rio All Suite Hotel & Casino to play the final table and heads up action over 2 days. Today some opinions from the worlds top players is starting to come out about their feelings on how it all went down.

Some of the players feel it was a success while others feel it was an utter failure, yet all through their opinions there were the politically correct tones of the positive things about the event. To get an idea of the true sentiment you need only look to the infamous Mike “The Mouth” Matusow to get an idea of the true feelings:

“If I was a fan, it’d be a big letdown. As far as that, I think it was a failure. As far as Harrah’s and ESPN, I think it was a major success.”

That is quickly becoming the theme. The “Main Event” final table had 274 hands over 100 of which were played heads up out of the 274 hands. ESPN showed its viewers and poker fans alike 23, and of the 105 hands and over four hours of heads up action, we bore witness to a mere two hands over five minutes. I was appalled after watching the show at the lack of coverage, this is being widely blamed on the fact that Peter Eastgate doesn’t make good T.V. like a Joe Hachem per say.

Chris “Jesus” Ferguson Team FullTiltPoker.com Pro had this to say about the heads up battle:

“The one glaring omission was that the heads up lasted two hands on television,” said Ferguson. “It really didn’t show the entire battle between these two great players.”

This heads up match was very much a battle and all we saw was the final volley, Eastgate started with a 30 million chip lead (80 million – 50 million), but had to watch Demidov make a big comeback on three occasions during one of which he took the chip lead. Yet this young Danish player (Eastgate) managed to maintain his cool and pick his spots, ultimately allowing the hyper aggressive Russian (Demidov) to bluff off all his chips and give Eastgate the bracelet and record as youngest “Main Event” Champion ever surpassing Phil Hellmuth Jr. record set in 1989.

The decision is and has become a marketing success for Harrah’s, ESPN & The World Series of Poker as they saw an increase of 46% in viewer ship over the Final Table of 2007’s “Main Event”. Yet more and more players are speaking out, and showing their displeasure. The one player that I will be waiting to hear from is Daniel Negreanu who was one of the main people involved in the decision to have the delay, I imagine we will all be waiting a very long time to hear his thoughts.

The WSOP Player of the Year & Team FullTiltPoker.com Pro Erick Lindgren had this to say about the coverage:

“did the best with their situation.” Even Matusow acknowledged the impressive production work that it took to get it on the air, saying it was “nothing short of a miracle.”

Also note that he was present during much of the 17 hour marathon at the Penn & Teller Theatre in the Rio Hotel & Casino. Mike Matusow also had this to say:

“They just never showed any hands, they just showed everyone’s bust-out hand. This coverage could have been handled way better but with respect they were under the gun time wise and that’s just how it goes.”

In closing hopefully should they make the decision to go this route next year again, which I can’t see why they wouldn’t hopefully they do a better job. And hopefully we do have 2 more entertaining type guys at the final table! I’ll leave you with Mike Matusows’ final comments which I whole heartedly agree with:

“It’s a shame the rest of the American public didn’t get to see that, it would’ve been so sick to watch.”