[M.B.E.]

Presumably the good players do study the shows, even if they don't admit it.

The real advantage, however, would be getting access to the full, unedited tapes. Then you could break down how someone plays every single hand. After all, what gets televised is just the tip of the iceberg -- if anything it could be detrimental to rely on that stuff as if it were a random sample.

Come to think of it, that will probably be a huge scandal at some point -- it will emerge that the producers of some show are selling, under the table, the unedited tapes for big bucks.