World Series of Poker:All-In And Royally Flushed by the News

For weeks on end, I have been a relatively devoted viewer to ESPN's coverage of the World Series of Poker Main Event. I, for certain, have been anxiously awaiting the Tuesday night's telecast that was to take place starting at 8pm to discover how the "November Nine" would play out and how the World Series of Poker Main Event would conclude. I'm certain that there were some folks across America who set their DVRs to record this event and were anxious to get home to view the festivities, much like me, only to have major online news providers, such as Yahoo.com, Foxnews.com amongst others, leak the results of the final table on the front page of their site.

Congratulations, Peter Eastgate. I'm writing this down roughly 40 minutes before the final telecast begins. To no fault of Eastgate, I dreaded seeing his face when I popped my Yahoo.com screen up earlier in the day and there he was hoisting up two stacks of wrapped $100 bills with over $9 million more dollars piled in front of him. If only I hadn't gone to Yahoo simply to check my e-mail. Needless to say I was a bit perturbed. It was no different than readying 19 chapters out of a novel only to have some lunkhead come along and spoil the ending. When I learned of this, I immediately contacted a friend that I spoke to last night who had the same ambition to watch the Main Event as I did and let him know what websites were going to blow the outcome for him. After finding Yahoo's overzealous journalism, I immediately began sniffing out other sites so that I could relay to my colleague that their is no website safe for him to go to. If you don't want to know the outcome, leave the internet alone.

I've sat through at least portions of the previous 18 telecasts to watch players, good and bad, fall by the wayside, one by one. According to WSOP.com, this year had 6844 participating in the main event. I've enjoyed seeing some of the amazing hands that have been dealt, the incredible reads players have made, the horrific bad beats others have succumb to, the unbelievable personalities and the real life roller coaster of emotions that sweeps the felt on the W.S.O.P tables every year. This has become a yearly ritual ever since Chris Moneymaker shocked the world with his Main Event victory in 2003. I have never ran into this problem before. Many of the major news venues on-line will occasionally will offer spoiler alerts so that people don't make the mistake of learning the outcome of certain events. What if someone pulled this stunt with Dancing with the Stars, Survivor or American Idol? This country would have a total uprising of irate couch potatoes and wannabees.

The World Series of Poker Main Event has become a major coup for ESPN in the past couple of years. They have exclusive rights to one of the most exciting broadcasts each year. Despite the $10000 buy-in, the population at the Main Event has gotten so out of control that they had to transfer from the historic downtown location of Binion's Horseshoe to the Rio All-Suites Hotel and Casino located just down from the Vegas strip. This year the final nine players will have their fates played out in front of an audience at the Penn and Teller Theater located at the Rio. Unfortunately, due to Yahoo.com and other anxious news sites, I'll already know who wins. Sure it wouldn't be easy to keep the outcome a secret but a mere 24 hours would have reduced my anguish substantially, along with many others. Is that too much to ask? ESPN has always had a spoiler alert on their sight that if you did not want to know the outcome, then do access a certain page. Its just too bad other sites did not extend the same courtesy.

Well, as I look at the clock on my laptop, its about 8pm Central Standard Time. I realize that the World Series of Poker Main Event is about to broadcast on ESPN for the first time. If I don't hurry downstairs, I may end up missing a rerun that has never been broadcast. Thanks Yahoo.