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So for the first time in probably three years, I watched a first run episode of the 2010 World Series of Poker on ESPN.  Tonight was the Poker Player’s Championship episodes where Michael “The Grinder” Mizrachi took down his first every WSOP bracelet.

Michael Mizrachi Wins the "True World Championship of Poker"

I won’t lie.  The main reason I watched was to see if they got some shots of me around the Rio.  They didn’t.  After that, I decided to see if the quality of the broadcast had improved year over year.

I wish I could say that I left the broadcast feeling that I had watched some great poker programming, but in reality, it was pretty ho hum.  I personally would have much rather seen the final table played in an 8-game format as opposed to just NL Holdem.  David Oppenheim and Robert Mizrachi I feel lost some of their edge going into the final due to that fact alone.

The other thing that I don’t think that the program conveyed was how great of a battle that heads-up really was.  After Mizrachi sucked out with his A-8 of clubs, they only showed a couple of hands and just mentioned that he extended his chip lead.  They didn’t really convey how that the heads-up match went on quite a while longer after he hit that miracle double-up.

The one real improvement that I saw from this year’s broadcast was the interviewing.  I liked how the interviews were done, especially the one with the Mizrachi brothers.  That was a great story and I even liked how they included a little added dig from Robert to Michael when he said “don’t forget who used to sit behind who and watch.”

I don’t think that the program was overall atrocious, but at the same time, I didn’t see anything there to draw the viewers back for multiple episodes.  Time will tell whether rating will go up or slip like I predict they will.