My idea to promote lasting interest in televised poker

[Apathy]

[ QUOTE ]
i think it'd be better to have an ongoing ratings system, more similar to tennis, than the current calendar-based POY contest.


it would also allow you to run a HU championship with a ready-made seeding system.


even a year-end HU championship with seednig based on the POY rankings would be interesting.

[/ QUOTE ]

that is a really excellent idea.


also GambleAB, I dont think you should be so negative about this. You say that the closest we will ever get is an outside source doing yearlong rankings but we ALREADY HAVE THAT. Surely both the WSOP and the WPT both have a common interest here. I mean if they care enough about preserving pokers popularity they should be willing to innovate and in some way work together, don;t you think?

[El Diablo]

Apathy,

I think it's in general a good idea, but I think the biggest challenge w/ something like this is the difference in luck factor with poker.

If you're a fan of Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson, you'll see one of your guys contending late in many tournaments. If you're a fan of Jeff Gordon and Dale Earnhart, Jr., you'll see one of your guys contending late in many races. I am not a golf or race fan, so besides Tiger, my examples might not be the right names right now - don't worry about that.

However, pick any two top poker pros and there's a good chance you don't see either of them at a final table for a number of weeks in a row. I think that makes developing a following based on this sort of stuff much tougher.

[Josem]

El D,

I think that's true.

I think that the only long term option to overcome this is to:

a) have regular "invite only" tourneys involving only the big pros (eg, Tennis - only the top players, plus some qualifiers, can play in the Australian Open)

b) for this to be worthwhile for pros, poker tournaments need to have prize money be funded by people other than the players themselves (eg, Tennis - they don't pay huge entry fees to play)

c) Heads Up games, with deeper stacks, to allow great players to use their skills more

Obviously, I think this is only viable with a massive increase in sponsorship.


To me, it seems crap that money from TV rights, sponsorship, etc, goes to the casino operators.

[svelte]

Interesting discussion. I heard somewhere that "they" are trying to add poker to the Olympics in the near future. Anyone know particulars on how this would work? Would the players be chosen to represent their respective countries in teams? What would be the format of play?

[Apathy]

I'm not really happy about this thread being moved out of NVG but maybe the right people read this forum too.

El D,

your examples are the exact reason why I think TV poker needs this. They should get a chance to see how the big stars are doing every week, even if they dont make the final table (which of course they often wont). You can say things like, "Nam Le won the 5k event just days before this one moving him up to second overall behind The grinder" and then have a 10 second interview with Nam. That kind of stuff could keep fans interested much the same way as fans are interested in the sports and players in the examples you gave.

[Apathy]

[ QUOTE ]
To me, it seems crap that money from TV rights, sponsorship, etc, goes to the casino operators.

[/ QUOTE ]

I couldnt agree more. Deals need to be negotiated where the casinos are convinced that they should hold the tournaments in their venues in return for positive publicity and advertising alone.

[Wetdog]

Trouble with that is, WPTE has the casinos locked up contractually. That's part of the lawsuit against them.