August 16 2011, Rich Ryan, Eric Ramsey

This past week, the Epic Poker League kicked off its inaugural season at The Palms in Las Vegas. Chino Rheem won the Main Event, defeating Erik Seidel heads up for $1 million. Those in attendance raved about how smoothly the tournament was run and how well the players were treated, but there are still naysayers like Daniel Negreanu who openly boycotted the event, that won’t play EPL events, even though they’re cardholders. We asked our own Eric Ramsey and Rich Ryan to discuss the topic, and examine whether or not the EPL will be successful.

Eric Ramsey: Of course the Epic Poker League will be successful

Let’s start with the decision makers, because a poker tour is only as good as the people who run it. Executive chairman Jeffrey Pollack played a major role in the poker boom, guiding the World Series of Poker through its biggest growth spurt. Pollack bowed out of the way after the wheels were set in full motion, and the WSOP brand has gone on to become a multi-million-dollar, global phenomenon with an enormous marketing presence. Filling the role of commissioner for the league is Annie Duke — a bracelet winner, an active proponent of legalizing poker, and one of the most well-spoken and well-respected minds in the game. On the floor, Tournament director Matt Savage runs a handful of the most successful tournaments in the world, and he has the poker world hanging by his every tweet. Savage is on the Tournament Directors’ Association Board of Directors, and his name on the EPL docket adds instant credibility with the players.

And then there’s television. Network television, to boot. The entire country will get to see the Season One events on CBS, a production that will be overseen by another top-notch entity in this arrangement, 441 Productions. Pollack and 441 have a history of producing some of the most watched, most famous moments in the history of the game, and the Epic Poker canvas figures to be a fine reunion masterpiece. Locking down a big network deal means a certain level of success has already been achieved, in my estimation.

Since the beginning, Pollack and Duke have professed that the league would be about the players themselves, and having an exclusive, invitation-only club makes that vision feasible. Throughout the inaugural event, Twitter and the tournament floor were abuzz with praises raining in from every angle. In fairness, it’s pretty easy to make fans when you wave the rake, add $400,000 to the prize pool, and hand out lots of swag on the way in the door. But the continued commitment to the player first (rather than the viewer) is a refreshing break from the norm in televised poker, and it’s one that seems to please some of the best players in the world.

Before the EPL came around, it would have been hard to find a vacant spot on the tournament block for a new tour to start laying a foundation. With a unique vision and a true focus on the players, though, this EPL already has the earmarks of something that’s here to stay. By all accounts, the league’s events are five-star all the way around, and the opening event had plenty of juicy story lines to keep the players and the fans coming back for more. The EPL has succeeded in bringing together an elite group of poker players for a unique and well-run event, and it’s definitely a broadcast I don’t plan on missing.

Rich Ryan: The EPL is awesome, yet unsustainable. It won’t be “successful”

In 1993, the Wu-Tang Clan taught us a very valuable lesson: “Cash rules everything around me, C.R.E.A.M. get the money, dollar dollar bill y’all.”

The first EPL Main Event was, dare I say it, nah, I won’t. The field was stacked, the final table was incredible, there was a seven-figure payday, and the buzz that was created was tremendous. The only people happier than poker fans were the players and the media in attendance. Duke and Pollack pampered their customers, offering them free rooms, supplying $100 food vouchers for each day of the tournament, and, of course, adding $400,000 to the prize pool. This all sounds fantastic, but where is the money coming from? And once that money dries up, where is the next batch going to come from?

While Neagreanu’s latest blog is very biased (he is anti-Duke), he brings up a lot of valid points. The most important point is that if the World Series of Poker struggles to pull in major sponsorships, and they’re syndicated on ESPN, running hundreds of hours of programming a year, then how is a tour with just seven hours on CBS going to find enough sponsorship money to keep them afloat? Sasquatch isn’t going to be willing to shell out enough money to cover the $400,000 being added to each tournament, and no other major companies are lining up to attach their brand to poker after Black Friday.

Additionally, playing in a $20,000 tournament with some of the best players in the world is terrible game selection. Obviously American players are limited because online poker is basically non-existent, but that doesn’t make lighting two stacks of high society on fire a good idea. Cardholders who are bankroll nits, or who realize that, without online poker, television time means nothing, are going to skip EPL events without a second thought. This depreciates the value of the card, shrinks field sizes, and can ultimately lead to the demise of the EPL as a whole.

For the time being, professional poker players (I’m looking at you, Mr. Negreanu) should enjoy the EPL. It’s truly the only tour in the world that is designed solely for the players, and, even thought it’s unsustainable, it’s great for the game. In a perfect world, there would be millions of dollars in revenue readily available and the EPL would be able to showcase the best players in the world. Unfortunately, that world ceased to exist around 2008, and now the poker economy is a shell of what it once was. The EPL’s spending will eventually catch up with them, and sadly make the tour unsuccessful.

