Next Week's Poker on TV

Date: Fri, Aug 15, 2008

Next week's WPT event is the Ladies' Championship from the Bellagio. They're saying it was a real catfight. Vanessa Selbst and Van Nguyen are the most famous players.

Next week's World Series of Poker tournament is Event 45, $50,000 HORSE. The players are Barry Greenstein (the only player to cash in the event all three years, with two final tables), Huck Seed, Scotty Nguyen, Erick Lindgren, Lyle Berman, Matt Glantz, Michael DeMichele, and Patrick Bueno.

Check our poker on TV schedule for the list of shows regularly running new episodes, sign up for our weekly newsletter or subscribe to our feed, and contact me with any suggestions or corrections.

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Podcast Interview With Mike Sexton and Amanda Leatherman

Date: Thu, Aug 14, 2008

The PocketFives.com Podcast interviewed the World Poker Tour's Mike Sexton and Amanda Leatherman a few weeks back. They didn't say anything groundbreaking, but it's an interesting listen and the podcast is only 29 minutes long.

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Podcast Interview With Mike Sexton and Amanda Leatherman

Date: Thu, Aug 14, 2008

The PocketFives.com Podcast interviewed the World Poker Tour's Mike Sexton and Amanda Leatherman a few weeks back. They didn't say anything groundbreaking, but it's an interesting listen and the podcast is only 29 minutes long.

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High Stakes Poker Season Five Plans Announced

Date: Thu, Aug 14, 2008

GSN Vice President Kevin Belinkoff and Poker PROductions President Mori Eskandani discussed plans for season five of High Stakes Poker with CardPlayer. Changes for the new season include:

• They will show all the hole cards.
  
• Mori Eskandani says "There's a good chance it'll be a much bigger buyin" and CardPlayer reports "Eskandani hopes to see the minimum buy-in increase to $250,000, allowing the blinds to increase to $400-$800."
• They intend to announce a new venue soon.

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High Stakes Poker Season Five Plans Announced

Date: Thu, Aug 14, 2008

GSN Vice President Kevin Belinkoff and Poker PROductions President Mori Eskandani discussed plans for season five of High Stakes Poker with CardPlayer. Changes for the new season include:

• They will show all the hole cards.
  
• Mori Eskandani says "There's a good chance it'll be a much bigger buyin" and CardPlayer reports "Eskandani hopes to see the minimum buy-in increase to $250,000, allowing the blinds to increase to $400-$800."
• They intend to announce a new venue soon.

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The River Review

Date: Tue, Aug 12, 2008

The River shows the WinStar World Championship Series, a $3,000,000 tournament and the satellites leading up to it. The show has good commentary, but there’s a lot of non-poker content and the onscreen graphics are weak.

Greg Raymer has long been one of my favorite poker commentators. He’s good here, whether doing analysis or being interviewed by host Norm Hitzges, and co-commentator Annie Duke is nearly as good. Norm Hitzges is a local personality, not a poker expert, but he’s better than most at asking poker questions and interviewing people.

One major problem with the show is that there’s too much non-poker content: it’s a talk show almost as much as a poker show. They interview people (frequently Raymer and Duke), answer reader questions, and have educational segments. Early on I didn’t mind this much, as Greg Raymer makes a fascinating interview. By the time Norm starts interviewing Dave Stann (a celebrity blackjack player) and players that have already busted out of the tournament, however, I lost some interest. They do a better than average job with these segments, but there are still too many of them. The WWCS partially makes up for that by spending multiple episodes to show a final table, even devoting a full episode to a heads-up match.

The show can also be a bit hard to follow because of the unknown players and weak onscreen graphics. There’s one major problem with the graphics: they show the amount of raises instead of the amount raised to, which is a confusing departure from the standard. They’re also bad about telling us the blinds/antes and other information (though that’s true of most poker shows). Even when discussing the effect of the payout structure, they didn’t bother to tell us what it was.

I’ve heard people say that the WWCS is one of the worst poker shows they’ve ever seen. I don’t think it’s that bad, however. If they’d improve their onscreen graphics, be more selective with the non-poker content, and introduce the players at the beginning of the show it would be a perfectly decent show. I give it ** out of *****.

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The River Review

Date: Tue, Aug 12, 2008

The River shows the WinStar World Championship Series, a $3,000,000 tournament and the satellites leading up to it. The show has good commentary, but there’s a lot of non-poker content and the onscreen graphics are weak.

Greg Raymer has long been one of my favorite poker commentators. He’s good here, whether doing analysis or being interviewed by host Norm Hitzges, and co-commentator Annie Duke is nearly as good. Norm Hitzges is a local personality, not a poker expert, but he’s better than most at asking poker questions and interviewing people.

One major problem with the show is that there’s too much non-poker content: it’s a talk show almost as much as a poker show. They interview people (frequently Raymer and Duke), answer reader questions, and have educational segments. Early on I didn’t mind this much, as Greg Raymer makes a fascinating interview. By the time Norm starts interviewing Dave Stann (a celebrity blackjack player) and players that have already busted out of the tournament, however, I lost some interest. They do a better than average job with these segments, but there are still too many of them. The WWCS partially makes up for that by spending multiple episodes to show a final table, even devoting a full episode to a heads-up match.

