WSOP scraps November Nine concept and some other changes of WSOP Main Event

Poker TV channel Poker Central which owns the full rights for broadcasting World Series of Poker (WSOP) signed a four-year deal with another TV channel - ESPN. To be more precise, the contract was prolonged as World Series of Poker cooperates with this channel since 2002.

According to the new terms of the agreement, there are some changes in WSOP schedule and rules. In particular, the winner of the series now will be defined in July and the number of rest days will be shortened. More details of these and other changes are available below in this material.

What changes will WSOP Main Event have?

All the fans of top-notch poker are used to the fact WSOP Main Event takes four-month pause after 9 (nine) of the strongest players are defined to prepare for the final battle. However, in result of changes the principle of hosting the final part of the tournament will be changes. From this year now on the champion of World Series will be defined not in November but in July. This is done for the TV channels ESPN and ESPN2 to be able to show the whole WSOP Main Event in the span of 15 days.

That way the first 10 days the TV channel will broadcast the tournament to the final table. After top-9 is determined, the players will take two days off to have a rest and recover. After that final table play will continue and three days later the world will know the name of the winner.

The principle of holding WSOP Main Event with “November 9” has existed for nine years. Since 2008, all the finalists of Main Event had four months to have a rest and get ready to play at the final table. This was a topic for many discussions, but the management of the series defended with the fact they needed a huge amount of time to be prepared for high-quality broadcast of the final table. The things will change drastically since 2017.

WSOP executive director Ty Stuart commented on the changes of structure of World Series of Poker Main Event. He claimed WSOP is being broadcasted on ESPN since 2002 and the company is happy to announce the prolongation of cooperation. Stuart announced that each day of the Main Event will be broadcast live and they eagerly wait for the moment they’ll be able to show it to the TV viewers.

The representative of TV channel Poker Central J R McCabe also told a few words. He claimed the TV channel is crazily happy they have finally made an agreement with World Series of Poker. McCabe also added the management of the channel have big plans which would be appreciated by the fans of poker as they will be watching the process of the game and enjoy it.

Also worth noticing: WSOP Main Event can’t be broadcast live as this will contradict with rules of safety and integrity of the game so the broadcast will have 30 minute delay.

Where to watch WSOP (World Series of Poker)

Thanks to the fact, ESPN and ESPN 2 will broadcast Word Series of Poker Main Event from start to finish, each poker fan will have an opportunity to watch the whole tournament almost live. In order to not to miss the most interesting moments, we offer you WSOP Main Event 2017 schedule:

• 8 July - ESPN2 - 13:00-17:00
• 9 July - ESPN2 - 11:00-15:00
• 11 July - ESPN - 17:00-20:00
• 12 July - ESPN - 17:00-19:00
• 14 July - ESPN2 - 17:00-20:00
• 15 July - ESPN2 - 11:00-13:00
• 16 July - ESPN2 - 11:00-15:00
• 17 July - ESPN2 - 16:00-18:00
• 19 July - ESPN2 - 19:00-20:00
• 20 July - ESPN2 - 18:00 until top-6
• 21 July - ESPN2 - 18:00 until top-3
• 22 July - ESPN2 - 18:00 until the winner is determined

This is Pacific Time zone. In order to define Moscow time you have to add 10 hours. For instance, the first day of WSOP will begin at 23:00 Moscow time.