Full Tilt Wins Heads-Up Championship
Concept of competition reproves it\’s a good thing

The Final Four is set … and PokerStars, Ultimate Bet, and Bodog have all been fully eliminated. The upcoming matches:

Phil Ivey vs. Chris Ferguson
Huck Seed vs. Andy Bloch

Holy crap, it looks like it will be some actual hardcore competition amongst four notably accomplished players. Who woulda thunk it?

Also totally shocking commendable is that CardPlayer\’s coverage is kicking butt …

Their play-by-play live updates are solid, good photos finding their way upline quickly, and their video footage is pretty interesting. Amazing what can happen when you have competition as opposed to exclusive coverage rights. There are other operations covering this event, but I have had no reason to check them out, because CP is giving me all I need. Seriously, the media set-up here … no exclusivity … we all have badges that say \”all access\” … and it\’s just like old times, with reporters sharing information and none of us abusing our badges to run across the NBC set. Interesting model …

Also curious about what sorta biz set-up CP has with NBC. CardPlayer TV has to have some sort of agreement in place, because they are running around with their own HD-cams, doing good preview-promotional stuff, complete with NBC logos … in a way that should encourage folks to tune in to the production-delayed telecast to see the actual hands, which is about all that CardPlayer isn\’t (allowed to?) mess with.