WSOP on TV

I was flipping through the channels this evening because there's nothing on. Baseball's on the all-star break and all my normal shows are on summer reruns. I was bored so I checked the DVR which I don't do very often these days since there aren't a whole lot of new shows on these days. So like i said, I checked my DVR and lo and behold there's brand new WSOP 2007 episodes sitting there waiting for me.

Last year I wasn't real interested in watching on TV since I already knew the results of most of the events. This year I haven't been following poker nearly as much so the WSOP is exciting again.

So, just in case you're looking for some new poker on TV, the WSOP is back.

And yes, Norman Chad is still annoying.

Originally posted at blog.pokerwords.com

Whats on TV?

What’s on TV?

If you haven’t guessed by complete lack of posts, I haven’t been playing a lot of poker lately.  So what has been occupying my time?  I’m glad you asked.  That will give me something to blog about without actually having anything to blog about.

First off, most of the time I would normally dedicate to poker is being filled with Battlefield 2142.   I refused to play games like World of Warcraft because I know how addicting they can be, especially for someone like me, and I wanted to have some sort of a life that didn’t involve sitting in front of my computer.  So I got Battlefield instead and can’t seem to stop playing.   Sometimes it’s just more fun to stab an unsuspecting sniper in the back than it is to slowplay that full house you picked up on the turn.  I think I have problems.

Also, with the end of summer there’s new TV shows to watch and it’s so much easier to turn on a TV than to play poker.  The following shows are all TIVOed or at the very least watch with some regularity.  All times are central.

Sunday

• Football.(FOX/CBS 12:00) Specifically the Bear’s games, but I’ll watch just about any game that’s remotely interesting or involves some player on my fantasy team.


• Football. (FOX/CBS 3:00)


• Ummm.  Football? (NBC 7:30 I don’t usually watch the whole third game, but I’ll check in now and then to see if anything exciting is happening.


• Simpsons/American Dad/Family Guy  (FOX-7:00-8:30) Usually by the time prime time rolls around I’m sick of watching TV, but I’ll flip through these while making/eating dinner.

Monday

• Heros.  (NBC 8:00) Heros is this year’s Lost.  Hopefully they can keep people interested longer than three seasons.  They’re still in the character introduction phase so there are plenty of new things to explore.  Everything is leading up to some momentous event and where they go after that will determine how long the show lasts.  And does anyone else hate when the preview next week’s episode saying that someone will die, and be ready for the surprise ending?  You ruin the surprise when promote it before hand.  Killing off one of your key characters isn’t a shock when you already told me it’s going to happen. It’s a crappy stunt that should be reserved for shows on that are about to go off the air if they don’t get their viewer ship up.  I don’t think Heros is suffering from that problem.  Nor was Lost when they did the same thing this time last year.  


• Studio 60 (NBC 9:00) I guess I’m a huge Aaron Sorkin fan.  This show’s great, I loved West Wing, and apparently he also did Sports Night which was by far my favorite show when it was on.  I think Sport Night’s downfall was the name which probably eliminated half the audience.  I think you can still pick up the DVD’s and I’d recommend it, especially if you enjoy Studio 60 and West Wing.  


• High Stakes Poker.  (GSN 8:00,9:00)  Well what do you know?  I am going to mention poker in this post.  Was it me or did season two end rather abruptly?  Unless I missed the last episode, I could have sworn they had another day of play to broadcast.  I was also starting to get sick of Gabe Kaplan and what’s his face’s announcing.  I’ll start watching again when season three kicks off.  This is the only poker show I still watch.

Tuesday

• I don’t think I watch anything on Tuesday.   I have the WSOP Tivoed, but I usually just delete them.  

Wednesday

• Lost (ABC 8:00)  I looks like I’m one of the few people who still watches this show.  It’s no where near as good as the first season, but I still enjoy it.

Thursday

• My Name is Earl (NBC 7:00)  I probably wouldn’t watch this if it wasn’t on just before The Office, but it is pretty funny and if you haven’t already, you might want to check it out.


