HSP Season II Wrap Up

[Rottersod]

Now that season 2 has finished airing I've been thinking about what we saw and who the big winners and losers were and just as important for an ongoing TV series with repeating characters, who came across better or worse to the TV audience.

Big Money Winners:
Gus
Phil

Big Money Losers:
Daniel
Mike

Did they win, lose or draw?:
Eli (probably down)
Jen (up)
Ted (can't recall)
John J (up a little)
Eric L (up a little)
Antonio (up? How much?)
Doyle (can't recall)
Todd (down. how much?)
Sam F (down)
Zeidman, Booth, Chamenara, and the other one (who knows?)
David G (who cares?)
Grinder (can't recall)
Daniel A (same as above)
Mihn (same as above)
Barry (same as above)

Who came off better for the TV audience:

Eric played well and had enough aggressiveness to show that he can play at this level but he still sometimes had that "deer in the headlights" look. Overall I think he made a good impression.

Jen Harmon showed that she has the game and mind set to play all the time at these levels (and indeed she does so). A good mix of aggressive playing.

Antonio played well and showed that he can read others very well but he is clearly playing out of his comfort level. Still, he came across well on TV.

Barry played good solid poker and was willing to tighten up his game to accommodate the looseness of the others in order to maximize his pay-outs. It may not make for exciting TV except when he does end up getting paid. He also had some funny stories and seemed generally more relaxed this season.

Ted Forrest came off as a guy that just knows how to play, period. A guy you want to stay away from and one with a killer poker attitude. The one thing that may have brought his likability down was the last 2 episodes where he seemed out of sorts, like he wasn't feeling well. He also seemed not to like having David Grey to his right talking to him the whole time. I also get the impression that Ted prefers to sit at the table ends rather than in the middle so he doesn't have to swivel his head around as much. He seemed to be doing a lot of squinting the last 2 shows. That's just my 2 cents from watching on TV.

Mihn came across quite well in his short appearances. He really turned his game up a notch.

Who came off worse for the TV audience:

This may be a tie between Daniel N, Mike the Mouth and Eli. Daniel just wore on people and was obviously titling at the end of the season (remember that this was actually just 3 days of poker). People soon forgot how many times he lost after flopping the nuts due to his seriously deluded plays later on.

Eli. What a tool. First he takes forever to do anything early in the season and then he becomes the human calling station. Some of his plays were incredibly dumb and he came across as a fish.

Mike. Ooh la la. What would a season of HSP be without a foil? Last season it was Phil Hellmuth and this time Mike provided the TV audience with a Shakespearean play throughout his time on HSP II. Hubris may soon be defined as "see Mike Matasow". And the fact that the other players actually paid him to stay and then raped him for all his money showed to everyone how easy it is to set him up for failure.

David Grey. Seriously, what was he doing on this show? He may have outdone Bob Stupak as the most annoying guy on the table because Stupak usually wasn't even sitting at the table.

Semi Annoying:

Phil Laak. Can this guy get a sentence out of his mouth that makes sense? He was a major luckbox or else someone donked off his chips to him (he should be giving Mike 25% of that pot as a thank you) and had a C list celeb/GF looking over his shoulder whenever he got involved in large pots like she was staking him.

My hope is that for season III the producers pay more attention to the table makeup, especially at the beginning. At the beginning of the season this year there were too many tourney players playing out of their range and it took a while for the game to settle in. It would be a better show if they started with the seasoned high stakes pro's sprinkled with some newer faces and then have others join later on. Also, at least 1 less player at the table so that the game opens up a bit more.

Finally, cut out the props. They do nothing for the TV audience and distract from the game. I'd much rather hear the players discussing their hands or telling stories.

Oh yeah, the shots of the waitresses were great. Keep them coming. Maybe we can have a few lap dancers next season? That would be the icing.

I can't wait for season III.