The Phil Ivey WPT curse
Phil Ivey was on one of the very first wpt episodes, the one which got me hooked on poker. At the same time, he was wearing his houston rockets jersey on the espn (moneymaker) broadcasts of the wsop, so a superstar was born. A few years later, he's still making final tables, but no championships yet. (FYI I do not read results of poker tournaments, so I do realize he may have won something by now, but it's a surprise to me. I saw he is on the leader boards at cardplayer.com, so I know it's possible.)
This is either the final or penultimate season for the wpt. That is not a fact, just a prediction. The company hasn't grown the way it should have, and is hanging on by a thread. Despite what ceo Steve Lipscomb says, it does not behoove the wpt to have a smaller audience as provided by gsn vs. the travel channel. To most this is basic math/business sense, but Mr. Lipscomb marches to the beat of a different drummer. Also, it is not advantageous to fight with some of the top names in the poker world, who are still boycotting the wpt. There are plenty of other large tournaments these days, so I doubt the players are really upset about this any more.
Though the wpt does bring attention to the casinos for their large tournaments, I think the pendulum is about to swing, to the point these casinos do not really see the benefit of wpt as before. This could be the one thing to save the wpt, if they have enough of a stronghold on the casinos that they will survive because the casinos want them around. I don't think this will happen, because I think the ratings will be poor this year.
Last night's wpt season premiere brought out a lot of emotions for me. I don't have time for a full-fledged review, but there are few changes from the travel channel version. The lead in was a REPEAT of high stakes poker, even though my dvr said it was new. (sorry about that.) The wpt's fourth host is hot and busty. Phil Ivey is still making final tables and losing. There are more internet young guys like Gigabet and jonathan little. There were millions of promos for the movie 21. There was one amateur at the table. Corny jokes by vince van patten. Over-exuberance by mike sexton. Did I mention phil ivey was there?
In the words of vince carter in the slam dunk contest, "it's ova." (compliments of pokarpokarpokar)
This is either the final or penultimate season for the wpt. That is not a fact, just a prediction. The company hasn't grown the way it should have, and is hanging on by a thread. Despite what ceo Steve Lipscomb says, it does not behoove the wpt to have a smaller audience as provided by gsn vs. the travel channel. To most this is basic math/business sense, but Mr. Lipscomb marches to the beat of a different drummer. Also, it is not advantageous to fight with some of the top names in the poker world, who are still boycotting the wpt. There are plenty of other large tournaments these days, so I doubt the players are really upset about this any more.
Though the wpt does bring attention to the casinos for their large tournaments, I think the pendulum is about to swing, to the point these casinos do not really see the benefit of wpt as before. This could be the one thing to save the wpt, if they have enough of a stronghold on the casinos that they will survive because the casinos want them around. I don't think this will happen, because I think the ratings will be poor this year.
Last night's wpt season premiere brought out a lot of emotions for me. I don't have time for a full-fledged review, but there are few changes from the travel channel version. The lead in was a REPEAT of high stakes poker, even though my dvr said it was new. (sorry about that.) The wpt's fourth host is hot and busty. Phil Ivey is still making final tables and losing. There are more internet young guys like Gigabet and jonathan little. There were millions of promos for the movie 21. There was one amateur at the table. Corny jokes by vince van patten. Over-exuberance by mike sexton. Did I mention phil ivey was there?
In the words of vince carter in the slam dunk contest, "it's ova." (compliments of pokarpokarpokar)