• The Office (NBC 7:30)  If it wasn’t for my wife, I would have given up on this show after the first few episodes.  Now it’s second only to Scrubs as my favorite comedy.


• Scrubs (NBC 8:00)  Best. Comedy. Ever.  (post Seinfeld that is)


• CSI (CBC 8:00)  The original is still the best.

Friday

• Battlestar Gallactica (Sci-Fi 8:00) It costs me $10-$15 a month extra to get the group of channels that includes the Sci fi channel and this show is why.  If you don’t watch it then drop everything, go to Blockbuster, rent the miniseries from a few years back and watch it.  If you aren’t hooked after that there is something wrong with you.  The reason my wife and I don’t go out on Fridays is because if we did we might miss Battlestar.  

Satruday

• Nothing  I’ll watch college football if I’m bored, but it better be  really good game or Notre Dame getting upset/blown out.  I might start watching college basketball with some regularity, but probably not.

Daily

• Daily  Show (Comedy Central 10:00).  I’ve been watching the Daily Show since it’s inception with Craig Kilborne.  I stopped for a while when John Stewart took over, but now I can’t imagine any one else hosting it.  Is it bad if the only television news I watch is the Daily Show and the Colbert Report?


• Colbert Report (Comedy Central 10:30)  This one had to grow on me, and his interviews are still often painful to watch, but the first half of the show is brilliant.

So that’s how I spend a good portion of my time that I could otherwise spend playing poker and coming up with exciting poker related stories with which to entertain you.  

High Stakes Poker Season Two Now Airing

Just a reminder that season two of High Stakes Poker on GSN debuted this week. Set your tivo's. It's the best poker show on TV these days.

High Stakes Poker Season Two

They’ve begun filming episodes for the next season of GSN’s High Stakes Poker.


If you haven’t seen the first season yet, I’d highly recommend checking it out.  They show reruns just about every day.  I think it’s really the most interesting and enjoyable poker shows on TV, and I’ve probably seen enough different poker shows to know what I’m talking about.  

There are a number of things that set this show apart from most other shows you’ll see, but the biggest is that this is a cash game, not a tournament.   This allows the producers to show actual poker taking place, as well as the interesting banter between the players.   They don’t have to worry about showing every hand some one gets knocked out on, because that isn’t necessarily the goal.  One of the reasons why I feel the telecasts of the WSOP main event are so much more enjoyable than the other events is because they spread the coverage out over many episodes, so they aren’t trying to cram eight or nine eliminations into one hour.  The real excitement for me isn’t the drama of the all-in, waiting to see if a particular hand will hold up, its watching someone with a really good second best hand manage to escape without losing many chips, or watching as the best players show how to extract the most chips from one another without tipping their hands.

Another plus for the show is that for the most part everyone at the table is well known.  Rather than one or two pros at a table, you have a table full of people you recognize. It’s a lot more fun to watch those guys than some average Joe internet qualifier whose fifteen minutes of fame involve losing chips to better players.  And you get to see them in what I’d imagine as close to their regular high stakes game as I’ll ever see.

And then there’s the fact that they’re playing with real money.  Yeah, I’m sure people staked them, but when there’s a raise to $30,000, that’s actual money.  That’s more than most people make in months.  And they’re just tossing those chips around like they were quarters.  

One thing I don’t understand is that conventional wisdom says you always buy in for the maximum at the table.  The minimum buy-in was $100,000.  I’m not sure what the maximum was, but I know Daniel Negreanu bought in for $1,000,000.  It seemed like most everyone bought in for around $100k-$200k.  Why so little? Especially since a few players busted then just bought right back in?  Why not buy in for the full amount right away?  Are the stakes really getting too high for some of the players, or are they not quite willing to risk that much cash at once, or did they just not expect Negreanu to buy in for so much?

