2014 WSOP Main Event Coverage Starts Sunday on ESPN

After a lengthy gap since the last 2014 World Series of Poker shows on ESPN, the Main Event coverage finally gets underway on Sunday night with the first two one-hour episodes of coverage, set to air at 9 p.m. ET.

My understanding is that coverage this year is only starting on Day 4 of the Main Event -- that is, on the day the money bubble burst. That of course means they’ll miss out on some of the potential hype that could have been created surrounding Phil Ivey carrying the overall chip lead into Day 3, as well as the other extracurricular fun that sometimes comes with the early stages of the tourney (like Paul Pierce playing this year).

I remember hearing about this plan back at the start of the summer and being disappointed by it, but now that it’s already the end of September and the shows are finally about to begin, I can understand it. Indeed, something about going back to the beginning and trudging through the thousands of knockouts over several weeks seems especially tedious right now, so I’m feeling more amenable to the decision to move ahead a little further into the event than usual.

That said, the other move from Tuesday to Sunday nights probably isn’t going to be such a good one considering ESPN’s target audience, since most everyone will be watching NFL football when these shows air over the next several weeks. In fact I anticipate that’s what I’ll be doing, too, although I’ll DVR the eps and watch them later.

Here’s the schedule:

Sunday, 9/28, 9-11 p.m.

Sunday, 10/5, 9-11 p.m.

Sunday, 10/12, 9-11 p.m.

Sunday, 10/19, 9-11 p.m.

Sunday, 10/26, 9-11 p.m.

Sunday, 11/2, 9-11 p.m.

Sunday 11/9, 9-11 p.m.

Monday, 11/10, 8 p.m. start -- Final Table (live)

Tuesday, 11/11, 9 p.m. start -- Final Table (live)

I’m a little excited to watch this year, probably because this is the first time since ’07 that I wasn’t there at the Rio when it was all playing out. I obviously followed it all very closely, but I’m curious to see it playing out, even if it’ll surely resemble in most ways what we’ve all seen many times before.