Most of us have been drawn to the game of poker over the years through the various televised poker shows. It is our introduction to the poker world. The World Poker Tour introduced the hole card camera over a decade ago and became the standard bearer for years of televised poker. We enjoy watching poker stars and celebrities battle it out on television for large prize money. Poker started to really explode worldwide in the wake of Chris Moneymaker’s 2003 World Series of Poker win over Sammy Farha, proving that anyone could hit it big. From there many TV poker shows have come and gone from Late Night Poker, Celebrity Poker Showdown, Poker Royale, Poker Superstars, Ultimate Poker Challenge and others. Every year, I watch some of the ESPN coverage of the World Series of Poker in Las Vegas. In the wake of poker’s April Black Friday in the United States, many of the more recent poker shows have lost their funding and been canceled, including National Heads Up Championship, High Stakes Poker, Poker After Dark, and The Big Game. Even the survivors like the ESPN coverage of the World Series of Poker have been introducing more streaming online and slightly delayed live coverage to reach a wider audience. The evolution of televised poker will continue, but one thing that can’t be ignored is its influence on us.
The important question to ask from watching TV poker is what should we take away from it? Is it the same poker that we play amongst our friends, online or at the local casino? What can we learn from watching poker on TV and how should it influence our own poker playing?
Here are seven thoughts on what to take away from our TV poker watching experience.
Insights on TV Poker
- 1. TV poker is designed to be entertaining.
Historically, TV poker has been developed to entertain more than educate. The producers and directors are trying to capture drama and excitement. They are trying to highlight celebrity and personality. They are trying to tell a story of some kinds. They intentionally edit out parts that don’t contribute to the entertainment factor. The poker players participating in the TV shows know that it is encouraged to be outgoing, entertaining and bigger than life. The poker production values are meant to capture your attention and the good shows do that well.
-
2. TV poker is meant to be exciting.
Due to considerable editing, you are often seeing the key crucial hands and many all in hands, while the more regular smaller pots are left on the cutting room floor. This gives a very distorted view that there is always big action at the table. Most hands involve folding and few hands are seen going all in or all the way to showdown. On TV poker, you will see a disproportianate amount of big moves, big bets and bluffs because that has the most drama and action that plays well in TV. Understand that your poker experience will be more mundane and less action filled.
-
3. TV poker players are very talkative.
TV poker loves talkative and extroverted players. Players like Daniel Negreanu and Gavin Smith who are always interacting with the other players at the table are natural born poker TV stars. Players like Mike Matusow or Phil Hellmuth also are great characters for the drama they bring to the table, often in the bad guy role. Poker players quickly realize that the players who don’t talk much don’t get as much TV time so they will up their banter level Realize that most poker players more quietly go about their business, not attempting to monopolize the attention of the table.
-
4. TV poker is very loose.
In the desire to capture a lot of action, poker players on TV love to play a lot of hands. Whereas a tight aggressive or mixed style may succeed away from the TV poker tables, in order to be in the spotlight and get a lot of their hands captured, players will loosen up their starting hands expectations. They don’t want to be seen as too tight, fold too many hands and miss the action. Without that artificial pressure, normal poker players will be more patient and fold more junk hands instead of playing any two like it seems on TV poker at times.
-
5. TV poker players are deceptive.
Experienced poker pros will use their image to confuse you. They might play much tighter or looser than you expect to throw you off. They are playing off a pre-construed image you have of them and trying to keep you off guard. TV poker players love to be deceptive, taking more tricky lines and unusual plays than they might ordinarily. Another factor is the that the players have been playing with each other a while, which we haven’t seen and so they have built up reads and experience that helps lead them to make certain moves that you wouldn’t likely make against an unknown player.
-
6. Celebrity factor.
Name recognition and star power count a lot in TV poker. Having a well established name with followers who know of their in our out of poker fame will always get more exposure than a relatively unknown but possibly better poker pro. That may mean the quality of play isn’t the highest, in order to ensure star power at the table that draws viewers. Comedians like Jason Alexander from Seinfeld and Brad Garrett from Everybody Loves Raymond are huge hits every year at the World Series of Poker.
-
7. TV poker is edited.
Due to time, cost and entertainment constraints, TV poker is highly edited. The structure for many televised events is quickened to shorten the length and increase the need for all-ins and dramatic moves. Small pots and unexciting hands are rarely shown. The producers are trying to provide a narrative of sorts, so the eventual winner is unlikely to have many hands shown where they lose, rather selecting more of the hands where they came out on top. The hands shown are selected to advance the story line and for dramatic purposes. As a result, it is difficult to understand the true storyline of why certain things are happening when you only see a few select hands and moves made. When you are present for the entire flow of hands, you can better gain a context of why certain moves are made after seeing all the hands that led up to it.
Adapting TV poker to your online game
If we realize that TV poker is a unique highly edited version of the game of poker, there are some things to we can take away from watching it.
Away from the spotlight, you are not playing to entertain others, but rather to have fun, win, and make money. Focus all your attention on those goals and don’t get caught up in showboating or playing to an audience. Until you are a more advanced player don’t waste your energy on the extras of constant chatting, doing chip tricks, or playing overly deceptive to create some wild image. Focusing on a disciplined play will beat most opponents who play too loose and call with any piece. Poker is not only big all-in hands and bluffs. Much of online poker is folding, playing small pots, and careful aggression. It may not be as entertaining, but your goal is to gain chips through disciplined play, not risking your entire life constantly on risky moves. There is never any shame in folding. And winning a bunch of small pots without that big risk will add up and hurt less when they don’t work out.Respect all the players at your table, known or not. It is often the unknown unassuming shark you most need to pay attention to, rather than the talkative celebrity at the table that everyone else is focusing on.
TV poker can be a great forum to develop your people reading skills. Focus on how players comport themselves; their facial expressions and hand movements with chips so you can pick up possible tells when their cards are shown.
Conclusion
Texas Holdem on TV can be a very exciting and entertaining version of the game, but keep in mind that the same plays and strategy don’t always apply to your regular game online or live. Often times you can pick up a trick or tip or two if you watch closely, but their motivations and goals will often be different from yours. The style of play and flair that draws the cameras may be the opposite of what is necessary to beat your lower stakes games. Even some of the top pros admit that they will act and play differently when on TV than they might online or playing away from the spotlight. Some of that difference can be attributed to the different format and structure, but some of it is for the entertainment value and ‘table image’ building that they can exploit when away from the cameras. A wild or loose player on TV can be paid off even when they play tighter away from the cameras by playing off their image. So the next time you watch TV poker and the bigger stars, keep these things in mind before you start emulating their moves too closely.