How to save stud!

[Doctavian]

How to increase the number of stud games being posted in our nations card rooms.

About 10 or 12 years ago I was in England and I learned about their late night cable TV show "Late night Poker" They had cut holes in the tables and the viewers could see the action while the players couldn't. The popularity of the show had exploded and it became their nation's most frequently watched late night cabel show.
(America's game don't you love it)

If you think America has gone Poker nuts, just wait and see what the Asians and the rest of the world are going to do.

Great idea I thought. So on returning to the US I contacted the editor of card player magazine. (I forget her name now she was also aware of Englands Poker TV sucess) And we contacted some other well known members of the poker community and suggested that we work to see if an American network would accept a poker show similar to the one they had in England.

Well we (I at this stage had very very little to do with it) ended up going to ESPN. The good thing about ESPN (we thought was that it had a huge male poker playing, audience, had 3 networks, and was so short on good programing that they were running paramutual crab racing on ESPN3) Also there was an ESPN2 and an ESPN 3 if ESPN didn't want the idea. But ESPN told us that their studies showed that there would never be an American audience big enough for Holdem or any other poker game.

ESPN said that even if there were an ESPN4 they wouldn't waste their time trying to promote such a show on a regular basis.

Well you know the rest. No Limit holdem has crushed the TV viewership. And it has TEMPORARIALLY crushed the other Poker games.

But it won't last forever. Already NBC has reached out with their heads up tourney, to try to find something different.

Something like 50 million Americans play poker. (I might be off a little) And they aren't all playing Holdem. Right now tens of millions of new players are learning about poker in general, and holdem in particular.

Now here is the answer. It is just a matter of time until Holdem's popularity starts to wane and when it does one of the networks will start a regularly scheduled rotating poker show. It will have Stud one week, Omahau, High Low, Holdem, Shake Shake on others.(Shake Shake its goofy but for me it beats Slot machine TV tourneys ...that they have aired. And eventualy stud will return. Because it is the thinking man's game. And because it is exciting. But it is going to be a while.

What should you do in the mean time? Keep seeing that your casino posts stud games. Learn to play holdem well enough to make a little money at it. Dave Sklansky gave me some of the best advice of my gamming career when he taught me ((through his book on making money at gamming some 20? years ago?)That you should learn the various Poker games well enough that you can move to a different table if your favorite game slows down. That one piece of advice has made me thousands of dollars over the years, and I think the book cost $12 back then. (Not a bad over-lay Dave..Thanks again)

That way you can play Holdem while you are waiting for stud.

STUD WILL RISE AGAIN.

Your Friend,

Doctavian

[bigredlemon]

Late night poker is on every nite here and wasn't terribly interesting. I don't think it did well. I saw the wsop coverage for stud and razz, and the multiway action was interesting to say the least. I think 2/3rds of the screen was covered with cards. I can't see stud doing very well on TV at all unless they made the ante so ridiculously low that you never have more than 3 people in a pot.

[Doctavian]

You make several excellent points,


Holdem is interesting to the masses, because it is relativly easy to follow. And the all in, heads up confrontations, nature of the games, and large payouts make it exciting.

The stud games I have seen on TV have been limit games. And for the average viewer it is much harder to follow the developing straight, flush, and pair potentials of so many hands. You would need EXCELLENT commentators to broadcast it prperly.

Some of the commentators the networks have calling holdem are very weak.

I love it when they will be reporting the actions of several of the best players in the world, and all that they keep saying is "One wrong play after another but they keep on winning"

Some of these players the comentators are ridiculing are playing at levels of expertice that the commentators have never played at in their lives.



You make multiple strong points. Thanks for your response.

Doctavian

[BeerMoney]

I think someone on here made the point that a lot of hold 'em's popularity is all about "the flop". Where a fish gets to see 3 cards for the price of 1, and define their hands. Whereas stud is more expensive to see the first 5 cards. People who don't understand how to play just aren't going to like paying 4BB's to call an aggressive player down to the river. That is, until they win their first MEGA POT!

