Taken from a post from Andrew Feldman over at Pokerroad\’s forum, the first question that comes up, why wasn\’t this considered last year?:
ESPN.com Announces New Web-Only Original Poker Show, ESPN Inside Deal
ESPN.com is expanding its poker coverage with ESPN Inside Deal presented by PokerStars.net, an original web-only weekly poker show on ESPN.com that will debut Tuesday, August 4. The show – co-hosted by ESPN The Magazine contributor Laura Lane, professional poker player and ESPN.com columnist Bernard Lee and ESPN.com poker editor Andrew Feldman – will not only feature some of the biggest players in the game and cover poker news each week, but take an inside look at the lifestyle in the world of poker.
The three-month series will conclude with the completion of the World Series of Poker main event final table and along the way will interview and analyze each of the remaining nine competitors. In addition to original Inside Deal content, viewers will also see never-before seen hands and features from the World Series of Poker broadcasts.
Throughout the series, fans will be able to submit questions to their favorite pros via email, Twitter and Facebook. Fans will also be given an exclusive chance to participate in a sweepstakes where one lucky winner will experience the November Nine in a unique way.
The featured guest for the first show will be Chris Moneymaker, the 2003 World Series of Poker main event champion. Moneymaker turned a $39 satellite victory on PokerStars.net into a $10,000 WSOP seat and then into $2.5 million after defeating 839 players in his first WSOP appearance. He is frequently credited with sparking the poker boom in the United States, often referred to as the “Moneymaker effect.†Others featured players for Inside Deal will include Daniel Negreanu and Joseph Hachem.