WSOP November 9 a Hit

The American poker world has been in a tailspin since the Unlawful Internet Gaming Act passed two years ago. Looking to stem the tide of this ESPN and Harrah's tried something new. The held the final table of the Main Event of the World Series of Poker till after the other episodes had aired on ESPN.

The main purpose of this was to minimize the number of people who knew the winner before the show aired last night. Not since Greg Raymer won in 2004 had I not know the winner before the final episode was shown. Trust me it makes a major difference. Here is what I liked:

Big Supporting Crowds- giving peoples friend 3 months notice on the final table allowed each player to have a large cheering section

Michael Buffer - when the action got heads up they brought out the 9 Million Dollars in cash that went to the winner. Then the had the worlds best announcer Michael Buffer introduce the two remaining players and did his "lets get ready to shuffle and deal"

Quality of Poker - Giving the players 3 months to bone up on poker made the final table less of a luckbox festival. Ivan Demidov played some of the best final table poker ever seen in the main event. Unfortunately it wasn't enough win as I van took down almost 6 million for second place.

Goodbye Poker Brat - Peter Eastgate the new great Dane of poker was the eventual winner as he combined high level poker with just enough lucksacking. Eastgate who is only 22 years old bested the record for the youngest player to take down the Main Event. This record had been held for almost 20 years by the poker brat himself Phil Helmuth. Sorry Phil, I guess the 10 other bracelets he won since then will have to comfort him.

Overall this was the best thing to happen to poker since the hole card cameras. Kudos to Harrahs, ESPN, Jefferey Pollack and whoever the nameless faceless person whose idea this was.

Krusty says HEY HEY