World Series of Poker Main Event final table moves to July

[...] this year’s Main Event will be played July 8-17 — not November, as it has in the past.

In another big change, the WSOP has inked a four-year TV extension with ESPN and PokerCentral.com, greatly expanding virtually live coverage of the Main Event (gambling regulations require a 30-minute delay, so no TV coverage is purely live).

In recent years, ESPN has not covered the first days of the WSOP Main Event, and the sports network broadcasts coverage of later rounds of the tournament several weeks after play.

[...] the WSOP has instituted new rules to speed up play.

Giving players two minutes before clock could be called led some players to take the entire time to make decisions.

Daniel Negreanu, one of poker’s leading money winners, agreed, calling the clock changes “fantastic and long overdue.”