Friday, 29th March 2024 11:08
Home / Uncategorized / EPT11 Grand Final: How things change (or don’t)

This is the 11th grand Final festival and much has changed in that time. If you hadn’t been here ince season one you’d hardly recognise the place. For one thing the tournament room used to be the smaller hall, where the cash games now take place. Oh, and there are cash games now. Then there’s the schedule itself. Back in season one the main event was it. Now it’s one of 78 events planned for the festival.

But in some regards nothing has changed. Like tournament reporting, which to look at still looks much the same as it did back on the Tour in 2005.

wires_and_cables_30april15.jpgOne of the dangers of using technology for tournament reporting

This was something we talked about during the tenth anniversary week of the Blog last week, and we speculated on what things might look like ten years from now. But I was reminded again hearing on the TV floor staff explaining to the new guy who the “bloggers” were.

“They’re the ones with the notebooks The write hands down and then go and type it up. I don’t know why they don’t just type it out on iPads.”

The new guy agreed and that was that.

Looking down at my note pad, and the ineligible scrawl written across it, I wondered whether he hadn’t got a point. Surely it’s only about getting the cards right, the order that things happen, the numbers involved and who won at the end.

Picture the App. As each stage of a hand progresses you record what you see using drop down menus sliding scales or various finger swipes. As the board cards are dealt the reporter taps away until there’s a winner, when the numbers are automatically attributed to the winning player. A final tap of the “submit” button and in a flash it appears online? What could be easier?

I looked at the margin in my notebook.

“Carlos Chadha talks fast and has a bunch of keys on his belt that make him look like he’s come from a job that involves locking up at the end of a shift.”

Well maybe an app could ask about the keys. But then it’s more than that for the reporter getting the details of a hand. It’s also about the nuance, the appearance of a player, their reaction, and what they do when they lose, not to mention how they react after they win.

See for yourself in our coverage page, which you’ll find by clicking here, or on the links in the widget at the top right hand corner (under the feature images). One last thing hasn’t changed. Sure, it’s all about the cards. But, you know, it’s also not all about the cards.

To get all the latest news, chip counts and payouts, don’t forget to download the EPT App on both Android or IOS.

Stephen Bartley is a staff writer for the PokerStars Blog.

Study Poker with Pokerstars Learn, practice with the PokerStars app