If you are interested, here’s an article I found about the second season.  One of the things that concerns me is that they are already promising fireworks for this season.  There were a few altercations last season, one involving Freddy Deeb taking exception to being accused of taking chips from the table, and a few involving Phil Helmuth of course.  This season Mike Matusow will be in the middle of it.  While the occasional bickering and trash talking can be amusing, if they keep trying to put explosive personalities at the same game for the sake of a more dramatic show, they are going to end up ruining a good thing.  Before you know it you’ll be watching a no holds barred cage match for the WSOP championship belt.  And they might even throw a few hands of poker in there.  Despite that I’m very much looking forward to the next season of the show.  

2006 National Heads-Up Poker Championship

The brackets for the 2006 National Heads-Up Poker Championship have been released. The tournament will air on NBC starting on April 16th.

You can check out the bracket here. Or goto the website for whatever other details might interest you here.

Are the Olympics Over Yet?

Are the Olympics over yet? I like sports as much as the next guy but seriously, this is ridiculous. It wouldn’t be so bad if I could choose which events I got to see, or if they would stop interrupting one event to show another. Its already tape delayed, its not like they are switching to the other event for some breaking news, they’re just doing it to sucker you into watching some crap event for an hour while you are waiting for the finals of whatever it was cared about. It also wouldn’t be so bad if they didn’t have to bring you some heartwarming story about how every single competitor overcame such huge adversity to make it where they are and blah blah blah. Half of that garbage is too much even for Lifetime or the Hallmark channel. I have an idea, how about you cut out the girly crap and show some curling during prime time?

And whoever decided that figure skating is the one “sport” that should be broadcast in prime time every single day needs to be shot. You can’t distinguish between one routine and another without the announcer’s help, and it doesn’t seem like it really matters what anyone does anyway. The favorites get bonus points just for being the favorites and the winners are basically predetermined. One of the guys dropped his partner; they stopped the routine for a few minutes while she walked (skated) it off. Then they started again, and still came in second. I call BS on that. Once they stopped skating they should be DQed. They got sympathy points for her skating on a busted knew. If they didn’t screw up in the first place her knee wouldn’t have been busted, and then maybe they would have deserved a medal. And yes I have watched an awful lot of figure skating for some one who claims to hate it. Shut up. I told you they trick you into watching events you don’t care about by switching back and forth. Plus the wife yells at me whenever I try to switch to basketball.

Speaking of watching too much figure skating and crappy mini documentaries, did you see the one about that one American figure skater? He’s the bad boy of figure skating. He’s a total rebel, and people are scared of what he might do or say next. If you saw that and didn’t bust out laughing then you must have some serious comedy recognition problems. This kid reminded me of Zoolander. He thought he was such a badass and all I could think was “dude, you’re a figure skater. No one cares. No one besides the ten people who watch this crap outside of the Olympics are going to know who you are in a week. I’d take any non figure skating athlete off the US women’s team in a street fight over you any day.” And then, after what seemed like an eternity, documenting his non conforming rebelliousness, he went on the ice dressed as a swan. A rebellious trouble making badass swan. Although maybe he accomplished his goal after all because now I’m talking about him. Doh.

In other amusing figure skating news, did you see the video of that Russian guy that just planted his partner on her face during some lift move a few years ago? She got knocked the fuck out. Now that was some good TV. That’s what the sport needs some more of. It needs a villainous skater who turns on his partners during their routines, or bitter rivals that go all Tonya Harding on each other. Just let the professional wrestling promoters get a hold of figure skating and then maybe it would be worth watching.

That’s why short track used to be fun to watch, before it got popular. Nothing says fun like roller derby on ice.

So yeah. Enough of the Olympics already. I'm missing Scrubs and The Office for this.

