Poker on ESPN2

[eMarkM]

This is short notice, but in about an hour they're showing the 2002 World Poker Open on ESPN2. 4PM Eastern.

http://sports.espn.go.com/sports/tvlistings/index

[yct]

Darn, I missed this about 90 minutes. /forums/images/icons/frown.gif

[Ryan_21]

I actually got to watch this today, I always have my tvs on espn/espn2 even if im not watching them so I just accidentally ran into it. WTF was Seidel calling on that last hand for? The guy who won did the same crap (get up and sing and carry on) everytime he had a big hand. It was such an obvious tell. But I have no room to talk as Seidel has been there done that and I havent.

Ryan_21

[andyfox]

I love poker, I love talking about poker, I'm here almost every night, I visit RGP. But I've watched poker on TV a few times, including a bit of it today, and it's just a little bit less interesting than watching paint dry.

[mike l.]

im bummed i missed this even though im sure it's boring and lame as usual. when will it or some other poker be on again??

[Vehn]

Is there any way to make poker interesting for TV, do you think? Maybe the automated shuffle machine? I think watching a limit hold'em heads-up match between two experts using the shuffle machine would be great television.

[JTG51]

I don't know when It'll be on again, but this is the 3rd or 4th time they've shown that same tournament in my area. I'm getting sick of seeing Erik Seidel call off all of his chips on that last hand.t yet.

[JTG51]

If we could get you and Tommy to announce one of these final tables, I think it would be a lot more fun.

[andyfox]

They're running the Party Poker Million on TV on Sunday, part of the World Poker Tour I believe, which has not aired before. Not sure of time/channel.

[shogun]

You guys really don't like watching it on TV? What do you think could be done to make it better? I think poker is a people game and you just don't get enough about the people by only watching the final table played out, cut and spliced down to five or six key hands.

I think I would be more interested in everything if they showed from day one through the final table and gave more personality to the players and the game. I'd like to see some side action too. Everything about the tournament and not just the final table, that's the culmination, but it's not necessarily the key. I think someone from the World Poker Tour should get a survey going as to what people want to and don't want to see. I hate how they cut out hands for the tables. Can't we watch it live? They've got to be able to fill the time up with something, look at Golf. They go live for four full days, we can't get one?

[JustSomeJackass]

This Sunday night (not sure of exact time, but I want to say 8pm EST) they have a special on the Party Poker Million Cruise, followed by a show about the WSOP. I think each one is an hour long.

We,poker enthusiasts have to admit that watching our favorite game on TV is really quite boring. Unless one makes a conscious effort to stay focus on the different sequence of events, watching how the protagonists react and play their hands perhaps looking for subtle techniques one can learn and adopt to one's game, he is liable to get drowsy or change channels. Only of interest to hardcore fans like 2+2ers and not likely to generate too much interest from sponsors/promoters unless it be made more exciting for more people to watch like the physical sports. Better off to include more scenes from WSOP or other major tournaments in a movie like Rounders which has a story line leading to them to pique the interests of more people?

[andyfox]

Even before I played poker, I used to love watching from the rail. Part of it was that I was a kid, and it seemed, exciting and naughty--all that money, the guys with giant rings and bracelets, the possibility of bluffing. I still like to watch while I'm waiting to get into a game, and I don't just mean to size up the game I'll likely get in. It's a people-watching activity, subtle and artful. You just can't take it all in on TV, just like a baseball game--all the grace, beauty and art is hidden from the camera.

Golf is better seen on TV because you can watch all the competitors at once and there's more excitment generated when you see player A playing the 12th hole while he's trying to hold off player B playing the 16th hole, something you can't do in person. The downtime is cut out because you're always watching someone doing something.

I honestly don't know what can be done to make it more watchable on TV for me.

[MCS]

I like it on TV. But I can see how some people would find it boring. I guess I'm just new enough to poker that it still has the freshness factor. Plus, I don't live near a casino, so that's about as close as I get to playing in a cardroom.

hellmuth on play by play , amarillo on color. i would just turn off the tv and listen. i have listened to both do commentary on line and it is great. you need good commentators for a game which moves so slow. and is so subtle to the average viewer.

why hellmuth? hes got balls. he will say things that wimps like sexton and laing never would. he will call a spade a spade. he calls what players are holding before they turn it over. hes wrong alot but that kind of bravado makes the game fun. its like charles barkley on the nba telecasts hes tells it like he sees it without apology. its interesting.

[mike l.]

"You guys really don't like watching it on TV?"

one problem is that all poker shows on tv are bound to be focused towards people who know nothing about poker. so theyll feel compelled to state and repeat things over again that are totally boring to us. boring. not much to be done about it.

[mike l.]

he could go off on tangents about how every tenth session is the likely beginning of a 700 big bet downfall and so on. it'd be great.

[MCS]

Yeah, they go over the rules to the game every time. It's a bit annoying, but understandable, and I'll live.

[TimTimSalabim]

He's never been afraid to speak his mind about bad plays.