Is the world ready for live poker coverage? And for that matter, will it even work?

ESPN is going to find out as it announced Wednesday that the cable network will be greatly increasing its coverage of the World Series of Poker, which begins May 30.

The live part of all this is the most intriguing, and in truth, we’re really talking about “almost’ live

First, the network will cover the Main Event from July 14-19 while the tournament is underway (the main event begins July 7). In the past, the network waited until after the final nine was set to begin airing programs.

The key, will be that the broadcasts will be on a 30-minute delay, so that live hole cards can still be shown. That’s an important point. It wasn’t until the “lipstick cam” was invented and hole cards could be shown that poker became a popular TV show.

But of course, if you showed the hole cards completely live, the amount of signaling going on from the gallery would be dizzying.

The network is adding 32 more hours of coverage across its networks and Web site this year. Last year, we made the mistake of scoffing at the idea that the network could spread coverage of the Main Event over three months of shows. Yet, that’s just what they did.

We won’t make that mistake again.

Apparently, there is no end to how long they can milk this thing.

Here’s the rundown on the coverage from the WSOP.

The WSOP has announced its schedule for 2011 and already its causing a little controversy.

The WSOP will have 58 bracelet events, up one from last year, and the $10,000 main event will begin July 7. The WSOP’s first event will be May 31.

Added this year is a $25,000 Heads-Up No Limit Hold’em Championship.

You can get the new schedule here.

As for the controversy, it’s pretty minor.

According to Pokernewsdaily.com:

One matter that drew a lot of criticism from some players was the adjacent scheduling of the $5,000 No Limit Hold’em event (#4), which begins on June 2nd at Noon, and the $10,000 Pot Limit Omaha World Championship (Event #7), which kicks off the next day at 5pm. The concern is that the two events are among the favorites of the pros and some may be forced to miss the Pot Limit Omaha World Championship if they’re still playing in the $5,000 No Limit Hold’em event.

You can read about this earth-shaking problem here.

And why are we giving you info on this, shudder, Las Vegas based tournament?

Well, there should be some pretty good satellite action at both Caesars and Harrah’s Resort in A.C. for the WSOP main event in the next few months.

And lets face it, The WSOP is kind of big and attracts a lot of AC talent, along with players around the country.

There’s just no use fighting it.