I just wanted to offer a few thoughts about ESPN's first venture into live unedited television...
On the positive note, I loved the ability to see every hand. The dynamics of this final table were especially interesting this year. And the dynamics of Gold's play were also fascinating. He started the final table playing (and especially calling) a lot of hands. Many speculated he would get caught this way, but he did a great job of dodging bullets for the level of activity. There was a key hand where Cunningham caught him in a bluff on the river, and that seemed to ebb his energy a bit. He seemed to stall for awhile, but over the course of the hours, worked his way back to his former level of activity. Wasicka started playing tight for the first few hours of play, but slowly ramped it up where he was a notable aggressor, working his way up from a relative short stack to his second place finish. And Binger just hung on for friggin' ever.
The shifting of gears by the players was a gradual and fascinating element of this final table. There is no way an edited version of this final table can capture the subtlety of play. Hole cards were irrelevant to my appreciation of seeing the event in the raw, so to speak.
The glitches were minor. We temporarily lost the feed to another ESPN event, but we only missed one hand. The gaffe confusing Lee for the already busted Kim was most embarrassing and inexcusable on so many fronts. The fact that I also have Jamie Gold's father's phone number on my TIVO was also probably not a wise decision on ESPN's part.
The camera angles could have been better. The overhead table shot, which I'm guessing was in place to show the button/blind position in a hand, was totally ineffective. This was just too far away to see anything appreciable and unfortunately they used this shot for every hand. Using a graphic to show the action would have been far more effective - and also useful when guests were being interviewed away from the action.
The shots of the board were not used enough and were of poor resolution.
The commentary was misplaced. They didn't understand their audience.To me the biggest drawback was the commentary. ESPN pay-per-view watchers are not casual enthusiasts of poker; they are hardcore. I felt that the commentators felt like they had to offer up every conceivable analysis of every act, no matter how repetitive the concepts were.
I also thought the commentator dynamic was unfortunate. Both Gordon and Nejad are big talkers. Together, they overwhelmed the action and almost ignored their early guests. This did seem to improve as the night went on - I think fatigue actually helped:) Nejad came off as a Gordon wannebe, instead of a much needed contrast in style or approach. His endless eagerness to weigh in on every thought became almost unbearable. I would have much rather seen Gordon paired with someone more "serious" and "straight" as opposed to an "on air" type. I thought the Raymer (as a guest) and Gordon dynamic was particularly refreshing. And I kept thinking someone more like Lederer would have been better for the audience and the content.
Overall, I thought the pros of seeing this final table from start to finish outweighed any detriment I could list - even without the hole cards. I think that will become exceedingly obvious when we see the edited version in a couple of weeks.
