could this be the affect of WPT?

[bernie]

since ive came back from 5 months of not playing, ive noticed some stuff at my usual room. i also notice that i came back after the WPT has had a couple tourneys.

my usual donators are, well, BETTING!!! these guys used to never bet unless they have it. and i mean ever. if majorkong saw the guys im talking about, he's back me up on this. all of a sudden theyre betting mid pairs. one even bet a draw!?! i wanted to ask him where the hell he learned that from. of course their raising and 3 bet standards are kind of the same, except theyll now raise with top pair to knock players out instead of just going into call mode.

some benefits are that it is a little easier to put them on hands. but now theyre 'charging' a little more to draw. oh well, some minor adjustments to be made. they do slow down a little when played back at.

but im wondering if anyone else has noticed this in their normal circle of players? this isnt just one player, it's a few all at once. which is why i think it may have to do a little with the WPT. these guys never came across as guys who study the game at all. so i can only think of 1 thing that wouldve inspired them...

hmmm....maybe?

ciao

b

[DiamondDave]

I know the guys in our home game have been watching WPT. There's a guy who used to raise once per evening (with the nuts). Now he will raise with top pair sometimes. Other players now seem to know the importance of position relative to the button, position relative to the bettor, a good kicker, etc. On the other hand, there have been epidemics of fancy player syndrome and all-in fever lately.

[Play Tight]

You have hit the nail on the head on this one.

I have noticed alot more action in my regular game. There are many new faces (possibly because one of the 4 local rooms shut down,) but especially since the WPT has been on TV. There seem to be alot more of the "newbies" walking around peering over shoulders, asking questions to the floor people, etc.

I have also been getting alot of acquantinces who know I play poker asking questions and wanting to talk about hands they have seen on the WPT. I have only saw about a half hour or so of the entire season, maybe they will do a MTV type day and play every episode straight through.

I cannot say that the WPT is fully to take credit but poker has recently seen an explosion of new players. Look at this years Wold Series, something like 200 more players then last year. I'm sure Rounders the movie has helped out as well. Now lets just hope this go for broke, all-in mentatlity benefits our bankrolls.

[bernie]

today i saw one guy pull off a beaut of a bluff. his play has grown leaps and bounds, let me tell ya. even the way he talks about hands. he's a little more in depth now. i asked him if he'd read any books lately. he paused and said no. yeah right. ill probe a little further later. [img]/forums/images/icons/wink.gif[/img]

had one gal playing today for the 1st time. she saw it on tv. she had played stud before but was having trouble following the action and got confused easily early on. but i noticed, she had some potential if she ever really got into it and studied it. not often you see a newbie player betting a draw and some other hands. she wasnt betting just anything, but she showed much more aggression than your typical deer in the headlights newbie.

sure, she made some major mistakes, but some of her plays were sound. kinda interesting to watch. of course, she was really stoked when she won a pot with quad Aces. and she wasnt afraid to bet into someone. it was also kinda fun to watch her snap off a couple guys. and yes, i had my turn to get snapped. i was blowing chips today. my flops were coming on some table across the room.

it'll be interesting when the weekend comes around again....

thanks for all the replies.

b

im also wondering if this is more noticeable in a smaller holdem market. since i play with many of the same players alot of the time, i may be more prone to see distinct changes in their games.

b

[DiamondDave]

...a retailer I will not name here has been running a commercial for a 4-volume collection of 2+2 books on the WPT broadcasts.

I'm already looking forward to the semi-bluff raises I'll be facing if they buy the set. [img]/forums/images/icons/crazy.gif[/img]

[microlimitaddict]

yes - there will be some lousy players who will get a clue and will perhaps buy the books and study up a little bit as a result of the wpt and the surging popularity of the game.

however, i suspect the number of ignorant newbies who have no interest in actually reading a book will far outweigh the few who start to actually get a clue.

my hunch is that the fish-ability in both b&m and online games will increase, not decrease, as a result of the wpt. a lot of people with a little bit of money to blow will say to themselves "that doesn't look so hard...I think i get it. i can blow the cover off this game."

and don't forget that on the show there are a lot of players that play Axo and otherwise medicore hands trying to bluff or because they are short-stacked or simply because there are 3 or 4 players left.
Not sure a lot of the viewers realize that K8o doesn't quite work as well when betting first in a 9 person ring-game.

The WPT brings excitement to the game and makes it look like every hand comes down to the river card and that there are huge swings all the time. Ring-games are about grinding it out....and the newbies will take a bit to learn that.

Also - because of how the show is edited....it looks like they play virtually every hand. They only show the hands that have some action. When it gets down to 2 or 3 players they don't show them trading blinds back and forth while waiting to get some cards or to try their bluff.

WPT is good for the decent player because it is inadvertently teaching some incorrect philosophies to potential newbies.

Just my $0.02.