With less than three weeks until the start of the 2012 World Series of Poker (WSOP), it is now permissible to begin getting excited for the annual poker festival. Before the party ends, ESPN will once again begin its broadcasts of the WSOP, starting with a special airing of the Big One for ONE DROP tournament on July 3rd.
The Big One for ONE DROP will be the richest poker tournament in history, featuring a $1,000,000 buy-in and, to this point, a 30-player field. With $111,111 of the buy-in going to ONE DROP, a charitable organization which seeks to provide access to clean, drinkable water to people around the world, the prize pool has already reached $26,666,670. If the tournament stays at its current size, the winner will receive $12,266,668.20, which would break the record of $12,000,000, set by Jamie Gold when he won the 2006 WSOP Main Event.
The tournament is a three-day event beginning on July 1st. ESPN and ESPN3 will air the final day of the event “virtually live,” employing just a 15-minute delay. That will be it for the WSOP broadcast until July 31st, when ESPN will return with its two-hour, edited shows, starting with that same Big One for ONE DROP.
Just two other events will be show on “the mothership.” The WSOP National Championship, which will feature the top 100 qualifiers from the 2011-2012 WSOP Circuit tour, will grace television sets on August 7th. From there, it is the Main Event every Tuesday night through October 30th.
That final broadcast is the Main Event final table, and is the only other broadcast after the first one that will be “virtually live.”
This year’s schedule continues ESPN’s trend of showing very few preliminary events. 2008 was when the preliminary event broadcasts began to decrease, dropping to seven from ten the previous year. That number was chopped to just three in 2009 and then two in 2010. Last year, three events besides the Main Event were aired, but in 2012, ESPN is opting to show just the Big One and the WSOP National Championship.
2012 World Series of Poker ESPN Broadcast Schedule
| Date | Time (ET) | Event | Network |
| July 3 | 3 p.m., 8 p.m.* | The Big One For One Drop | ESPN3/ESPN |
| July 31 | 8-10 p.m. | The Big One For One Drop | ESPN |
| August 7 | 8-10 p.m. | WSOP National Championship | ESPN |
| August 14 | 8-10 p.m. | WSOP Main Event | ESPN |
| August 21 | 8-10 p.m. | WSOP Main Event | ESPN |
| August 28 | 8-10 p.m. | WSOP Main Event | ESPN |
| September 5 | 8-10 p.m. | WSOP Main Event | ESPN |
| September 11 | 8-10 p.m. | WSOP Main Event | ESPN |
| September 18 | 8-10 p.m. | WSOP Main Event | ESPN |
| September 25 | 8-10 p.m. | WSOP Main Event | ESPN |
| October 2 | 9-11 p.m. | WSOP Main Event | ESPN |
| October 9 | 9-11 p.m. | WSOP Main Event | ESPN |
| October 16 | 9-11 p.m. | WSOP Main Event | ESPN |
| October 23 | 9-11 p.m. | WSOP Main Event | ESPN |
| October 30 | 9 p.m.* | WSOP Main Event Final Table | ESPN |
*denotes live event with no set end time