With television ratings declining ESPN is looking to gear its coverage to the type of stuff that might make serious poker players unhappy. More stories about the random college student and fewer individual hands are apparently on the menu for the 2008 World Series of Poker. The reasoning is simple; to entertain the average viewer you need more “true life” stories and less on the specifics, more all ins with people yelling at each other with hopefully a little less Humberto this year.

As much as we may or may not like all of the human interest clips and “The Nuts” cutaways, the casual fan enjoys that stuff, I have to admit I like most of it too. It adds to the production value. If I had my preference there would be even more time allocated to give more run on both accounts but since television time on ESPN is fairly valuable my opinion does not carry much clout. So they are going to give the viewers what they want.

While we all like to think of this as a game of skill to sell it there needs to be this feeling that anyone can win it. The game show aspect of some college student all in for a 2 million dollar swing in his/her net worth is compelling television for the casual viewer. I have always said that while players enjoy the poker the casual fan is watching a very dramatic lottery. That is what you will see more of when the 2008 World Series of Poker rolls around. Cue the threads on 2+2 now.