Re: Things Lon McEachern needs to stop saying
 

Lon is play-by-play.
Michael Konik is color-commentary.

The FSN play-by-play announcer is Chris Rose (who I think does a pretty decent job).

I agree with the general sentiment that the play-by-play announcer needs to cater to the masses.
That's just how it is.
It is Lon's responsibility to explain what the check-mark means...as long as he stays in the hand, he will win.
He's not necessarily specifically addressing the praciticality of a player folding with the best hand. He's just saying, "this guy has the best hand."

Over and over there are players who don't understand how someone could have folded the winning hand just because they can't picture how the scenario would look if they couldn't see both players' hole-cards.

It looks obvious to the casual viewer, "of course he's not going to fold...he has the best hand."
many casual viewers would think this even if a player just had pocket 2's vs an opponent's unimproved-any-cards.
"How could he fold?? He had the best hand!!"


The fact is....the coverage isn't going to change.
The drama is in the situations where someone's "tournament life is at stake".
People that don't know much about poker are really only interested when someone gets the guts to push all their chips in or someone gets eliminated. This is espeically true if someone gets eliminated on a bad-beat.


Poker on TV is as much about personalities and eliminations and big-money as it is anything else.


I'm not thrilled with the announcing and coverage on ESPN and WPT either. But there's been a lot of talk lately about the annoying player-profile pieces and all the all-in's that they show.
I think that to expect for anything more than what we are currently getting is quite unrealistic.

Re: Things Lon McEachern needs to stop saying
 

"Phil used to play a lot of Ultimate Frisbee, but he couldn't take all the bad beats."

Wait that was NC...
I actually LOLed at that...

Re: Things Lon McEachern needs to stop saying
 

i think he needs to stop being so hard on norman chad

norman chad is just trying to have a little fun and then lon just steps over the line

Re: Things Lon McEachern needs to stop saying
 

Also Lon and Norm should wear ties.

... strung from the ceiling rafters.

Re: Things Lon McEachern needs to stop saying
 

[ QUOTE ]
i think he needs to stop being so hard on norman chad

norman chad is just trying to have a little fun and then lon just steps over the line

[/ QUOTE ]


No, Lon need to hit Norman in the head when he tells his next ex- "joke"

Too late
 

because he doesn't sound insanely stupid

Oh, he's getting there pretty quickly.

The problem that fans have in all of these cases
 

<font color="blue">The same sorts of complaints are made by baseball and football fans. Those fans that really know about the game almost always think the commentators are bad because they cater to the masses. </font>

The problem that we have is that it would be very very easy to add some intelligent commentary during the broadcasts, instead of prattling on about failed marriages and turkey legs and whatever inane comments you hear on any sports or poker broadcast.

It doesn't have to be completely incisive, but just yapping in my ear to make noise serves no purpose.

And while FSN reporters have their faults, at least they try to give something a little more subtle and in-depth, that any three-year-old couldn't see on their own. They may not deliver it in a subtle manner, but don't knock them across the board.

Re: Things Lon McEachern needs to stop saying
 

norman chad is running out of clever poker related quips. it makes me sad.

Re: The problem that fans have in all of these cases
 

[ QUOTE ]
<font color="blue">The same sorts of complaints are made by baseball and football fans. Those fans that really know about the game almost always think the commentators are bad because they cater to the masses. </font>

The problem that we have is that it would be very very easy to add some intelligent commentary during the broadcasts, instead of prattling on about failed marriages and turkey legs and whatever inane comments you hear on any sports or poker broadcast.

[/ QUOTE ]It would be easy for NBC to actually show sporting events during Olympic coverage rather than tegh fluff profiles of various athletes. But, they don't. Because they are trying for the largest audience possible.

Intelligent commentary will turn more people away than the way it's being done now. At least that is what the broadcasters have determined.

Sometimes it sucks to be one of the smart people in a world full of stupid people.

Re: Things Lon McEachern needs to stop saying
 

"unsuited" need I say more?

Also, when it's an all-in situation and Lon gets excited that the player who is ahead in the hand picks up a draw on fourth street, even though it is totally irrelevant.