im sick of the \'sad life stories\' during wsop telecasts
 

wtf, im a caring and emotional type of guy, but all these sad life stories are too much for me to take. like last week that little tidbit about the guy playing in the wsop is going to die in less than 6 months. and today the little kid with the distorted face. i mean, this is poker, im drunk and high watching this,, this is not Oprah for crying out loud! Seriously. total buzz kill.

ps-- and trust me im not the [censored] type, i just think there is a time and place for everything.

Re: im sick of the \'sad life stories\' during wsop telecasts
 

What is the point of these stories? You're not going to get people to watch WSOP for these stories, and the typical audience doesn't want these stories.

Re: im sick of the \'sad life stories\' during wsop telecasts
 

I hope I'm seated next to Willaim Rockwell in my first main event. I would like nothing more than to handle cards that have been in the grasp of his feet.

Re: im sick of the \'sad life stories\' during wsop telecasts
 

Did you know your ass is cleaner than your hands?

Re: im sick of the \'sad life stories\' during wsop telecasts
 

[ QUOTE ]
Did you know your ass is cleaner than your hands?

[/ QUOTE ]

Awesome.

Re: im sick of the \'sad life stories\' during wsop telecasts
 

That burn victim is going to give me nightmares

Re: im sick of the \'sad life stories\' during wsop telecasts
 

[ QUOTE ]
wtf, im a caring and emotional type of guy, but all these sad life stories are too much for me to take. like last week that little tidbit about the guy playing in the wsop is going to die in less than 6 months. and today the little kid with the distorted face. i mean, this is poker, im drunk and high watching this,, this is not Oprah for crying out loud! Seriously. total buzz kill.

ps-- and trust me im not the [censored] type, i just think there is a time and place for everything.

[/ QUOTE ]

I agree. I'm a compassionate guy and I've certainly had my share of medical problems but enough is enough. I'm watching this to be entertained, not to have nightmares from that poor kids' burns. That was the wrong time and place.

Re: im sick of the \'sad life stories\' during wsop telecasts
 

I hate these segments, just show the [censored] hands please. KTHXBYE

Re: im sick of the \'sad life stories\' during wsop telecasts
 

This was the kind of feature they should've stuck into the Sunday night SportsCenter with Chris Connelly.

Edit: I've got no problem with the special interest features during the WSOP. However, the Sunday Sportscenter has done plenty of these type of features, why wasn't this one of them?

Re: im sick of the \'sad life stories\' during wsop telecasts
 

And you're getting a few days to think of other places to belong.

Re: im sick of the \'sad life stories\' during wsop telecasts
 

removed due to edit of previous post.

Re: im sick of the \'sad life stories\' during wsop telecasts
 

me? what about you?

Re: im sick of the \'sad life stories\' during wsop telecasts
 

[ QUOTE ]
This was the kind of feature they should've stuck into the Sunday night SportsCenter with Chris Connelly.

Edit: I've got no problem with the special interest features during the WSOP. However, the Sunday Sportscenter has done plenty of these type of features, why wasn't this one of them?

[/ QUOTE ]

my biggest problem with this type of feature is that it does not belong on a poker show. Poker is about gambling, vegas, drinking, balling out, Milwaukees Best etc... Stories about people about to die or miracle survivors does not belong. I seriously had a major buzz kill seeing that poor kids burnt face, jesus. Im still on tilt.

Re: im sick of the \'sad life stories\' during wsop telecasts
 

I hate that [censored] too. I hope they would just have confidence in poker being entertaining by itself without gimmicks.

Re: im sick of the \'sad life stories\' during wsop telecasts
 

That is the exact thing I thought when the story began, but as soon as they showed the kid, my heart went out to him and I was really glad that they showed it. And I'm a jaded, effed up individual. I only wish I had the courage that kid displayed to move forward. Half the time, I'm to lazy to even do anything, much less battle some horrific stuff like that. Respect, kid, respect.

Re: im sick of the \'sad life stories\' during wsop telecasts
 

I think they should show about one of these per *series* not like 5 per episode. Also would be nice if they only did background stories on people who wound up making it deep. I don't really care to hear the sob story of a shmuck who's just dead money and busts out in a few hands, that's just pathetic that all this person could do with their sad life is waste $10k for a few miserable hours of being pushed around at a poker table.