Travel Channel to Air Professional Poker Tour

The WPT has created a poker circuit comparable to golf's PGA tour. The Travel Channel will be airing the events which will feature the top 200 players in invitation only events. This will make sure they have know players at their final tables which will theoretically make for better TV. According to the article there will be 44 weeks worth of WPT and PPT programming on the Travel Channel next year. Between this, and the WSOP circuit, GSN's high stakes game, and the crapload of other large tournaments around, I don't think poker players are going to get many days off.

link

High Stakes Poker on GSN

So I got this what I would normally consider spam email this afternoon from the Executive directory of publicity for the Game Show Network.  I’m not really sure why I received it.  Looking at the list of recipients are some of highest profile bloggers out there and how I managed to get grouped in with them I’ll never know.  I almost deleted the email without reading because they are almost always garbage, but then I realized it was actually legitimate and the content something you, the reader of this blog may also want to see.  So, even though its not normally the type of thing I do, here is Press Release from GSN.    For those of you not interested in a commercial about a new poker show, I’ll try to have something better up tomorrow.


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‘HIGH STAKES POKER’ FEATURING A $100,000 MINIMUM BUY-IN
PREMIERES ON GSN

Millions Of Dollars Of The Player’s Own Money Are At Stake As The First ‘CASH GAME’ on Television Debuts

Legends Doyle Brunson And Johnny Chan Are Joined By Rising Stars,
Cash Game Specialists And Elite Businessmen
Such as Lakers Owner Dr. Jerry Buss

AJ Benza and Gabe Kaplan Call the Action in Biggest Cash Game in Town
Beginning January 16 at 9 PM

(Santa Monica, CA) – GSN is bringing viewers the first true cash game of poker on television with a $100,000 minimum buy-in. Unlike other poker shows where the most players can lose is their initial buy-in of up to $10,000, the stars on GSN’s newest series, HIGH STAKES POKER, have millions of their own cash at stake and will win and lose several hundred thousand dollars. HIGH STAKES POKER premieres Monday, January 16 at 9 PM ET/PT.  

“High Stakes Poker is groundbreaking in that it is the first-ever look into the biggest private no limit Hold ’em cash games in town,” said Rich Cronin, President and CEO of GSN.  “This show is intense because players are winning and losing hundreds of thousands of their own dollars on single hands.”

The new hour long series features players from diverse backgrounds from all over the world.  From the legends, to cash game players, to the young superstars that have been featured on “The World Series of Poker,” HIGH STAKES POKER is going to be the first ever cash game that viewers will see the ‘true’ game of poker.

Legends of the poker world are joined by elite poker playing businessmen in the 13-episode series recently taped at the Golden Nugget Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada.  

The all-star line up features:

• Doyle Brunson --considered by many the greatest poker player of all-time.


• Johnny Chan --tied with Doyle for the most all-time World Series of Poker bracelets, 10.


• Barry Greenstein --legendary cash game player.


• Phil Hellmuth --one of the most recognized and successful players in the world.


• Daniel Negreanu --2004 Player of the Year.


• Dr. Jerry Buss --Los Angeles Lakers owner.


• Jennifer Harman – the only woman professional who competes in the highest cash games in the world on a daily basis.


• Ted Forrest --five World Series of Poker bracelets.


• Bob Stupak --one of the most legendary entrepreneurs in Las Vegas.


• Antonio Esfandiari – A magician and the youngest ever to win over $1 million in a tournament.


• Eli Elezra --cashed in 12 World Series of Poker events since 1999, owns several Las Vegas retail stores and partner in a construction company.


• Todd Brunson --one of the top cash game players, son of Doyle.


• Sean Sheikhan – “Sheiky” a high stakes cash game player and businessman.


• Dr. Amir Nasiri --successful Las Vegas physician.


• Freddy Deeb –a career poker playing professional, recently won $1 million at a WPT tournament in Aruba.


• Daniel Alaei --up and coming star, who’s cashed in several tournaments and won the Heavenly Hold’em tournament at Commerce Casino in Los Angeles.


• Mimi Tran --ranks in the top 10 among women on the WSOP all-time leading money list.


• Fred Chamanara --Chicago restaurant owner.


• Sam Farha --professional who specializes in high stakes cash games and was the runner up to Chris Moneymaker in 2003 World Series of Poker.

