Season 7 of the World Poker Tour wraps up at the $25,000 Bellagio Championship

It was quite a year for the WPT; first came the revelation of a $10 million in losses last year; then there was the news of events being eliminated; and finally there was the dwindling attendance numbers.

The WPT had a chance to create some buzz when Scotty Nguyen found himself at the final table. You see, Scotty was just over $2 million behind all-time money list leader Jamie Gold (who most players would like to see bumped from that spot); and a win at Bellagio would be worth $2.1 million. Alas, the WPT’s boat sailed away and Scotty was eliminated in 6^th place (making the WSOP, not the WPT, the likely tournament where Scotty will break the record).

Instead another 20 something (actually he’s 21) captured the title: Yevgeniy Timoshenko. Timoshenko cruised through a very difficult final table, and controlled the chip lead wire to wire. Timoshenko was never threatened in the event, and rivered a straight against the only amateur player at the final table, ran Azor, to take down the title.

Timoshenko is the second youngest WPT champion, being 15 days older than Nick Schulman was when he captured the Foxwoods title in season IV.

The WPT is in a precarious situation, week in and week out the same story lines are replayed: “A great pro that deserves to win”, “Wouldn’t it be great if this amateur could take down these pros”, “So and so is going for his third WPT title”, “can this young gun take down these grizzled veterans”.

WPT, I’m pleading with you; change the format! Do it now, before it’s too late! You have a two hour telecast, why not show some of the earlier action -without the hole card cam- to show the viewers how a hand of poker actually plays out when you don’t know the players’ cards.

I know an early focus was to legitimize poker; you’ve accomplished that. Now it’s time to bring that fringe element of the game back: the characters, the angle shooters, all of it. Let people see how the bubble can influence a player’s decisions; let people see someone trying to squeak into the money (their jubilation often trumps the tournament winners); let people see the entire poker world, not just 6 players who are all getting big paydays.

When you show these earlier hands, get rid of the drama: the music between the turn and river cards, the cutaway at key points, and simply show an actual hand of poker being played. Other players from other tables looking on, cramped tables, and crazy outfits, I want to see it all.

Set aside 30 minutes of the telecast to (25%) for these earlier hands. You have people hooked on poker, but you’ve lost viewers because they’ve seen it all before. We need something new, and earlier hands minus the hole cam could be just what the doctor ordered.