The WSOP event starts this month and if past practice had been followed it would have ended in July.

But the schedule put out deviates from past practice and it has provoked strong reactions from fraternity. It has been called everything from bizarre to stupid to exasperating to conniving and a lot more.

The change is that the final table will be played not on the 15^th of July but on the 9^th of November and the heads up play on the 10^th of November. There is a 117-day break in between.

The organizers have come up with reasons for this break. It has to do with promoting poker as a TV sport. The assumption being made is that the future of poker is bleak unless it becomes a spectator sport on television. There is no doubt that popularity as a television sport can bring money into the game. There can be more guaranteed prize tournaments without buy-ins from players, sponsored from the advertising revenue earned by telecasting the tournaments. Whether that is good for the game or bad is a matter of debate. Poker players are at their competitive best when they are wagering their own hard earned money is one argument. If poker players do not perform in such tournaments they will not get further invites and therefore they have to perform with or without their own bankrolls is the counter argument.

Assuming that there is a need to turn poker into a TV sport, then the TV channels start calling the shots. There was an occasion in the Olympics when the finals of the 100 meter sprint was run at an unearthly hour in order to coincide with prime time in the USA. This is the kind of power that TV channels wield. There are TV poker shows such as Late Night Poker aired on ESPN and the final table at WSOP has for some been televised, so why the 117-day break? Apparently the TRPs are falling and something needs to be done to give them a bog boost. ESPN and WSOP have planned a grand build up to the final table in the intervening 117-day period.  From July 22 to August 26 the preliminary event will be aired by ESPN. From September 2 to October 28 the main event will be aired. On November 4 there will be a final table preview show. And on November 11 the final table and heads-up play will be broadcasted after they have been played.

Poker sponsors like PokerStars and Full Tilt support this move saying that something like the Chris Moneymaker boom is required to bring a wave of new players to the poker tables. But many pros are not amused. Perhaps the most outspoken is Short Stacked Shamus who calls this the bastardization of poker. Micon has all but alleged that the final table will be rigged in order to make it more exciting and the 117-day break is required to cut the deals. Otis concedes that no one would want to watch nine players they did not know especially after the results were out. But he strongly feels that ESPN could have done the pumping up job in real time.