HSP: Why do you watch?

[FGators]

Serious question. Immediately when I first learned of this program, what is it now three years ago, I immediately thought it would be a tremendous tool, almost like a free coaching session, to improve my cash game play. After all I would have access to 14-16 episodes of the very best NL hold'em players playing their own money. I could see how different styles worked and I could lock into my brain different lines to take with different hands/situations.

Well, as we hit the middle point of season four this is clearly very wrong on so many levels. Instead it should be used as a tool of how to NOT play NL Hold'em cash games. It is almost like that book, "Poker for Dummies", as GSN is showing dummies at work and giving you a blueprint for blowing a poker bankroll. (Hey, if you want to just follow Elezra, Safai, Gold, Baxter, Brandon, Farha, Negreanu (at times throughout the run of season 1 through 4, much less to a degree this year), as well as Laak/Harman's nittiness which is straight rejection of Doyle's old school 'don't be like Broomcorn's Uncle.'--(In Harman/Laak's case we don't know how many hands they actually played and I understand being card dead against this group is rough so me berating their play is a little harsh probably).

But still, why do you watch? Is it hopeless to gain any "skills" from this show?

Is this season better for having more entertainment with the big pots and big plays with guys calling 12k before the flop with J3 diamonds, limp/callng $3500 with 62o, having no concept of pot control, calling draws with very poor odds, etc. or worse?

[ibluffoldladies]

Serious Answer: I watch because I don't expect television entertainment to teach me how to play poker. If you're watching these entertainment productions so that you can learn poker strategy, you should really off yourself.

[FGators]

Well I'm trying to get into the producers heads here...why do they put these players on TV? I thought it was to show the best poker players in the world in action throwing around tons of money? Doesn't it make the producers look like frauds when they witness the poker played so far this season?

[Shaqizzle]

For one, I love seeing peoples faces when they lose 6 figures, such as Mike Baxter did to Phil Hellmuth.

His face was pretty priceless. Well I guess not but you know..

[ibluffoldladies]

[ QUOTE ]
Well I'm trying to get into the producers heads here...why do they put these players on TV? I thought it was to show the best poker players in the world in action throwing around tons of money? Doesn't it make the producers look like frauds when they witness the poker played so far this season?

[/ QUOTE ]

The players are encouraged to gamble it up for entertainment value. Do you realize how boring it would be if everybody played "proper" poker?

[Suigin406]

purely entertainment value, it's fun to see big pots with sick/weird plays...

fwiw, i never thought i would gain any 'skills' from watching these shows...that's what the strat forums are here for [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

[GoBucksIndy]

Entertainment

[hamsamich]

FG...
I think it may be more important to mention why I DON'T watch HSP based on your post. I do not watch HSP to learn how to play or to try to improve my game. First off, there is an element of entertainment here that cannot be ignored. This is not simply a cash game that there happens to be a camera rolling for. The SOLE purpose of this game is for it to be televised. The players are very aware of that and it is impacting some, if not most, of the way the hands are being played IMO.

OK so to answer your question, why do I watch? Simple, I like watching a game that I play for money being played at a level and with an amount of money that I could NEVER play it at (barring the stray lottery that decides to hit me..lol).

I don't really mind if the play isn't on par with what some folks think the 'greatest players in the world' should be capable of. I am watching to see those big pots where the guy has outs.

There are a few things that I don't like about the show but they aren't really about the play.

1) The abusive over the top needling. A little bit of table talk is fine but some of the stuff that players have said to one another is way over the line IMO
2) Phil Hel..........................
3) Gabe & AJ talking over some the of the actual interesting table talk. We aren't watching a live show so there really should be no need to struggle to hear a great story by Doyle with the nonsense from the box.
4) Prop bets - taken care of. But now we have slowed the play down to a crawl this season with the running it twice /insurance BS. Something needs to be done to keep the game moving at all times. Between this nonsense and commercials it's killing the # hands per show we are getting to see.

[Chilltown]

The players.

All are high stakes players...a lot of em are gamblers, most of em are fun to watch in any hand. Although Sammy is a fun player to watch he's a train wreck when losing. Daniel, Doyle, Phils, Antonio, the Mouth, Jamie Gold f the haters he's entertaining, Eli has his moments...

Fun times.

[Bluegrass Poker]

I'm pretty sure they don't feel like frauds. I don't believe they set out to film an instructional video series. They wanted to film an entertaining show that would garner the highest ratings it could muster.

As much as I love poker I have no desire to watch a quiet game full of serious poker players. I enjoy seeing the Matusow and Hellmuth blowups, and seeing Sammy and Eli play these stakes like they are playing 1/2 instead of 300/600.

Everyone has their own opinion but I like the way it is. I agree with the others that getting rid of prop bets was great and getting rid of insurance would be great too. [ QUOTE ]
Well I'm trying to get into the producers heads here...why do they put these players on TV? I thought it was to show the best poker players in the world in action throwing around tons of money? Doesn't it make the producers look like frauds when they witness the poker played so far this season?

[/ QUOTE ]