ESPN announced plans to boost its coverage of the World Series of Poker, less than one month after backing away from two online poker companies considered heavily influential in the industry and indirectly connected to the event. The cable network said that in addition to normal weekly coverage starting in July, it planned 34 hours of semi-live television coverage for the series’ no-limit Texas Hold ’em main event on ESPN2 and ESPN. The coverage in real time will be on a 30-minute tape delay with hole cards shown. The programming move with the World Series of Poker is also significant because poker isn’t normally aired live or near-live with hole cards shown. After the April 15 indictments in federal court in New York, ESPN said it was moving quickly to remove TV shows and Web content related to the companies. Full Tilt and PokerStars were among its sponsors for poker programming. Episodes of the North American Poker Tour — a live tournament organized by PokerStars — were pulled last month, according to the AP.