Has the Tournament Poker on TV bandwagon started to fade?

[SirFozzie]

This year, ESPN will only be televising 11 WSOP events, 9 Final Tables, six hours dedicated to the $50,000 HORSE event, and 16 hours dedicated to the Main Event.

Combine this with the announcement that the WPT is moving off the Travel Channel to GSN, are we on the downward trend for Tournament Poker on TV?

Yes, we have mini-tournaments like Poker After Dark, and cash games like the UPC Cash Games and of course High Stakes Poker, but has the big-field, big buy-in tournaments started to fade?

(WPT to GSN story)
http://insider.espn.go.com/espn/blog/index?entryID=2828151&searchName=poker&campaign=rsssrch&source=poker

(Tenative WSOP/ESPN schedule)
http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/poker/news/story?id=2833113&campaign=rsssrch&source=poker

[sooner333]

I think so...I know a lot of people who used to watch poker all the time on TV who now watch little to none. I am somewhat that way, although I never really was truely dedicated to watching it. I think people would either rather play, or are just not interested anymore. Poker enthusaists realize that it's not like watching real poker and have gravitated to more shows like After Dark or the High Stakes shows that show a much higher percentage of hands.

[terpkristin]

I hope it has, I'm getting tired of going to the gym and hoping to see Sportscenter or something and instead seeing poker. Of course, knowing my luck, the folks at the gym will change it from ESPN2 to FOXNews or something equally intolerable.

/tk

[Joe]

NO!

[Maple Leafs]

In Canada, it faded when the hockey lockout ended.

Damn we had a lot of poker on TV that year.

[GoldenEagle]

There are no advertisers. Who is going to waste money throwing it at the American market when our government has decided to take it away from us?

[RendeR]

Yes thank fracking god. Playing poker is entertaining, watching it is like sitting in a room to watch paint dry.

[Subby]

Yes thank fracking god. Playing poker is entertaining, watching it is like sitting in a room to watch paint dry.
Did they duct tape you to the couch or use superglue?

[Ragone]

Watching canned poker like espn puts on is like Watching Baseball the way most text sims do baseball (the payoff pitch)

I'd say by 2009 it'll be off espn entirely

[FBPro]

Started? I may have watched 5 minutes of that crap total in all the 1,000's of hours that it has been on and it was too much. God let's hope so!!

[B & B]

This started last year when the gubment decided that gambling was unsafe and made it difficult for all the fish to send cash. Thanks port-security bill! :rolleyes:

[Arles]

Adam Corolla put it best - Watching poker on TV is like watching someone else eat a good steak. It's fun to participate in but also excruciating to watch someone else do it.

[QuikSand]

By and large, televised poker tournaments have lost much of their appeal for me. But I still feel that watching High Stakes Poker on GSN is time well spent, and I feel I learn a good deal about the game by watching that show in particular. I don't know how entertaining it is for the run-of-the-mill $20 casual players out there, but that show is really great for people who are fairly serious about their game, I think.

[Fighter of Foo]

Adam Corolla put it best - Watching poker on TV is like watching someone else eat a good steak. It's fun to participate in but also excruciating to watch someone else do it.

I watch high stakes poker almost religiously. Like the Food Network or sporting events, it's fun to watch people who share your hobby but are much, much better.

For the same reason, watching a table of schlubs in a poker tournament isn't any more interesting than NFL Europe.

[Honolulu Blue]

To answer the original question, I think it has. My personal interest in tournaments and tournament poker on TV has been fading for at least 18 months. These are the reasons why:

1) The best and most interesting players don't make final tables very often unless they're for invitation-only, made-for-TV events. The made-for-TV events tend to have fast blind structures which lessens the value of skill and makes them less interesting to watch.

2) There seem to be an awful lot of 22-year-old snots out there playing tournament poker. Was I really that bad when I was twenty and two? I hope not, but then again, it was awhile ago. Anyway, the cameras seem to be drawn to them like moths to a flame, and I am - to put it kindly - less than interested in the lot of them.

3) I'm sure there mothers love them, but most of the new Internet stars have the personalities you'd expect from people who play 16 hours of poker online, i.e. none. At least the ones who don't fall under #2 above.