What are your thoughts? Let us know in the comments section below, and as always, follow us on Twitter.

*Photo courtesy of EpicPoker.com

July 26 2011, Elaine Chaivarlis

Epic Poker League launches next month at the Palms Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada, with its inaugural event. Just weeks before its kickoff, Epic Poker League announced that 20 hours of original programming are slated to be broadcast on CBS Television Network and Discovery Communications’ Velocity Network.

The Velocity Network, an “upscale male lifestyle network” and will take the place of Discovery’s HD Theater on October 4, 2011. Velocity will air 13 hours of original Epic Poker League programming, as well as seven hours of re-aired episodes that will air on CBS Sports. Air dates and times have not yet been released.

“Epic Poker is proud to partner with CBS Television and Discovery Communications in our inaugural season,” said Jeffrey Pollack, executive chairman of the Epic Poker League and its parent company, Federated Sports + Gaming. “Both companies share our commitment to providing a world-class stage and significant new exposure for poker’s most talented live tournament players.”

The Epic Poker League broadcasts will be hosted by Emmy award-winning sports anchor and reporter Pat O’Brien and poker personality Ali Nejad. David Neal and 441 Productions will produce Epic Poker League for Velocity and CBS. Executive producer Neal and 441 Productions have numerous Emmys and accolades between them. Among other events, Neal has produced the Olympics and NBA Finals and 441 Productions is well-known for producing the World Series of Poker from 2003 to 2010.

“Epic will provide a rich storytelling environment for our television production,” said Neal in the press release. “We’ll capture the rivalries, the personalities, and the strategies brought to each event by an elite roster of player. It’s high stakes competition, with prestige and prize money on the line, and that makes an ideal setting for compelling entertainment.”

PokerNews sat down with Jeffrey Pollack to discuss the EPL on Velocity.

Can you tell us about the decision to partner with Velocity and which events will be televised?

We’re in business with one of the most highly regarded broadcast networks, CBS, and now the number one non-fiction media company in the world. Velocity is part of Discovery which reaches 1.5 billion cumulative subscribers in more than 200 countries and CBS is in every household in America pretty much. We’ve got two great telecast partners for our first year.

It’s worth nothing that CBS, I think was the original broadcaster of the WSOP back in the 70s. So in a funny kind of way, televised poker is coming home to where it began.

The four main events and the championship will be televised. For the first Pro-Am, the Heartland Poker Tour is going to produce a special and syndicate it, but this deal is just focused on the Main Event and the Championship.

The entire season of the Epic Poker League will air on Velocity, but CBS Sports will also air seven hours of programming. How will that work?

We have 20 original hours in the first year with some number of those hours on CBS, some number on Velocity. Each channel will have some of each event and we’ll have the exact schedule at the end of the summer.

The Velocity Network targets higher-income men and is strictly an HD channel, do you think this will alienate a large portion of the poker audience that has been left without a lot of poker programming on basic cable due to the recent effects of Black Friday?

No. Velocity launches in about 40 million homes and based on Discovery’s track record, it’s going to grow very quickly. Most TV is produced in HD today so we’re trying to be as forward looking in our approach as possible. It’s a new channel. We like that. We like that we’re launching together and we are very confident in Discovery’s proven track record to grow fully distributed channels.

There are some new names in the production with host Pat O’Brien and executive producer David Neal. Can you discuss you decision to bring these fresh faces to poker?

Pat is a sports broadcasting legend and icon and he’s going to bring a very fresh perspective to how poker is presented and that’s what David Neal is going to do. David is also new to poker but he’s produced nine Olympics and every other major sporting event in the world. What he does, his skill set, his creative ability, he has applied to a wide variety of games and sports. He’s now going to bring that perspective to poker.

We’re marrying him with 441 Productions, which you know is one of the most highly regarded and prolific poker production houses in the world. It’s going to be about bringing a fresh perspective to some very proven experience. Just as we have David and 441, that’s why we have Pat and Ali Nejad. Ali is also a highly regarded poker personality, host, player, and writer. He’s going to be in the booth with Pat, so we’ll have Pat’s fresh global sports perspective with Ali’s deep and rich poker experience.

Are there any production surprises in store for the viewers?

We’ll be doing some new things. We chose 441 because of their past experience in poker. They did an amazing job with ESPN. They helped bring the November Nine concept to life. Marrying their deep poker experience with David Neal’s fresh perspective is going to result in a very compelling poker program.

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