ESPN WSOP DVD Review
I've managed to make my way through the 2004 World Series Of Poker DVD which I recently received. You can find full details on what is on the DVD at that link, by the way. As I mentioned previously, its available for the very reasonable price of $19.95 for a 3-disc set. Check out ESPNshop.com or championshipdvd.com to order.
I'm extremely impressed with the DVD set. It is very well packaged, the menus are very slick. Of course, everyone reading this has probably already seen the main event coverage in its first go-round on ESPN, so I really won't go in to depth on said coverage on the main discs - except to say you've got two main discs with five episodes each, taking you from the first day of play through the end, and the feature tables pack some great players along the way. However, I will say that its been excellent to be able to replay the details of the 2004 WSOP, especially to be able to analyze the details of many different hands and players. I was in Vegas for the 2004 WSOP and was lucky enough to get inside the ballroom and watch much of the final table action. So this DVD set was especially nice, being able to replay a lot of the televised coverage of the final table that I was fortunate enough to witness live.
There were a number of notable moments of the 2004 WSOP (some of which ESPN was happy enough to package in to a segment included on the bonus disc called "Top Ten Moments"): the opportunity to hear Mattias Anderson doing the wild wildebeest mating call throughout the tournament. Watching Raymer being cool and poised in the face of abuse from Mike the Mouth and then watching him decimate Mike later on in the tournament and send Matisow home crying on the end of disc one. Watching Doyle Brunson put the moves on Scott Fishman. Watching Raymer get lucky four consecutive times at the final table, in two cases winning as a pretty big underdog, but end the end bringing it home with his great play from the bigstack. And wonderful bonus disc coverage, including the WSOP Tournament of Champions. The star-studded $1000 No Limit Hold'em table (Paul Phillips, Daniel Negreaneu, John Juanda, Mike Matusow). The packaged "best hands from the Pot Limit Omaha final table". Full coverage of both the $1000 NLHE and PLO events would have certainly been nice, but at least we got to see a handful of hands from each tournament.
There are a few minor upgrades that I'd like to see (perhaps in the 2005 WSOP DVD set if nothing else). Specifically, the DVD could use more details on the packaging. Of course the average consumer is really just expecting to see the main event as that is all most people associate with the term WSOP, however being that there's a lot of poker from the WSOP not included, it would be nice to see a little "truth in advertising" on the back of the packaging - i.e. stop constantly using the term "2004 World Series of Poker" as if it were interchangeable with "2004 World Series of Poker Main Event" (emphasis mine). So at least somewhere on the back of the DVD, it should make it abundantly clear exactly what's on this set of DVDs before you purchase them: i.e. its the ten ESPN broadcasts of the Main Event of the WSOP, plus the listed bonus features. No where on the packaging does it mention that this DVD set is mostly the main event and not full coverage from the WSOP (although you don't really expect full coverage with "just" three DVDs).
Also, an extremely nice feature would be a more detailed synopsis. A lot of the people who buy this DVD set are going to be hardcore poker fanatics, and it would be nice to be able to know exactly where on a disc something occurs if you're trying to jump to a quick highlight or at least a specific episode. I'm talking about a detailed summary of what is in each episode, similar to what you see on the boxed DVDs of television series (reference DVD sets of the Sopranos, the Simpsons, or 24). For example, something like (details just completely made up) "Disc One - Episode 1: Covers day 1 - day 2 of the Main Event of the WSOP. Highlights include the knockout of Brunson, Helmuth, and Juanda. Featured table participants include Daniel Negreaneu, Mattias Anderson and Doyle Brunson." With ten episodes split across two DVDs, its hard to remember exactly where and when the action you'd like to see occurs. This type of synopsis would probably be best on an insert liner in the front of the DVD, but some sort of details on the title menu of the DVD would also be acceptable (especially if you could see what was on the other DVD as well).
Finally, it goes without saying that hopefully next year ESPN will release a much greater amount of coverage from the 2005 WSOP. I'd be interested in picking up a multi-disc set (ten DVDs, maybe?) of coverage from the 2005 WSOP, hopefully including coverage of a lot more events besides the Main Event (Omaha, Hi/Lo, all the Hold'em events, etc).
