ESPN columnist and host Bernard Lee takes us on an exclusive backstage tour of the World Series of Poker Main Event. Lee is the co-host of the ESPN.com poker news show “The Inside Deal” as well as a professional poker player who has multiple deep runs in the Main Event in the last 10 years.
Lee takes us on a tour of how the stage was constructed to hold both the November Nine broadcast as well as the Poker Hall of Fame ceremonies which took place in the same spot. From the Rio Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada at the Penn & Teller Theater, Lee takes us through how they constructed the set as well as the various viewpoints on media row and the stands.
“As you can see they are gearing up for Saturday’s Main Event and we are basically sitting in the position that Soi Nguyen will be in at seat number nine. We are on the stage and you can see all the seats where the crowd and all the family and friends will be… You can also see how big the theater is for the November Nine. Media row is in the middle and then there are two tiers of seating.”
Lee goes on to show audiences the physical final table and goes through the seats and who sat where at the table. He also shows one of the ESPN cameras that are situated around the final table that shows a split-screen four ways. Several of these cameras are around the stage along with a camera directly above the table pointed down to show the table cards and flop, turn and river. Finally, he shows the stage where both Lon McEachern and Norman Chad do their introductions for the broadcast from and wraps up by showing more of the audience vantage points and media row where both ESPN and Poker News Daily staff sat to watch the festivities.
Bernard Lee is an accomplished professional poker player, as well as a poker media journalist for our site as well as ESPN.com. He is also the official spokesperson for Foxwoods Casino.