The show can also be a bit hard to follow because of the unknown players and weak onscreen graphics. There’s one major problem with the graphics: they show the amount of raises instead of the amount raised to, which is a confusing departure from the standard. They’re also bad about telling us the blinds/antes and other information (though that’s true of most poker shows). Even when discussing the effect of the payout structure, they didn’t bother to tell us what it was.

I’ve heard people say that the WWCS is one of the worst poker shows they’ve ever seen. I don’t think it’s that bad, however. If they’d improve their onscreen graphics, be more selective with the non-poker content, and introduce the players at the beginning of the show it would be a perfectly decent show. I give it ** out of *****.

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Venetian's Poker Stage Show To Be Taped For TV

Date: Mon, Aug 11, 2008

The Venetian will be running a poker-themed stage show called The Real Deal! this fall. Two poker pros (Doyle Brunson, Daniel Negreanu, Phil Hellmuth, and seven others are participating) will compete with six audience members in a poker tournament. Audience members will accumulate points by using seat-mounted touch-screen devices. A three-handed finale will feature the chip-leading pro, the final surviving amateur, and the point leader from the audience. No TV plans have been announced yet, but The Real Deal!'s Director of Technology Erick Brownstein says "we'll be taping every show and as you may have noticed, the members of our team have extensive TV backgrounds. A betting man would lay money on us using the experience in the theater to create a fresh and new poker TV concept."

See also: The Real Deal! web site, press release, and our previous coverage.

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Venetian's Poker Stage Show To Be Taped For TV

Date: Mon, Aug 11, 2008

The Venetian will be running a poker-themed stage show called The Real Deal! this fall. Two poker pros (Doyle Brunson, Daniel Negreanu, Phil Hellmuth, and seven others are participating) will compete with six audience members in a poker tournament. Audience members will accumulate points by using seat-mounted touch-screen devices. A three-handed finale will feature the chip-leading pro, the final surviving amateur, and the point leader from the audience. No TV plans have been announced yet, but The Real Deal!'s Director of Technology Erick Brownstein says "we'll be taping every show and as you may have noticed, the members of our team have extensive TV backgrounds. A betting man would lay money on us using the experience in the theater to create a fresh and new poker TV concept."

See also: The Real Deal! web site, press release, and our previous coverage.

Read Full Poker Blog Post

Next Week's TV: WSOP And WPT

Date: Fri, Aug 8, 2008

Next week's World Poker Tour episode is the Foxwoods Poker Classic, featuring Erik Seidel, Ted Forrest, Robert Richardson, Andrew Barta, Frank Cieri, and Adam Katz.

Next week's World Series of Poker tournament is Event 5, $1,000 no-limit hold 'em with rebuys. The final table features Michael Binger, Jeff Williams (who won the EPT Championship in 2006), Alan Jaffray, Michael Banducci, Peter Gould, Lyric Duveyoung, Jonathan Aguiar, Steven Gross, and Jamie Rosen.

I've heard that the International Poker League is airing in some parts of the country. Check your local listings.

Check our poker on TV schedule for the list of shows regularly running new episodes, sign up for our weekly newsletter or subscribe to our feed, and contact me with any suggestions or corrections.

Read Full Poker Blog Post

Next Week's TV: WSOP And WPT

Date: Fri, Aug 8, 2008

Next week's World Poker Tour episode is the Foxwoods Poker Classic, featuring Erik Seidel, Ted Forrest, Robert Richardson, Andrew Barta, Frank Cieri, and Adam Katz.

Next week's World Series of Poker tournament is Event 5, $1,000 no-limit hold 'em with rebuys. The final table features Michael Binger, Jeff Williams (who won the EPT Championship in 2006), Alan Jaffray, Michael Banducci, Peter Gould, Lyric Duveyoung, Jonathan Aguiar, Steven Gross, and Jamie Rosen.

I've heard that the International Poker League is airing in some parts of the country. Check your local listings.

Check our poker on TV schedule for the list of shows regularly running new episodes, sign up for our weekly newsletter or subscribe to our feed, and contact me with any suggestions or corrections.

Read Full Poker Blog Post

AJ Benza Talks About High Stakes Poker

Date: Wed, Aug 6, 2008

AJ Benza is on the latest On the DL podcast, where he talks about High Stakes Poker, among other things. Click the links on the right side of the page to listen to just the poker parts. See also our most recent High Stakes Poker news/rumors post.

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AJ Benza Talks About High Stakes Poker

Date: Wed, Aug 6, 2008

AJ Benza is on the latest On the DL podcast, where he talks about High Stakes Poker, among other things. Click the links on the right side of the page to listen to just the poker parts. See also our most recent High Stakes Poker news/rumors post.

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No Licensing Fees For World Poker Tour Season 7

Date: Wed, Aug 6, 2008

WPT Enterprises released their second quarter results today and held a conference call (call, transcript). CEO Steve Lipscomb talked about the change from licensing fees to sponsorship revenue with WPT season 7 on Fox Sports Net (see also 1, 2), and said "$7 million from GSN... is a paltry sum compared to the amount of money that is being spent to sponsor poker shows in the marketplace." WPT Enterprises will also get four 30-second ads per episode for the first two runs of each show. Season 7 is expected to start airing in December, 2008. Lipscomb also said that the three pillars of the company's plan to become profitable were sponsorship fees, Club WPT, and China. It sounds like they may exit the real-money online poker business and focus on getting sponsorship money from the companies that are successful in the field.

If High Stakes Poker returns to TV I expect it to be sponsored as well.

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