Television viewer ratings for Tuesday’s telecast on ESPN of the World Series of Poker (WSOP) final table were up about 50% over last year’s telecast, ESPN announced.

ESPN credited the ratings increase mainly to the fact that the telecast aired on the same day final table play finished instead of months later, as had been done in the past.

Final table play ended early Tuesday morning, and the telecast was shown Tuesday night in prime time.

The number of viewers who watched young upstart Peter Eastgate of Denmark win the WSOP Main Event, a championship gold bracelet and more than $9 million in cash was higher than ESPN’s ratings average for regular-season Major League Baseball and National Basketball Association games last=A0season, ESPN said.

About 1.9 million households tuned in to watch the final table Tuesday, compared with 1.25 million households in=A02007, ESPN said.

“What you did was create a must-see television event, which wasn’t the case the past few years when you knew who the winner was,” WSOP spokesman Seth Palansky said. “It was that whole who will win element.”

Palansky declined to say whether the WSOP will delay the final table again in 2009.

Earlier this year, however, the WSOP said television ratings would be a factor in that=A0decision.

(E-mail Tom Somach at tomsomach@yahoo.com.)