NOVEMBER 2, 2009 - 2:31:27 PM PST CALDWELL'S MAILBAG #2 by: John Caldwell

With the November Nine approaching us, I figured we would stick with November Nine-centric questions. I’ll be at the November Nine, and at the Hall of Fame dinner. If you have questions for a Hall of Famer – hit me up and I’ll try to get it answered. mailbag@wsop.com

It seems these days everyone is wearing a logo for an online poker room. I noticed on ESPN that Darvin Moon is not wearing one. Why is this? (Patricia, Charleston WV)

To this point, Darvin has chosen not to endorse an online poker room. While this may seem like free money to some, when you’re down to the final nine players, one of the functions of value to the online poker room is the continued endorsement of the player.

Darvin is a really simple guy who has gone on record as saying he’s not interested in traveling the world playing poker (one of the functions of being an endorsee). Because he’s not interested in continuing endorsement, a lot of the value for the online poker room is eliminated, and as such, the financial compensation being presented to him is likely not enough to interest him in being involved. In all likelihood, he’s going to make a couple million dollars on November 10^{th, and so he obviously doesn’t feel like the trouble is worth the extra money.}

^{Certainly, there’s still a few more days for an online room to put together a deal for him for the November Nine, but time is running out. I commend Darvin for sticking to his guns, especially on days five and six of the Main Event, where its not yet clear that you’re going to make a lot of money, and the offers out there to endorse for players still in the tournament are pretty substantial relative to the amount of money you’re guaranteed.}

^{For most, getting paid to travel the world and play poker is a dream (note: Where do I sign up for this gig??), but Darvin has a different dream and you’ve got to respect that.}

^{Why isn’t the final table shown live on television? Certainly, there seems to be enough interest. (Gabe, Casper WY)}

^{In my opinion, this is the biggest challenge TV poker faces. If you’ve ever been to a live poker event, you know that 90% of the time is spent playing hands where nothing happens. Raise, fold-fold-fold simply isn’t good television. Although poker is a game, and not a sport, it is marketed like a sport. All the other major sports have figured out how to fit a single contest into a nice, neat three-hour package. Poker will simply never be able to do that and as such, it must be presented in a different way.}

^{That is one of the reasons why I am a fan of the November Nine format. If viewers want to, they can put themselves in a ‘hole’ for 18 hours or so, and not look at any results until they watch the results unfold on ESPN on November 10th. With the old format, you would have to put yourself in a hole for four months, which is obviously not practical.}

^{Frankly, watching a poker tournament live can be mind-numbingly boring (trust me, I’ve reported on over 100), and I think the current solution is the best that we can do and still put the results out in a timely manner.}

^{Do you have a question? Get in in to mailbag@wsop.com where it may be answered in a future column.}