Re: im sick of the \'sad life stories\' during wsop telecasts
 

2003 was the WSOP glory days every table stacked with pros and semi pros. At least double maybe even triple the hands shown per episode, no war amp champs, accident survivors, stinky englishmen or other sob stories to waste our time.

Re: im sick of the \'sad life stories\' during wsop telecasts
 

I also grow tired of them.

I like the rest of you can't figure out why they think the audiance wnats this. I guess they figure people will grow tired of "pure" poker for the entire broadcast, but heck isn't that why people are tuning in, it is a poker tournament.... I can tolerate a few fluff pieces on the bigger names (for example the "impressions" skit was funny and poker related)

However they put some random sob story in every broadcast (no disrespect to anybody). The story about the man dying of brain cancer was very, very sad and bummed me out, and the story about the burn victim child was also pretty blindsiding... I can see how it could be very upsetting to the squimish or sensitive types.

I guess they try to put a feel good spin on it, but jeez. The target tv audiance of poker is young to middle aged males (mostly) and I don't know why ESPN does this.

Re: im sick of the \'sad life stories\' during wsop telecasts
 

[ QUOTE ]
I guess they try to put a feel good spin on it, but jeez. The target tv audiance of poker is young to middle aged males (mostly) and I don't know why ESPN does this.

[/ QUOTE ]

Because those males are going to watch the show anyway. They are the built-in audience that the production doesn't need to do that much "extra" to cater to. Those features are designed to appeal to the rest of the potential viewership, who aren't automatically going to tune in every week.

And like it or not, most of the people who did watch, when they're discussing the show at work tomorrow, aren't going to be analyzing the poker play; they're going to be talking about the burn victim. If there is one thing that TV producers know to be true, it's that people like a story.

Re: im sick of the \'sad life stories\' during wsop telecasts
 

the WSOP broadcasts have turned to dog[censored] and it's another TV show I just cannot watch anymore...

looks like the only show I can stomach recently is Laguna Beach

Re: im sick of the \'sad life stories\' during wsop telecasts
 

[ QUOTE ]
wtf, im a caring and emotional type of guy, but all these sad life stories are too much for me to take. like last week that little tidbit about the guy playing in the wsop is going to die in less than 6 months. and today the little kid with the distorted face. i mean, this is poker, im drunk and high watching this,, this is not Oprah for crying out loud! Seriously. total buzz kill.

ps-- and trust me im not the [censored] type, i just think there is a time and place for everything.

[/ QUOTE ]



I've never seen LATB but that seems like "just poker". If that is correct maybe you should just watch thatt. But when someone has friends pitch in 10k for someone to play cards who won't be on this Earth in a year I think I can deal with it.

Then you've got DN who bothers a lot of people around here.... does a lot for many people. So you've got this young man who has his body burned up and wants to meet Daniel. What's the big deal? If it bothers you that much go get another beer from the fridge, come on back and enjoy some poker.

Re: im sick of the \'sad life stories\' during wsop telecasts
 

[ QUOTE ]
Did you know your ass is cleaner than your hands?

[/ QUOTE ]

I'm just surprised that you would admit to this close an examination of his ass.

Re: im sick of the \'sad life stories\' during wsop telecasts
 

[ QUOTE ]

I like the rest of you can't figure out why they think the audiance wnats this. I guess they figure people will grow tired of "pure" poker for the entire broadcast, but heck isn't that why people are tuning in, it is a poker tournament....

[/ QUOTE ]

I think the problem is that the field is so huge that its simply impossible to cover as a competitive event (particularly in the early days) in any way that makes sense.

So instead they're looking for stories to tell. Some of the stories are "here's an interesting hand that occurred, although we can't put it into any kind of context because of the size of the field at this point." Some of the stories are ... other things.

--Zetack

Re: im sick of the \'sad life stories\' during wsop telecasts
 

I'd rather see clips of Phil Ivey living the baller lifestyle.

Re: im sick of the \'sad life stories\' during wsop telecasts
 

I'd rather see Foucault busting cripples.

Re: im sick of the \'sad life stories\' during wsop telecasts
 

I thought there was already a thread about "why does Randy Jensen get so much attention"

oops my bad...

Re: im sick of the \'sad life stories\' during wsop telecasts
 

I agree with you 100%.. These broadcasts are now only tolerable thanks to the magic of a DVR. A 1 hour broadcast transforms into a 30 minute poker show. I just can't stand all that "feel good" stuff; send it to Harpo Productions, PLEASE!