[morlspin]

Scott Fischman

Quote:

hey all, I am generally completely against new rules and formats that greatly affect the outcome of the game and take skill out of the hands of the players. There have been more then a few of these type of changes made over the past few years. One of the more horrific format changes that comes to mind is the "5 levels per day then redraw" that has been implemented in most of our main events these days. This particular rule takes so much of the skill and advantage right out of our hands and with no real upside that i know of. The biggest downside that i see with this "future final table" format is that you are just going to be playing a completely different tournament when it resumes. I am sure we are all familiar with how different the game can be from day to day let alone 4 months. The novice players will surely have ample time to acquire coaching, and everyone will be able to do some homework on the known players at the table, which i don't feel is that big of a deal anyhow because players can do this from day to day anyhow. The main issue in my mind is the fact that everybody is now a different player under a new set of factors that will be determining their decisions. For example, there is a time and a place where laying down KK and other big starting hands is very easy pre-flop. And playing for 10 million would seem like the right place to be able to get off a big hand but if you sit me down at a "new" table this just isn't going to be the case. I agree with a lot of Howard's points. I have to admit, I have certainly been a part of the public that has stopped watching ESPN poker. I think it has more to do with all the screaming, the "shark" and side story crap not to mention how many players got broke during the commercial break. The milwaukee's best light ad ends and you hear Norman Chad saying, "We are rejoining the action and Joe Blow is allin with J-7 against Tommy's Q-2... the board reads 4-3-8-K..... and Joe will need to catch a J or a 7 on the river or he will be eliminated in 7th place." I mean this kid might have been waiting his whole life to make a wsop final table, he has been telling everyone that will listen about this sick hand and told them to watch him on TV but then the entire hand gets cutoff so they have extra time to tell us all about Timmy's family and a poker game he played in second grade when doyle was in his home town. I think something needs to be done but maybe just not this, it would change the outcome too dramatically. I would be willing to bet that had this format been in place over the past 5 years of ESPN poker we could very likely be seen with 5 comletely diff champions then we currently hold. I suggest a look at the producers of the shows for a start. I also think that doubling the starting stacks and changing the structure of the tourney has been the biggest reason for the decline of viewership. Less pros make the FT, which leads to less interest from the public. I think Harrah's is trying to appeal more to the amateurs and get big numbers of players to vegas every year for 2 months. You can't have 10,000 people in a tourney, give them 20k starting stack and horrible playing conditions and then expect there to be a star studded final table. scott