[TheShootah]

I don't think Stud has the excitement factor to viewers that hold em does. I mean, I think Stud is the best because of all the complexity. But for commentators to have to talk about all this stuff isn't exciting. There are no all ins, no big bluffs, etc...

[10-20Jerome]

Intersting theard, I personally play all poker expect triple draw lowball games. I forced my self to learn to excel in 1-2 NL games. At the Goldstrike in Tunica, where I stayed for awhile 2 years ago, that is the only profitable game there. Three-6 holdem is a house game cant, beat the rake, same with the silly 1-5 or 2-10 stud. When Im in St.Louis I play 20-40 Holdem or 15-30 with a 1/2 kill.

Which brings me to this point, How can stud survive outside of New Jeresy if the poker room mangers either will not speard stud(no matter how many want to play) or even worse break up stud games(with more people on the list) to start a 3-6 game? If you read a post I wrote(grape is right) you see that casinos do that [img]/images/graemlins/mad.gif[/img]

[bholdr]

hold 'em is like 9-ball, stud is like straight pool.

i just watched "the color of money" last night, sry.

[peritonlogon]

My personal opinion regarding all reality TV shows (except a few on pbs or bbc) is that the editing dumbs them down so much even speds get bored. It has something to do with the conventional wisdom that "no one ever lost a dime by underestimating the intelligence of the American people." They somehow make up for excluding, what would otherwise be interesting content, by overhyping things. But to hype something on TV there needs to be some dramatic moment that can be replayed a half dozen times before and after it happens. What would that be in stud? Players don't usually stand up and pace while they watch more cards fall.

An alternative would be a DVD series chronicalling not just the few exciting hands, but the play of a full final table with commentary that involved what memebers were thinking and what they were trying to do during all their plays. I know I'd buy that. Furthermore most poker buffs, many people remotely interested in poker, as well as the many who love to be voyeurs but hate watching the same clip over and over again would be very interested in buying such a product.

For such a product, Stud would be more interesting to watch than holdem and would serve to promote the game.

But then again, most of my opinion is based on my dislike of how reality shows are edited and how potentially good shows are turned into constant comercials for the very show you're watching.

[bigredlemon]

After dueling it out from level 7 a noble player was slain and then there were two. Seesaw battles were waged and both parties had been pushed to under 1BB several times. Down to the last 700 chips, our Hero managed a valiant counterattack that wittled the enemy down to 800 chips himself. He managed to regroup and built up to even footing before, finally, the climatic showdown is reached....







Tournament - 7 Card Stud High-Low - Level XI (1,000/2,000), Ante 200, Bring-In 300 (hand converter)


Hero: 6,888
Seat 7: 5,112

3rd Street - (0.40 SB)

Hero: Q[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img] K[img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img] 3[img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img]___brings-in
Seat 7: xx xx 8[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img]___calls

4th Street - (1.00 SB)

Hero: Q[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img] K[img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img] 3[img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img] Q[img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img]___bets
Seat 7: xx xx 8[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img] 2[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img]___calls

5th Street - (1.50 BB)

Hero: Q[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img] K[img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img] 3[img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img] Q[img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img] 7[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img]___bets
Seat 7: xx xx 8[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img] 2[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img] 7[img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img]___calls

6th Street - (3.50 BB)

Hero: Q[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img] K[img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img] 3[img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img] Q[img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img] 7[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img] 9[img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img]___bets
Seat 7: xx xx 8[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img] 2[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img] 7[img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img] A[img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img]___checks___calls 1612 and is all-in

River - (5.31 BB)

Hero: Q[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img] K[img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img] 3[img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img] Q[img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img] 7[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img] 9[img]/images/graemlins/diamond.gif[/img] 7[img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img]
Seat 7: K[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img] 9[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img] 8[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img] 2[img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img] 7[img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img] A[img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img] T[img]/images/graemlins/club.gif[/img]___all-in

Total pot: (5.31 BB)

Though entering the fray as an underdog, our Hero returns home triumphant with the spoils of war!



Who says stud isn't interesting? I certainly got off the tip of my seat!