bad commentators

[nsj]

I find the ESPN guys tolerable, and Sexton and Van Patten unlistenable. I literally watch the WPT stuff on mute...

The Aruba stuff from last year? With the final table guy who promised his flavour-of-the-month they'd get married right there in Aruba if he finished Top 3?

Well, Pretty Boy ends up all in with AK against whatever, they pan to Princess in the crowd, and Sexton dials in for his garbage hyperbole....

"There she is. Wow, Vince, what an exciting moment right here! Her whole LIFE depends on this hand. It doesn't get much bigger than this, folks.... the biggest hand of their lives..... right here on the World Poker Tour!"

[Bernas]

To be fair, K, 9 Off is a decent hand when playing short handed. Extremely short handed. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

[Neil Stevens]

Well done. I don't see how anyone can rank Norman Chad anywhere near that low.

[Number]

I really dislike Norman Chad's WSOP commentary. He doesn't have enough knowledge of the game to offer any interesting insights, and he tries to make up for it with wisecracks.

"He took a sip of his drink. That's a sure sign that he's going to fold. Oh, except he took a second sip...now he's going to go all-in."

Now a little bit of this is fine. It breaks up what could otherwise be dry analysis of odds and strategy. But Chad's nattering is incessant and he has nothing worthwhile to say.

Similar criticisms apply to Vince Van Patten, but he doesn't annoy me half as much. He does seem to be truly interested in the game and that helps a lot, even if he isn't an expert. He also makes a good foil for Mike Sexton. It's engaging to see the interaction between a seasoned pro and a relative neophyte who has more in common with the average tv viewer. Mike is patient enough to explain things calmly, and not to snap at Vince when he says something silly (though you can tell he's tempted sometimes).

Lon McEachern seems fine as a play-by-play man, and will occasionally slip in a great zinger at Chad's expense, but doesn't contribute much toward understanding the finer points of the game. It would be nice to see at least one experienced player on ESPN's roster for next year's WSOP.

[riverflush]

I, for one, enjoy the cheesy feel of the WPT production. VVP is so ridiculous sometimes that I laugh out loud...it's bad comedy.

Lederer is the best for pure poker analysis...

[Manimal 42]

If someone were to make a drinking game of watching the WPT and do a shot every time Vince spouted another cliche like, "It doesn't get any better than this...", would the players lapse into an alcoholic coma just before or after the first hour?

Same question for Norman Chad saying, "He needs an X and an X alone or he will be eliminated". Do these guys have deaf directors or what?

[Drac]

ESPN's combo is bad. Lon doesn't know anything about poker and Chad really doesn't either. They need to put Hellmuth in the booth for a couple shows. He has the knowledge and a few opinions so maybe he'd be fun to listen to. They need an "expert" to help them out.
Hate the PSI guys. Better than VVP but still hate em.
At least with Sexton you get some poker knowledge. He's a little over the top sometimes but it's not like this is life and death here. VVP is a moron. Get some new material, please! After a while it does become funny to hear "real hand/wired pair" for the 300th time.

[jthodgie]

I know I may be in the minority here, but I like Norman Chad. I am a little biased because I enjoy his appearances on PTI. It really pains me to listen to the crew doing the Poker Stars Invitational. They constantly talk over the players, when I would much rather hear what the players themselves are saying to each other.

[Bukem_]

Do you realize how good normad chad is for poker in general?

WSOP reaches a huge audience, and you have chad giving his jokes and slightly incorrect poker analysis.

Stuff like claiming raymer is having a meltdown for calling with 98o makes every casual player think they are smarter than raymer, the world champ since they would make this laydown.

Or you could have some poker expert educating all the people you compete against.

[Neil Stevens]

[ QUOTE ]
Same question for Norman Chad saying, "He needs an X and an X alone or he will be eliminated". Do these guys have deaf directors or what?

[/ QUOTE ]

Listening to directors? I think Norm tried that in his third marriage, but the director turned out to be his wife's divorce attorney.