Once again, I'm extremely impressed with the DVD set and strongly recommend it to everyone, both the hardcore poker fanatics and the casual amateur. Check out ESPNshop.com or championshipdvd.com to order.
I'm extremely impressed with the DVD set. It is very well packaged, the menus are very slick. Of course, everyone reading this has probably already seen the main event coverage in its first go-round on ESPN, so I really won't go in to depth on said coverage on the main discs - except to say you've got two main discs with five episodes each, taking you from the first day of play through the end, and the feature tables pack some great players along the way. However, I will say that its been excellent to be able to replay the details of the 2004 WSOP, especially to be able to analyze the details of many different hands and players. I was in Vegas for the 2004 WSOP and was lucky enough to get inside the ballroom and watch much of the final table action. So this DVD set was especially nice, being able to replay a lot of the televised coverage of the final table that I was fortunate enough to witness live.
There were a number of notable moments of the 2004 WSOP (some of which ESPN was happy enough to package in to a segment included on the bonus disc called "Top Ten Moments"): the opportunity to hear Mattias Anderson doing the wild wildebeest mating call throughout the tournament. Watching Raymer being cool and poised in the face of abuse from Mike the Mouth and then watching him decimate Mike later on in the tournament and send Matisow home crying on the end of disc one. Watching Doyle Brunson put the moves on Scott Fishman. Watching Raymer get lucky four consecutive times at the final table, in two cases winning as a pretty big underdog, but end the end bringing it home with his great play from the bigstack. And wonderful bonus disc coverage, including the WSOP Tournament of Champions. The star-studded $1000 No Limit Hold'em table (Paul Phillips, Daniel Negreaneu, John Juanda, Mike Matusow). The packaged "best hands from the Pot Limit Omaha final table". Full coverage of both the $1000 NLHE and PLO events would have certainly been nice, but at least we got to see a handful of hands from each tournament.
There are a few minor upgrades that I'd like to see (perhaps in the 2005 WSOP DVD set if nothing else). Specifically, the DVD could use more details on the packaging. Of course the average consumer is really just expecting to see the main event as that is all most people associate with the term WSOP, however being that there's a lot of poker from the WSOP not included, it would be nice to see a little "truth in advertising" on the back of the packaging - i.e. stop constantly using the term "2004 World Series of Poker" as if it were interchangeable with "2004 World Series of Poker Main Event" (emphasis mine). So at least somewhere on the back of the DVD, it should make it abundantly clear exactly what's on this set of DVDs before you purchase them: i.e. its the ten ESPN broadcasts of the Main Event of the WSOP, plus the listed bonus features. No where on the packaging does it mention that this DVD set is mostly the main event and not full coverage from the WSOP (although you don't really expect full coverage with "just" three DVDs).
Also, an extremely nice feature would be a more detailed synopsis. A lot of the people who buy this DVD set are going to be hardcore poker fanatics, and it would be nice to be able to know exactly where on a disc something occurs if you're trying to jump to a quick highlight or at least a specific episode. I'm talking about a detailed summary of what is in each episode, similar to what you see on the boxed DVDs of television series (reference DVD sets of the Sopranos, the Simpsons, or 24). For example, something like (details just completely made up) "Disc One - Episode 1: Covers day 1 - day 2 of the Main Event of the WSOP. Highlights include the knockout of Brunson, Helmuth, and Juanda. Featured table participants include Daniel Negreaneu, Mattias Anderson and Doyle Brunson." With ten episodes split across two DVDs, its hard to remember exactly where and when the action you'd like to see occurs. This type of synopsis would probably be best on an insert liner in the front of the DVD, but some sort of details on the title menu of the DVD would also be acceptable (especially if you could see what was on the other DVD as well).
Finally, it goes without saying that hopefully next year ESPN will release a much greater amount of coverage from the 2005 WSOP. I'd be interested in picking up a multi-disc set (ten DVDs, maybe?) of coverage from the 2005 WSOP, hopefully including coverage of a lot more events besides the Main Event (Omaha, Hi/Lo, all the Hold'em events, etc).
Once again, I'm extremely impressed with the DVD set and strongly recommend it to everyone, both the hardcore poker fanatics and the casual amateur. Check out ESPNshop.com or championshipdvd.com to order.
posted by Performify at 4:20 PM
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