The cash game has been called the true version of poker due to the fact that players are allowed to buy-in and continue playing with more money if they lose their initial buy-in of $100,000.  The chips on the table represent actual dollars compared to chips in a tournament that don’t equal the actual value of what is bet. The intensity is taken to a higher level when someone raises $50,000 or $100,000 which is more than the average American’s yearly salary in one hand.

Henry Orenstein of HSOR, L.L.C. serves as the Executive Producer of HIGH STAKES POKER.  Mr. Orenstein invented the in-table cameras that give the viewers at home the ability to see the player’s hole cards.  This innovation is credited for paving the way for the explosion of poker’s popularity on television.

“For the first time ever in the history of poker on television, viewers will see players playing with very large amounts of their own money,” said Orenstein.  “This is what makes it exciting, the players can win huge pots that are worth nearly a half million dollars on a single card.”

Calling the high stakes action at the tables are two newcomers to GSN, AJ Benza and Gabe Kaplan.  Benza will host the series and Kaplan, the former star of “Welcome Back Kotter” and a world class poker player, provides the analysis.  Benza has hosted a variety of television shows and has appeared in movies including “Ransom,” “Conspiracy Theory,” and “The Deli”.  He is best known as one of the most controversial New York columnists in the 1990’s as well as an author who published his memoirs, “Fame, Ain’t It a Bitch”.

Kaplan has previously provided analysis for the “World Series of Poker” and the “National Heads-Up Poker Challenge.”  In addition to his hit television series, Kaplan is a successful stand up comedian and has starred in feature films, “Fast Break,” “Tulips,” and “Nobody’s Perfect.”

In addition to the play at the tables, HIGH STAKES POKER will also include a look at the players behind the scenes.  It will include a look at Doyle Brunson’s lifestyle, going with Lakers owner Dr. Jerry Buss to a game and traveling with Barry Greenstein to be a speaker at Michigan State about being a professional poker player.  Each episode will also feature a behind the scenes look at one of the players away from the poker room.

GSN, the Network for Games, is the only U.S. television network dedicated to game-related programming.  For further media information, visit GSN’s press website at corp.gsn.com.

--GSN --

Some Quick Comments

Some quick comments, not all necessarily poker related


Battlestar Gallactica

Today marks the beginning of the second season of Battlestar Gallactica. This means that I will not be going out on Fridays anytime in the near future. Not that I went out a lot on Fridays anyway, but this makes it official. They have some full episodes from last season that you can watch online if you haven't seen it yet. You should check it out.


FullTilt

FillTilt Poker is now offering hand histories. I wonder how long it will take the Poker Tracker guys to update their software to support it. As soon as they do, I can almost guarantee that I will start playing there more often. I really like the interface; I just need a way to track/monitor my performance.


WSOP Final

Raymer and Ivey got eliminated last night. Too bad I was hoping they would make it to the final table. I really hope Mike Matusow doesn’t win. He’s seems so whiny, arrogant, and obnoxious. It would be much more fun to see him take a string of bad beats at the final table and have him finish in 7th. Maybe he can be the new Hellmuth. Because that’s just what the world needs. We should know the winner sometime later tonight.


The Chicago Cubs.

Don’t let their current winning streak fool you. They still suck. They are just trying to win enough so that I start thinking they have a chance at making the playoffs. Once I think they might have a chance for the post season, they will lose 10 out of the next 12 games. They like to screw with me like that.


Charlie Tuttle Tourament.

WPBT “Charlie” Tournament
When? 6PM EST Sunday July 17th
Where? PokerStars
How Much? $20 - every penny goes to charity
What Do I Get When I Win? The comfort of knowing you’re doing something good for someone else
No, Really… No. Really.
All proceeds to go to wherever Charlie Tuttle’s family wants them. Come on out and play!
If you don't know the story... feel free to read: A Guy named Charlie.

You aren’t going to win any cash, but a number of bloggers will have some cool bounties on their heads and it goes to a good cause. Do a good deed and play some poker.