One thing lacking at the inaugural Epic Poker League tournament

While following the results of the Epic Poker League’s debut tournament, the $1,500 buy-in Pro/Am, it finally dawned on me what the Epic Poker League is lacking: A tournament reporter! While Michael Craig’s, Andy Glazer-esque reports were fantastic, there were only two of them per day, and Twitter is, well, Twitter, and there is only so much that can be said in 140 characters.

In order for the EPL to really stay in the poker world’s line of sight they need to think about the instant gratification aspect of tournament poker reporting, where certain hands are relayed -accurately or inaccurately-and the poker world is kept up to date on who busted, who is on a big stack, and who just threw a temper-tantrum over a misdeal!

This will pretty much make my point: When Brian Rast was eliminated in 10th place each of the remaining players had now won a seat into the $20k Main Event, but the EPL then went on break, and if you were like me you had no way of discovering who the remaining 9 players were! Here is the succession of Tweets that came from the Epic Poker League Twitter account during a roughly 1 hour stretch:

Brian @tsarrast Rast has been eliminated in 10th place at the Epic Pro/Am final table for $3,170. #fb

All nine remaining players at the Epic Pro/Am Final Table have won $20,000 Epic Poker Main Event seats!

Photo: Epic Poker Commissioner @AnnieDuke presents the Pro/Am final nine their Commissioner Coins: http://t.co/XhoQm5T#fb

The final nine players in the Epic Poker Pro/Am are now on dinner break until 7:15pm

Literally no mention of who the final 9 players were! Full disclosure; there was a twitpic released as well, and I could make out Andy Bloch as one of the 9.

In order to really satiate the masses poker appetite, the Epic Poker League is going to have to step up their game when it comes to live reporting -detailed, witty, wrap-ups, by well-established writers are excellent, but we also need the quick updates to be able to follow along with the action. At the very least they need to incorporate a current chip count and elimination board, listing the position the players busted from the tournament in.

So, thus far, my one small gripe with the Epic Poker League is that their live reporting team is non-existent at the moment, something I think the league can quickly square away -even it means hiring Bluff Magazine of PokerNews to do the reporting.

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  • Posted in: Fun Stuff, Poker News
  • Comments: 2
  1. Michael Craig said on August 12th, 2011 at 4:54 pm

    Fair criticism which will be taken seriously. I was bowled over by the quality of the field and the play in the Pro-Am. (for that matter the charity event featured some great talent and even some great play.) we’re going to consider extending our live coverage into the Pro-Am. I’m proud of our first effort at live coverage in the Main Event but even there we want to do more and do it better in September.

    Suggestions, comments, criticism appreciated.

    Michael Craig
    Editor-in-Chief
    EpicPoker.com

    P.S. Thx for the Andy Glazer compliment.

  2. Steve Ruddock said on August 13th, 2011 at 6:09 pm

    Hi Michael,

    I really think you did an outstanding job with your reports, and I have to say that the live reporting during the Main Event was spectacular. I know it’s not financially rewarding to pay for live reporting for any tournament –especially a $1,500 Pro/Am– but I’ve come to expect so much from the EPL, perhaps I’m just getting greedy!

    Steve

    P.S. Your reports really did remind me of the old Andy Glazer write-ups from back in the day, keep up the good work!!!

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