Fox Sports Tourney

[JDO]

These anouncers are awful. The graphics look like they are circa 1980... But it is great to watch a whole tourney, not just the final table.

[CrisBrown]

Hiya JDO,

I agree. The lead announcer needs to wake up and smell the 80s ... he looks depressingly locked in 1977. And yes, the commentary (with the exception of Howard Lederer) and overall presentation ... well ... nowhere near up to the stardards of the WPT or WSOP broadcasts. The heart monitor is a useless gimmick (to me), and not seeing any action at the other tables is a disappointment.

Still ... it was better than watching football....

Cris

[shaniac]

I beg to differ with you both.

I actually liked the bleak 80s feel--the broadcast encapsulated the aura of Atlantic City itself.

The action was the most comprehensive of any of the recent poker tournament specials--I'd venture a guess that we got more actual hands per commercial break than either the ESPN broadcast of the WSOP or the Word Poker Tour.

The heart monitor was cool. Even from a medical standpoint. It's interesting to see the variance in resting pulses among poker players. I was grateful to NOT see a rabbit-hunting camera as it was alleged we might. I didn't catch all the action though, maybe I missed it.

The lead announcer, Jesse May (who I believe authored a book called Shut Up and Deal), was way overblown but Howard and the other writer provided nice foils and on the whole I found the commentary palatable.

We saw a lot of good hands and vintage A-hole Phil Hellmuth as well as a lot of loose-banter from recognized players, which is a fairly rare sight. What more can you ask for?

Shane

[CrisBrown]

Hi Shane,

Well, I'm watching the rebroadcast now so I guess it can't be THAT bad ... or maybe I'm just a poker junkie.

I agree that it seemed like we saw more poker and fewer human interest features, although I kind of enjoy those: finding out where a player is from, how he/she got into tournament poker, etc. There were a couple of interview spots with Daniel Negrenau late in the broadcast, and I enjoyed those.

They had a couple of broadcast miscues: one of the "hand recaps" was not the (very exciting) hand that had just happened, but one from a prior segment. But that's to be expected.

I do have to say this, though: listening to Howard Lederer was like taking a master's course in NLH tournament play. His comments were insightful -- I stole one of them for my response to Praying Mantis on "bluff-catcher" hands -- and in listening to him I was able to see some leaks in my game.

If you missed this, you missed a valuable resource, if for nothing else than Howard's commentary. If Fox releases it on DVD, it's worth buying for that if for nothing else.

Cris

[sweetjazz]

There were two things I really liked about this broadcast. They included more of the table conversation than in WPT or WSOP broadcasts. I think is a much better substitute for filler time than the interest stories of the WPT, for example. And the second was Howard Lederer's commentary, which was great.

I don't really have a problem with the other two commentators. Given that they are trying to reach a wide audience range, I think it's something you have to put up with. I actually found the play-by-play guy to be rather entertaining, albeit in a silly way. "He's just seen his two ducks OUTDRAWN by BIG SLICK, and if he doesn't find a THIRD QUACKER on the RIVER, he's going to have an awfully lonely trip back to the POND!!!" (Not an actual quote, but it could have been. /images/graemlins/laugh.gif) Sure it's goofy and distracting, but it's entertainment for the masses. Plus I think it helps distract the fish from Howard's insights. /images/graemlins/smile.gif

The glaring weakness to me was that they didn't indicate what the blinds were for most hands, and they didn't bother to show the hands that were being folded. This might have been due to the quick turnaround they needed to pull off, with the broadcast coming so soon after the tournament. But it still hurt the broadcast.

One idea that one of the networks should try is using the four-color deck for their graphics. It would make it much easier to spot and identify club draws. My eyesight is decent (well, with my glasses on or contacts in), but I had a hard time distinguishing between their spade and club graphic. Green for diamonds and blue for clubs would be a good idea for TV poker.

I'm also getting tired of the explanations of how to play Texas Hold 'Em at the beginning of every broadcast, but at least they seem to be getting shorter. And I guess I had better just suck it up -- at least it means that they expect there are new fish tuning in. /images/graemlins/smile.gif

[Gomez22]

I must have missed this. Is this on FOX or FOXSports? And if I may ask, what days/times?

