ESPN for the first time will offer daily coverage of the World Series of Poker main event this year. Coverage from July 14-19 will include the showing of unedited hands and unedited hole cards post-flop on a 30-minute delay. More than 34 hours of main event coverage will air on ESPN, ESPN2 and ESPN3.com. Regular Tuesday night telecasts will begin July 26 on ESPN, and will air for 16 consecutive weeks leading up to the "November Nine" conclusion of the main event on Nov. 8 (ESPN). USA TODAY's Gary Mihoces reports all but two hours of the main event coverage "will air on ESPN2, with two hours on ESPN on July 19." ESPN in years past "didn't begin rolling out its taped and edited TV coverage until after the final nine was set," though it "still plans 32 hours of such coverage" during the Tuesday night telecasts (USATODAY.com, 5/4).
NEW EVENTS: ESPN.com's Andrew Feldman noted ESPN "will also be broadcasting three additional events from the 2011 WSOP: WSOP Grudge Matches, the $25,000 Heads-Up World Championship and the $50,000 Poker Players' Championship." Those events "will be streamed unedited on a five-minute delay on ESPN3.com, but will not feature hole cards." They will be "broadcast edited with hole cards on ESPN beginning in late July" (ESPN.com, 5/4).
