How to Improve Televised Poker

[Frank Zappy]

One of the main problems with the coverage seems to be where it falls on the: Sport/Game continuum.

ESPN treats it like a results oriented sport and gives zero weight to anything that might even be remotely educational or informational, and they can rightly say that since they covered Chris Moneymaker in 2003 attendance at the ME has skyrocketed. The new attendance is all due to ESPN and virtually all of the new attendees secretly admire Moneymakers run in 2003.

Is the viewing audience ready for the type of hand analysis featured here?

Is it something that you’d even like to see or would you give Hannibal Lecter’s answer to Clarisse on how he would improve FBI profiling: “I wouldn’t”

[Rosencrantz1]

I don't think you're going to see ESPN move to the kind of coverage that the average 2+2er would want to see. The audience for such an in-depth analysis is limited and although it certainly seems like poker is everywhere, the truth is that most people who watch poker on TV probably aren't very serious players. To an average, non-playing (or extremely-casually-playing) viewer, commentary that is in the vein of the MTT forum just wouldn't fly.

[unfrgvn]

[ QUOTE ]
the truth is that most people who watch poker on TV probably aren't very serious players. To an average, non-playing (or extremely-casually-playing) viewer, commentary that is in the vein of the MTT forum just wouldn't fly.

[/ QUOTE ]

I hear this all the time, but I work with people who love poker and people who play a little or know nothing about poker. Not one of the casual or know nothing people watch the WSOP or WPT, while all of the hardcore players watch. Does anyone know someone who is not into poker who is watching the WSOP?

[MafiaPrince]

"Does anyone know someone who is not into poker who is watching the WSOP?"

No but i know A LOT of people that weren't into poker that started because of watching the WSOP...

[dogdrool]

I think the winning format is along the lines of reality tv. It's not the excitement of all-ins or people winning that will keep viewers. It's not the analysis of the odds or the correct play. It's the mixture of personalities, funny stories and statements, high emotion, luck, real-world effects of outcomes, etc.

Basically, it's sorta like Amazing Race.

[RobTheDuck]

Compare it to when you're playing: how many times do you C-bet the flop, everyone folds, and you drag a small pot? (Yawn!) What about when you go all-in with JJ, get called by KK and spike a J? It never gets old. Same when you double up with aces. These are the reasons TV poker shows the hands they show - audiences love to see big bluffs succeed, big bluffs fail, and players doubling up. Who would want to watch hand after hand of grind it out poker? The PPT is okay when it comes to this, and High Stakes Poker is great, but as far as the WSOP coverage - the average viewer wants to see the final table, which is why they cut so much of the tournament out - so we can get to the FT as quickly as possible.

[LayZ]

I don't need to see in depth analysis, but I'd like to be able to tell how much the bet size is in relation to the pot, and have the blinds and antes displayed all the time in tourney shows.

[Self Made]

[ QUOTE ]
The new attendance is all due to ESPN

[/ QUOTE ]

It's actually due to the hole-card cam. If someone else had the WSOP broadcast contract, attendance would still have soared in the last few years.


It's always hard to speak to what other people will like and watch. For myself I find ESPN's all-in fest, with no context to the hands, no telling the poker story of the table, to be boring. And I suspect that it minimizes the number of people who become interested in poker (not reduces to zero, just minimizes when compared to what a better broadcast would do).

I wish broadcasters would concentrate on the basics. E.g. showing all the hole cards for any hand they choose to show. Showing more (ideally all) the hands. Telling the story of one table well, rather than flitting all over the Rio like ESPN does. And announcing the action or having onscreen graphics for it (e.g. blinds, bet size, pot size, etc.).

[BartHanson]

This thread might be of interest on this topic:

http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/showfl...rue#Post6609085

[Willy]

How large is the audience for the Full Tilt tournaments where Howard Lederer gives an analysis of the hands but they show every hand so you can the feel for the table dynamics. Not large I would guess since Full Tilt has to pay to have aired.
I think that would answer the question.