[PDX_David]

It was on this afternoon and evening on Fox Sports Net (FSN)

There were only a couple of things that were not up to par for me...

As already mentioned, the lack of seeing more of the folded hands.

I didn't see the current pot size very often either.

The play by play guy sounded like a Radio DJ. IMO it was bad. Hearing the insight of Howard was great, the other guy was fine, but the play by play guy was horible. Sounded like one of the DJs that would do the, "We got stacks of wax, and wax on stacks" or whatever they used to say.

Other than that I thought it was very entertaining.

[baggins]

Jeesie May was horrible. not only was his commentary annoying, but it was really uninformed. when a player would call a bet on the turn, drawing dead or near to it, May would shout about how the guy was making such a bad play, blah blah blah. the reality is, the guys making the plays don't know each other's cards, and the guy calling with crap may be thinking of pulling off a bluff.

certainly in cases where you had something like

5 /images/graemlins/diamond.gif6 /images/graemlins/diamond.gif

call a bet on a flop of 2 /images/graemlins/diamond.gif7 /images/graemlins/club.gifK /images/graemlins/spade.gif

and the bettor has T /images/graemlins/spade.gifT /images/graemlins/club.gif

56 doesn't know he's up against TT. and TT is gonna be put to the test with a K on board when 56 makes a sizeable bet. whether or not he's got the best hand doesn't matter until the showdown. until then, anything can happen, and 56 can still win the pot.

i don't know why i'm telling you all this, except to say that the commentary emphasized many times how bad a play somebody was making by calling, or raising, or whatever, when the commentator wasn't taking into account the fact that WE know their opponents' cards, but they don't.

it was nice to see more banter, and hands-per-segment than WSOP.

it was pretty funny watching it today with family. 6 months ago, nobody in my family would have a clue about poker. and any opinion they had would be a negative one. now, i sit down with my 75 year old aunt, and start to watch WSOP. immediately, she mentions the name Moneymaker, and all of a sudden poker becomes Legit. if nothing else, it will make us all look a little better in the public eye.

[Toro]

On the whole I enjoyed the broadcast. The thing I liked the most was showing tables other than the final table. The thing I liked least was the dealers. They seemed to be very inexperienced, were very slow getting out the flop, turn and river in showdown situations. But maybe they were instructed to do this to try to add suspense, which is kind of silly imo.

[JDO]

I made my comments before the addition of Hoaward Lederer he was great and a much needed addition. However, I had to strain to hear him over the constant clink of chips. I know they were trying to give the viewer a "just like being there" feeling, but I thought it was annoying. I did like the tourney as a whole though; it was much better than watching the Packers crap the bed in Detroit...

[eMarkM]

I reviewed the program, which I've watched in full, on NVG board (http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/showthreaded.php?Cat=&Board=gossip&Number=422632&M ain=422051#Post422632).

Lederer was great, May WAY over the top, Konik so-so. Keep in mind the production value is not going to be as polished as this tourney just ended last week. They don't have the post production time to put in all the fancy graphics and stats. Personally, I liked the fact that it was almost pure poker with none of the little puff pieces the other shows have. As close as we've seen to broadcasting a poker tourney live. Despite the problems, it was very compelling to me and I watched it on TiVo late into the night last night after coming home from Thanksgiving dinner.

There's an awful lot here to digest for tournament players. This is must see TV for a regular tournament player. Like a half season of WPT in one night. I need to review the shows again and take notes on specific hands. They're sure to rerun this pretty frequently, so those who missed it will likely get many opportunities to see it again in reruns.

[eMarkM]

I'm always interested who the players on Stars are behind the avatar. They said Paul Wolfe took 2nd in the WCOOP on Stars. I guess that makes him DOUBLEDUCE on Stars. Both listed as from Apollo Beach, FL.

[Mike Gallo]

They said Paul Wolfe took 2nd in the WCOOP on Stars. I guess that makes him DOUBLEDUCE on Stars. Both listed as from Apollo Beach, FL.

One and the same.