Poker Ghetto

Has TV changed the game of poker? I recently had a discussion with a few of my poker friends regarding our favorite poker shows. We all have seen the World Poker Tour, ESPN covering the World Series of Poker, Professional Poker Tour, Poker After Dark, and High Stakes Poker just to name a few.


I have to admit that when I first started watching the WPT I was quite smitten with both the players and the game itself. Chris Moneymaker winning the 2003 WSOP put things into high gear as far as expanding the profile of No Limit Texas Hold’em and poker in general. This was great for poker and certainly perked up the ears of players and non poker players alike. After we got over talking about our favorite players and how they have fared over the years we concluded that although TV was great for exposure to the masses but it also created a false understanding of how the game is played.
With the WPT being the first weekly poker show it only showed the Final Table of each event with brief summaries of what actually took place previously in the tournament on select players that made it to TV Final Table. The other thing that we discussed was simply the fact that early on, up until 2005, the blind structure for the Final Table was so ridiculously fast that it distorted the game and made it appear as if going all-in pre-flop was the correct play to make to novices of the game. Basically the early years of the WPT influenced players to make high risk plays when many of them did not realize the context of a poker tournament and how the various stages actually work.


By 2005 the WPT finally changed the Final Table structure and allowed the players to play some real poker without the blinds crashing down on them from the first televised hand. Today the show continues to be broadcast and shows the game of poker, particularly Final Table play, in its proper light.
Clearly the first poker show to have an influence on the public was the WPT and this brought on a number of poker players that simply would push their chips in the middle with just about any pocket pair thinking that this was the correct play to make. For me it was particularly profitable in poker tournaments because it lasted for a good two years before the general public caught up and realized that you do not want to make plays like that when you are not short stacked. By that time the profit had been made and a lot of bankrolls grew from the newer players ignorance. Now everyone knows you don’t push your chips in the middle pre-flop with small pairs, suited connectors or anything else, especially early in a poker tournament. Players now know that this kind of play is a short-stack move and now understand how to extract value from their opponents versus the swing and miss all-in technique.


One show that we all agreed upon as being the best in terms of learning the game is the Professional Poker Tour. This particular show featured professional poker player and WPT finalist Mark Seif as the in-house analyst. Seif did a great job on this show. It debuted in 2005 and only ran for one season and five tournaments. However, every single tournament had great players in every spot and there were practically no weak players in the field. This led to some extremely exciting poker and also allowed viewers an inside look into the minds of some of the best poker players in the world. It also showed how the play changes from early, middle, and late stages in the poker tournament.


By now everyone had caught on and the game went from being wildly aggressive from the earlier broadcasts to a more controlled and steady aggression that most of us are used to seeing today. With shows like High Stakes Poker and Poker After Dark the networks continue to bring you quality poker strategy shows with depth and great analysis by hosts like Ali Nejad and even some of the players themselves via in-game interviews. Like anything else the game of poker evolves as time goes on. With the game now accepted world wide as a competitive sport it will continue to spawn new styles of play and it’s players will continue to be influenced by what they see the pros do on TV. That’s good for the game and good for us poker players too.