2009 World Series of Poker begins airing on ESPN July 28th

Since the 2009 WSOP Main Event is at a standstill, until November 7th when the final table will reconvene and play down to a winner, ESPN will be able to stop airing reruns of last years events and start showing some highlights and final tables from this year.

This year, ESPN has listened to its viewer’s requests and mixed up their WSOP programming schedule to include more Main Event coverage. There will be 24 hours of broadcasting solely dedicated to Main Event coverage. The only problem is that ESPN will only air one other bracelet hand out, Event 2 of the WSOP, the $40K 40th Anniversary tournament will have its bracelet awarded on ESPN coverage.


The first of the 2009 WSOP tournaments to air this year will be the 40th Anniversary game. The event will be shown in a two hour episode on Tuesday July 28th at 8pm EST. There will also be two other two hour episodes to follow, the WSOP Champions Invitational and the Ante up for Africa charity tournament.

The WSOP Champions Invitational event was a freeroll open only to past Main Event Winners. The winner of that event received the Binion Cup, presented by Jack Binion, and a classic Corvette, that was parked in the entrance to the Rio Tournament area during the WSOP. That episode will air on Tuesday August 4th at 8pm EST.

This was the third year for the charity Ante up for Africa event hosted by poker pro Annie Duke and actor Don Cheadle. This is the first year it will be seen on ESPN. Some familiar Hollywood faces that will be seen on that episode are Adam Sandler, Ben Afleck, Brad Garrett, Charles Barkley, Matt Damon and Ray Romano. Scheduled airing of this event will be on August 11th at 8pm EST.

Beginning on August 18th the coverage of the 2009 WSOP Main Event will be shown every Tuesday, two hour episodes starting at 8pm EST. Each day of the Main Event will receive two hours of coverage including all four to the Day 1 starts and both Day 2s. Day 8 of the coverage will be shown on November 3rd.

The following Tuesday will be the one poker players around the world are waiting for. A one hour preview of the final table will be shown to introduce the ‘November Nine’. That episode will be immediately followed by a two hour coverage of the final table. The new Main Event champ will be crowned during that episode, just a few hours after the live bracelet awarding.

Davin Moon, a logger from Maryland, will hold onto the title of chip leader for the next few months, but the story of the new November Nine is most definitely Phil Ivey, the biggest name to ever make the game's biggest stage.

ESPN poker host Norman Chad, in a Tuesday media conference call, said Ivey possessed "mystical, magical qualities." Chad continued that Ivey can induce a "sense of terror, poker-wise. He has an amazing table presence... If you have the greatest player in the world, and you have a logger who his whole business is lumber and logs, at the same final table. Phil Ivey and Darvin Moon are the Main Event in a nutshell. That you could have that much diversity of person and player. If you start right there, you have a good final table."

"It's long been discussed that in the modern era of poker, could a pro ever win the Main Event?" said Jamie Horowitz, ESPN Coordinating Producer, on the same call. "Having Phil Ivey as a part of our November Nine just added a new level of interest to poker... there is an elevated sense of excitement for this season."

News Added: 22 July, 2009

Number of views : 1317