Stats, Inc.

Ever since I started watching poker on ESPN, the main thing that has stood out is how the network has attempted to keep a sense of simplicity. These shows were for the casual viewers, they reasoned, who want to see all-ins and drama and Phil Hellmuth shirtless. Not the more analytic crowd interested in learning if a specific play was +EV or not.

But then I noticed during the last two Main Event broadcasts, although it occurred considerably more in 2009, that ESPN started showing the percentage of total chips in play a player had. All of a sudden, the audience could put tangible meaning to what 54,535,000 in chips really meant. If a player had 32 percent of the chips in play with eight players left, they were doing really well.

And just this past week during the NAPT broadcasts for the Mohegan Sun Shootout, ESPN started showing VPIP (Voluntarily Putting money Into the Pot) and aggression factor, giving an online tracker feel to the broadcast.

Which is kind of awesome. But also kind of confusing, from a broadcasting perspective.

ESPN, with the reduction in the amount of tournaments they broadcast, this year doing only three out of almost 60, seems like they only want tables chock full of stars. These tables are then ripe for a casual audience, a trend ESPN seems to have focused hard on in recent years, even showing the Ante Up For Africa tournament last year.

Of course they left out the $25K six-max tournament, with a final table that will be sure to be filled with young pros that would attract an audience that would really appreciate these touches. But we have already beat that message home in Episode 1.

The NAPT though is being broadcast in a much different time slot (Monday from 10p-12a as opposed to the WSOP being typically on Tuesdays from 8p-10p) that the more dedicated poker player will seek out to watch. That is the audience that will appreciate this increased use of statistics, even if the hosts are not the greatest at exploiting them for analysis.


But because casual audiences are not going to immediately grasp these concepts, ESPN looks to be setting up the two entities, the NAPT and WSOP, as vastly different shows. It is kind of a shame, really, because with an expanded NAPT in the coming years, the WSOP and WSOPE, as well as a select few circuit events (Caesar's for starters), ESPN could broadcast a new poker show virtually every week during the year. With different time slots and formats though, continuity is something that will be sorely lacking in the broadcasts over time.

The continuity will never be completely there, obviously, as the NAPT is basically owned by PokerStars and the WSOP is not, but I would like to see the NAPT given the same chance the WSOP has on ESPN with the time slots and advertising.

Maybe some of these touches will trickle down to the World Series broadcasts as people get more comfortable with them. I remember it took until the graphics overall in 2007 to have the pot be displayed at all times. And maybe it is a good thing with the nature of these events to have the NAPT and WSOP be different shows catered to their own audiences. One is mostly about a high stakes bounty shootout, the other is mostly about the biggest live event in the world.

I guess come July we will have our answer if the Series takes some cues from the new Tour on the block. And then we can get focused on the real issue at hand.

Seriously, what does Joanna Krupa do on these NAPT broadcasts??!!