One of the big news at WSOP 2026 was the return of ESPN in charge of the broadcasts. With that, the network presented a novelty that caught the attention of poker fans. It was possible to observe an artificial intelligence tool capable of analyzing possible ‘tells’ from players during the hands.
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Thus, the project was born from the hands of engineer Luke Geel. For this, he developed a model that evaluates facial expressions and other gestures of the competitors. Then, the technology associates these movements with the decisions made at the tables and creates patterns for each situation.
However, the tool still cannot operate during live matches. This is because the complete processing of the images requires several hours of analysis. Even so, ESPN used the technology on previously recorded hands during some broadcasts of the WSOP. This Friday (24), it will be possible to observe the novelty in the summary presented by Ari Aguiar and Sérgio Prado, on ESPN Brazil.
However, despite the interest generated by the novelty, Luke Geel made a point of clarifying the purpose of the project. “The intention is for this to be a fun complement to the experience of watching poker. I am not trying to destroy the game people love nor make poker a worse experience,” he said in a text on Poker.org.
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Another tool about to emerge
In addition, besides the technology focused on ‘tells’, Luke Geel is already working on another project aimed at the poker audience. The new software, called Poker Stream Clipper, promises to facilitate the technical review of recorded broadcasts and speed up the study of matches.
Thus, the tool will allow the user to choose a specific player and automatically find all the hands played by him. After that, the program will separate each confrontation into individual clips, making the analysis much faster and more organized.
Finally, although the Poker Stream Clipper is still under development, the arrival of artificial intelligence to the broadcasts of the WSOP shows that new solutions can quickly gain space in poker coverage. With that, the technology tends to expand analysis options both for fans and content creators.
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