I recently have been watching the World Poker Tour on the Travel Channel and the World Series of Poker on ESPN, and I have an admission to make. I never would have expected it, but I am totally enraptured watching poker on television.
Some would think this is about as exciting as watching television fishing, but it's a whole different kettle of fish.
There is litterally a ton of money on the line. In the WSOP last year there were over 800 contestants who antied up 10 grand each for a seat at the table. First prize is $2.5 million, a winner's share bigger than the Kentucky Derby, Wimbledon, Indianapolis 500 or any other competition on Earth. That's 2,500,000 dollars. For poker. Each of contests on the WPT has a slightly smaller purse, but the winners generally take home more than 500 grand which isn't exactly chump change.
There are also these great personalities. You have Johnny Chan who was made famous in the film Rounders (Edward Norton and Matt Damon) as the perfect player. He won back to back WSOP in 1987 and 1988. You have Scotty Nguyen who was born in Saigon during the war and is now the highest roller in the world. You have Phil Ivey, the Tiger Woods of Poker. There's David Ulliot from England, the so-called "Devil Fish". There's Phil Hellmuth Jr., the youngest player to win the world title and poker's bad boy. And there are tons of other interesting characters from all over the world. There are players from Denmark, Lebanon, Russia, Switzerland and every other place in between. You have guys you hate and want to see lose and guys you love and want to see to win.
In all these tournaments, they play a unique version of poker called No Limit Texas Hold'em. Here's how they play:
No Limit Texas Hold'em
Hole Cards: The game begins with all the players receiving 2 cards face-down. Each player can only see his or her own cards.Betting Round 1
The Flop: the dealer lays 3 community cards face up on the center of the table. These are cards that the players can use with their own hand.
Betting Round 2
The Turn: The dealer deals a fourth community card on the table.
Betting Round 3
The River: The dealer puts one final community card on the table.
Betting Round 4
The Showdown: The players show their hands, and the best hand (which can be any combination of the 2 cards in the player's hand plus up to 3 of the community cards) wins.
Since there's no limit, any player at any time can bet all their chips or go "All In", as they say. Fortunes are made or lost in the blink of an eye. The wrong decison can be very costly while the right bet at the right time can create a legend.
When I first started watching, I was amused, but there seemed to be so much luck involved that the idea of competition seemed silly. The motto of the World Series of Poker is "Anyone Can Win". This is true to some extent. The last two winners were hardly professional players. But the truth is "Anyone can win" is really a sucker bet. Anyone can't really win. They want yoy to think that you can win so you'll enter, but you're really "Dead Money." You can't rely on luck to win these tournaments. There's so much skill involved, it' scary.
I know this because when you watch these tournaments, you see the same faces showing up in the final table all the time. There has to be something to that. Then there's the great reason to watch which turns these games into monumental psychological battles.
ESPN and the Travel Channel have cameras strageically placed on the table so that the viewers and the commentators can see the Hole Cards of the players. When you know what the players are holding while the players themselves only are aware of their own cards, you have a window into the minds of these people who have laid down hard earned to play this game.
It's really incredible to watch players bluff and act. You quickly notice that for whatever reason, the good players more often than not make the right decisions about how to play while the novices make mistake after mistake.
One thing is for certain. It beats the shit out of reality TV.
I hate to tell you this as it may encourage a very Lebowski Dude lifestyle (robe and slippers included) ... but I recently read that a new cable/satellite network will debut later this year called "Casino and Gaming Television" or CGTV ... it will offer 24-hour gaming content including tournaments, poker-tip shows, nightlife hotspots in gaming towns, etc etc.
And don't think you are alone in your strange fascination ... myself along with a large group of friends are all momentarily obsessed with it as well. (I even bought a casino player magazine on a whim the other day ... clearly I'm on the verge of needing GA or something)
In any case ... GO MONEYMAKER! :) (You know he won by entering a 40 dollar online tournament to start ... perhaps you should consider a new career?)
I hate to tell you this as it may encourage a very Lebowski Dude lifestyle (robe and slippers included) ... but I recently read that a new cable/satellite network will debut later this year called "Casino and Gaming Television" or CGTV ... it will offer 24-hour gaming content including tournaments, poker-tip shows, nightlife hotspots in gaming towns, etc etc.
And don't think you are alone in your strange fascination ... myself along with a large group of friends are all momentarily obsessed with it as well. (I even bought a casino player magazine on a whim the other day ... clearly I'm on the verge of needing GA or something)
In any case ... GO MONEYMAKER! :) (You know he won by entering a 40 dollar online tournament to start ... perhaps you should consider a new career?)