4) Been there, done that. Once you've seen a few dozen QQ vs. AK confrontations (or the modern equivalent, T8 suited vs. 55), you've seen 'em all. One side wins some, the other side wins the rest.

5) ESPN's poker coverage hasn't grown and evolved with its audience. They've gotten rid of the basic explanations for Hold'em, but Lon's still not much of a player, and Norm would rather crack jokes than analyze hands.

These days I'm more drawn to the cash games (HSP and Cash Poker), but my fascination with them is also waning.

[stevew]

I'm fairly tired, but I thought this read "Has the Tournament Pokemon on TV bandwagon started to fade?"

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Combine this with the announcement that the WPT is moving off the Travel Channel to GSN, are we on the downward trend for Tournament Poker on TV?

I wouldn't read too much into the GSN move. The only reason Travel Channel let the WPT go was because of advertising revenues. With the online sites not advertising much to the U.S. right now, the ad dollars dried up somewhat. Also, the WPT fits perfectly into GSN's Monday night lineup, which should now be a huge draw.

There are a lot of indications that the law restricting online gambling will be removed in the next year or two. Also, most expect that online poker will be legalized in 5-10 years. That would cause the advertising dollars to skyrocket, which would put GSN in an extremely advantageous position from a revenue perspective.

[wade moore]

There are a lot of indications that the law restricting online gambling will be removed in the next year or two. Also, most expect that online poker will be legalized in 5-10 years. That would cause the advertising dollars to skyrocket, which would put GSN in an extremely advantageous position from a revenue perspective.

Huh? I though the anti-online movement was stronger than ever? I'm not big into these things, but the idea that there is a shift is certainly news to me.

[SirFozzie]

http://www.casinogamblingweb.com/gambling-news/gambling-law/us_internet_gambling_ban_to_be_repealed_if_public_demands_repeal_45559.html

Frank won't carve out a exception for online poker, but it's looking good for a general repeal (the issues where countries are bringing suits against the US at the WTO for this issue (and winning)

The Gambling911 website reported Ros-Lehtinen, the ranking Republican member of the House Congressional Committee on Foreign Affairs, as saying: "Our failure to resolve this dispute may harm our credibility as we seek to press countries like China regarding their violations on a range of issues, including intellectual property protection, subsidies, and currency manipulation…In the event the United States fails to reach a satisfactory resolution of the Antigua dispute, it could provide China with an argument to ignore a WTO decision favorable to the United States."

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Huh? I though the anti-online movement was stronger than ever? I'm not big into these things, but the idea that there is a shift is certainly news to me.

In addition to the general repeal that Fozzie mentioned will likely happen by the end of the year due to WTO problems, the lobbying effort is going to be racheted up as well. Party Poker (and a couple other websites) have launched a major effort in the U.S. to bolster the Poker Player Alliance's numbers. The PPA is now lead by Alphonse D'Amato and is expected to make a major push to make online poker legal. It would allow the government to oversee the poker operations and have them based in the U.S., which would also allow for a major increase in taxable revenue. The timeframe for this is the 5-10 year timeframe that I mentioned. Several poker sites that are now only overseas believe that they will eventually open up again in the U.S. and be U.S.-based in the not-too-distant future.

[Dr. Sak]

The only thing worse than watching Poker on TV is watching Soccer...at a 0-0 tie

[MikeVic]

I know for myself, I'd watch some poker on TV a couple years ago. However, I've lost almost all interest in Hold'Em since then, so I obviously don't watch it if I don't play it either. The games run so long, and I found myself making stupid choices just to try and speed up the game.

[Capital]

My interest was already waining, but the fact that I do not play online is the biggest contributor. Good news about the possible repeal.

[Butter]

I'll watch just about any sporting event on TV if I have the time, but I've made it a point to DVR High Stakes Poker, Poker After Dark, and the PPT.

Any word on the Professional Poker Tour? They had some horrific announcers, but there was a lot of good action, especially because they spread out the action over the entire tournament so you got a good feel for how everybody was playing. I've stopped playing because I'm no good at it (still scraping by with $53 in my PokerStars account, hooray!), but watching the game played at its highest levels by the consistently best players is still fascinating to me.