Building the EpiCenter Stage

Epic Poker’s goal, from the start, has been to elevate professional tournament poker to the level of major sporting events. The “voice” of that message has been Commissioner Annie Duke, Executive Chairman Jeffrey Pollack, the League’s policies and treatment of players, and, hopefully, EpicPoker.com. The “face” of that message is “the Set.”

When CBS and Velocity broadcast these final two days of play, the Set (the current name for the final table, the second and third feature tables, the commentator area, and the spectator seating) will highlight poker as a sporting contest in the same way as Centre Court at Wimbledon, the 18th green at Augusta National, Fenway Park, and the Staples Center.

This is a tall order, but it has been central to Epic Poker’s message from the start: poker as sport, and championship poker as the sporting pinnacle. The conception, design, and execution of the Set has been a year-long process, sprung from the talents of set designer Steve Bass, television producer David Neal, 441 Productions, Jeffrey Pollack, Annie Duke, and Katherine Kowal.

Bass, who has designed stages for the Grammys, the Olympics, and most recently for the Oscars, said “the goal from the beginning has been to elevate the poker tournament experience to a new level we haven’t seen before.” He described Epic’s assignment as “rebranding poker as a sport. Bring in the elements we see from the sports world.”

It is a worthy goal. Watching the first two days of this Main Event in person, one cannot help but be impressed how poker, especially in short-handed play, is a brutal form of mental combat. At this level, poker is much more about ambition, perception, and testing an opponent’s will than it is about the cards. Regardless of the particular hands broadcast from this Set, in most poker hands, the cards are never seen and the winner is determined by which player proves he or she wants the contested chips more. In the hands where the cards are shown down, the result is altered – in magnitude, outcome, or both – by the players’ mental fortitude.

If the past two days have taught me anything, it is that something as simple as the act of betting in poker can be as jarring to an opponent as a jab to the gut and, despite the composure of the person on the defensive in both situations, it is impossible to hide completely the pain and the feeling of inadequacy that comes from having your boundary invaded.

Poker at its highest level is sport and the Set has successfully adapted the sports aesthetic to poker’s needs. Familiar elements include a hardwood floor, a center-court circular design, Jumbotron-style displays, and coliseum seating.

The blonde hardwood floor is like center court at the Staples Center. This feeling of a somehow intimate basketball arena is enforced by the hardwood being circular, inlaid with a red ring, an aluminum ring, and surrounded by another red ring. Outside the circle, the floor is black marble. The three walls look like stacked onyx tiles. Spectators above those walls look down on the action or across the Jumbotron-style displays. The borders of the arena are accented by Epic Poker banners and stout pillars that look like onyx tiles, wood-grain of glowing teak, and red and silver rings.

At the center of the circle? A poker table, the home for the resolution of Epic Poker’s Main Event. Celebrating the best in professional poker, the Set is an epicenter for mental athletes concluding the highest-quality sporting competition imaginable.

The Set is an appropriate mix between a poker room (where players play cards), an arena (where spectators, live or by broadcast, watch them), and a sporting center (where sporting competition is celebrated and displayed). At one end of the Set, Pat O’Brien and Ali Nejad will commentate for the broadcast on CBS and Velocity behind a tall, sleek black table. At the other end of the Set is the final table. In between – and below – are the second and third feature tables.

When I first saw the Set, I was awed by the final table and impressed by the studio and commentators area. It took me a little while to appreciate the second and third feature tables. The simplicity of the pair of tables (which are actually closer to the commentators than the final table and to spectators by the nine giant monitors suspended above the final table) eventually evokes a powerful image. Set as though in a well between the commentators area and the final table, it is a gladiatorial pit.

The goal, of course, is to survive to the end. Beyond the second and third tables is a large illuminated Epic Poker logo. Step up to the next level on either side and you are standing on black marble. Then the ring, then the hardwood circle, and then the final table.

These final eighteen players are engaged in a very personal mental battle. The Set is Epic Poker’s attempt both to present that battle, and to respect that it is about more than just the turn of the cards. The Set is where the eyes of the world can properly focus on competitors supporting their claim to be the best.