ESPN to Premiere World Series of Poker Main Event Tonight

It’s finally time for the big one.

The most prestigious and anticipated poker event of the year is the World Series of Poker $10,000 buy-in no-limit hold’em main event, and ESPN is ready to show the world the best of this year’s tournament leading up to the final table. The first episode premieres tonight at 5 p.m. PT.

It’s been said by a number of pros that “the day you get knocked out of the main event is the longest day of the year.” Well, it was the longest day of the year for a number of players. The field of 6,844 was split into four day ones, which the initial ESPN episodes will focus on. Here are the numbers for the day-1 fields:

Day 1A Starting Field 1,297 Survivors 657
Day 1B Starting Field 1,158 Survivors 623
Day 1C Starting Field 1,928 Survivors 1,071
Day 1D Starting Field 2,461 Survivors 1,386

The main event will continue airing on Tuesday nights from Sept. 9-Oct. 28, but at 6 p.m.-8 p.m. PT. ESPN will show the action all the way down to the final table of nine. On Nov. 4 at 5 p.m.-7 p.m. PT, a final-table preview show will air.

After taking a nearly four-month break, the final table will reconvene Nov. 9. The remaining players will play down to heads up. On Nov. 10, the final two players will play for the more than $9.1 million first-place prize. Television audiences will be reintroduced to the final nine on Nov. 11, when the final table episode airs from 6 p.m.-9 p.m. PT.

Card Player

News Added: 03 September, 2008

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