If you didn’t know, today is the final day of the World Series of Poker Main Event. By the time this posts, we should know who will be at the final table in November. Unfortunately there is not a woman amongst them.
As a parting tribute, George McNeilly, ESPN’s man in charge of the WSOP production, was kind enough to give me a behind the scenes tour of what it takes to get it all on the air. And folks, its organized chaos.
28,000 pounds of TV equipment is used to produce the WSOP
192 days worked for the 2009 WSOP (Pre-production on May 4- set strike on November 11)
40 HD cameras used by ESPN to film the WSOP
26 hours that will air on ESPN in 2009 (highest ever)
15 hours (on average) worked daily by the crew covering the WSOP Main Event for 12 days
Now if that’s not enough to blow your circuits, imagine the fact that what is happening at the Rio is just part of the process. There is lot more work to do back in New York, before you see the final product on TV or the Internet.
In a tiny (and I do mean tiny) corner of the main room, behind a black curtain is crammed a whole lot of equipment and a small army of people doing a whole lot of business.
I counted at least five people in this little nest – all doing multiple tasks besides watching what was happening on the screens in front of them. I mean multiple, multitasking. Several had to be borderline ADHD!
They were listening to the audio on the table and on the players themselves. They were watching each player and the table, logging everything. I mean everything from winks and nudges to comments, calls and all the hands to who raised what, when and for how much. Everything is being noted for later use.
While doing all this, they were busy updating the websites, blogs and social media sites. Plus answering emails and calls for even more information. It’s just an amazing thing to see.
Surprising was that even after watching all this poker so intensely, many of the people I met behind the scenes still love to go out and play the game with a great passion. Although a few stated an expected level of burn out. So would I if I had to do this 15 hours a day!
So the next time you are watching this year’s program, just remember it isn’t as easy as it looks! And give a little toast to all those behind the scenes that work hard to make it all look so easy!
More about this tour on the next Podcast!
Go Ahead, Stalk Us