Explaining the rules on TV

[MicroBob]

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baseball, football, etc rules are so complex that it's much more impractical to go over them before every broadcast.

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the rules are not that much more complex then poker.
the poker explanation is VERY simple. They just explain that you see 3 cards, and then there is a round of betting, etc etc.
Extremely vague.

They could easily just explain football as 'you get 4 plays to move the ball forward 10 yards and if you get to the end of the field you get a touchdown for 6 points and get to kick for an extra-point or try to run or pass it in for 2 points'
something like that anyway.


i'm not sure how i feel about the rules-explanation thing. I think it's pretty worthless now....but I know people who still think the players are betting 'real' money like it was some gigantic cash-game.

Friend of mine who has played poker at his home with his friends a couple of times was talking with me.
I asked him if he was playing limit or no-limit and he wasn't sure so I had to explain the difference.
Then I was talking somewhere about 'stealing the blinds' when I started to learn that they didn't seem to be using blinds.


My Dad doesn't really know the rules but he 'enjoys watching the different personalities'.
but I think he's probably seen enough to know that AA is what you want at the start....and he's probably heard enough pocket-pair vs. over-card 'races' to know that they are all virtually 50/50.


but I'm not sure that the 'rules' segment is really doing very much.
If they also went out of their to explain that they 'aren't betting real money....it's just chips and last-man standing wins' that might help alleviate some confusion amongst the masses.


Also - The 'rules' segment on ESPN coverage is sponsored (by Milwaukee's Best this year) so it's not going away at all anytime soon. If a sponsor is paying money for that segment then it's here to stay.