Reality TV Show About Online Poker Stars Filming Pilot

Date: Sun, Sep 7, 2008

Gaming channel G4 will film a pilot for House of Cards, a new reality TV show about online poker stars Jay "Krantz/pr1nnyraid" Rosenkrantz, Emil "Whitelime" Patel, Ariel "FoxwoodsFiend/DaEvils" Schneller, and Brian "Flawless Victory" Roberts. Krantz blogs:

-the premise of the pilot is that we will all be playing poker over the course of 1 week trying to meet some arbitrary cumulative $ goal. The person who earns the least will be forced to do some ridiculous stunt, dare, punishment, etc. There will be a big party and some other sweet sillyness, like footage of my dunk training and possibly flying F14 jets. There is an awesome house. We live in it.

-we are headed out there for 2 weeks to film the pilot. If the pilot is good, there’s a high likelihood we will get a 6-8 episode series.

... this jazzy description of the TV show:

HOUSE OF CARDS, a half hour special, will chronicle the lives of a group of top-flight online poker players. All close friends who met on the internet, they’re considered the best online players in the world. We’ll hear their stories and vicariously experience a dream life through their eyes, enjoying the best that high-end Las Vegas luxury has to offer. From the hottest clubs to the top hotels and restaurants, the boys are heroes to kids like them around the Globe.

The show will reportedly be produced by Emmy Award winner Michael Maloy.

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Main Event Of World Series Of Poker On TV Tuesday

Date: Thu, Aug 28, 2008

Event 54, the $10,000 no-limit hold 'em Main Event of the World Series of Poker, comes to TV Tuesday at 8 PM on ESPN. It will run until the 4-month-delayed final table broadcast on November 11.

The World Poker Tour season is over (the next one starts in December) and Poker After Dark is still in rerun for a while yet.

In this week's comments:

• more evidence that ESPN, not Harrah's, runs the World Series of Poker;
• more evidence that the National Heads-up Poker Championship isn't so much a championship as a TV show; and
• a rumor that the WPT Championship wasn't included in the Fox Sports Net deal.

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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Main Event Of World Series Of Poker On TV Tuesday

Date: Thu, Aug 28, 2008

Event 54, the $10,000 no-limit hold 'em Main Event of the World Series of Poker, comes to TV Tuesday at 8 PM on ESPN. It will run until the 4-month-delayed final table broadcast on November 11.

The World Poker Tour season is over (the next one starts in December) and Poker After Dark is still in rerun for a while yet.

In this week's comments:

• more evidence that ESPN, not Harrah's, runs the World Series of Poker;
• more evidence that the National Heads-up Poker Championship isn't so much a championship as a TV show; and
• a rumor that the WPT Championship wasn't included in the Fox Sports Net deal.

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

What To Expect From The Coming Football Season

Date: Thu, Aug 28, 2008

Football season is about to start, so I thought I'd link to one of our previous articles for those of you who haven't seen it:

Matt Marantz, ESPN's WSOP producer, is taking over as executive producer of ESPN/ABC's football broadcasts. He intends to adopt the poker broadcasting model for football games. The shows will be shorter, edited broadcasts concentrating on the most interesting plays, with more human interest segments...

Read the rest of ESPN/ABC To Apply Poker Model To Football Broadcasts.

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What To Expect From The Coming Football Season

Date: Thu, Aug 28, 2008

Football season is about to start, so I thought I'd link to one of our previous articles for those of you who haven't seen it:

Matt Marantz, ESPN's WSOP producer, is taking over as executive producer of ESPN/ABC's football broadcasts. He intends to adopt the poker broadcasting model for football games. The shows will be shorter, edited broadcasts concentrating on the most interesting plays, with more human interest segments...

Read the rest of ESPN/ABC To Apply Poker Model To Football Broadcasts.

Read Full Poker Blog Post

The WPT's Decline And The EPT's Rise

Date: Mon, Aug 25, 2008

Ryan Lucchesi has an interesting piece on CardPlayer.com that documents the decline in attendance at World Poker Tour events and the rise at European Poker Tour events:

• WPT season five to six: 510 per event to 411 per event
• EPT season three to four: 435 per event to 537 per event

Lucchesi frames it as a function of the maturity of poker in the different markets, but it isn't, at least not entirely. PokerPages's Industry Index indicates that tournament volume is stable in the United States, meaning that the industry other than the WPT is growing. It's at least partly a problem with the WPT, not the market they compete in. Their move to Fox Sports Net from GSN could be a big boon to the World Poker Tour however.

Read Full Poker Blog Post

The WPT's Decline And The EPT's Rise

Date: Mon, Aug 25, 2008

Ryan Lucchesi has an interesting piece on CardPlayer.com that documents the decline in attendance at World Poker Tour events and the rise at European Poker Tour events:

• WPT season five to six: 510 per event to 411 per event
• EPT season three to four: 435 per event to 537 per event

Lucchesi frames it as a function of the maturity of poker in the different markets, but it isn't, at least not entirely. PokerPages's Industry Index indicates that tournament volume is stable in the United States, meaning that the industry other than the WPT is growing. It's at least partly a problem with the WPT, not the market they compete in. Their move to Fox Sports Net from GSN could be a big boon to the World Poker Tour however.

Read Full Poker Blog Post

WPT World Championship Airs Next Week

Date: Thu, Aug 21, 2008

The season-ending WPT World Championship airs next week. The buyin is $25,000 and it's the third-biggest tournament in the world, by prize pool. The winner takes home $3,389,140. The players are Gus Hansen, David Chiu, Cory Carroll, Tommy Le, John Roveto, and Jeff King.

Next week's World Series of Poker tournament is Event 50, $10,000 pot-limit Omaha. The final table features Michael Mizrachi, Kido Pham, Billy "The Croc" Argyros, Brandon Moran, Marty Smyth, Tom Hanlon, Greg Hurst, Peter Jetten, and Richard Harroch.

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

WPT World Championship Airs Next Week

Date: Thu, Aug 21, 2008

The season-ending WPT World Championship airs next week. The buyin is $25,000 and it's the third-biggest tournament in the world, by prize pool. The winner takes home $3,389,140. The players are Gus Hansen, David Chiu, Cory Carroll, Tommy Le, John Roveto, and Jeff King.

Next week's World Series of Poker tournament is Event 50, $10,000 pot-limit Omaha. The final table features Michael Mizrachi, Kido Pham, Billy "The Croc" Argyros, Brandon Moran, Marty Smyth, Tom Hanlon, Greg Hurst, Peter Jetten, and Richard Harroch.

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

Poker After Dark Season Five Plans

Date: Tue, Aug 19, 2008

10 weeks of shows will be filmed for season five of Poker After Dark. They will stick with tournaments for the most part, but more cash games will be added. The Golden Nugget is the new host casino. Filming runs from October 26 to November 5, and the new shows will start airing December 30.

See also the coverage at CardPlayer and 4Flush.

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Poker After Dark Season Five Films October, Airs December

Date: Tue, Aug 19, 2008

10 weeks of shows will be filmed for season five of Poker After Dark. They will stick with tournaments for the most part, but more cash games will be added. The Golden Nugget is the new host casino. Filming runs from October 26 to November 5, and the new shows will start airing December 30.

See also the press release.

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The One That Improves The Fastest Wins

Date: Mon, Aug 18, 2008

In any field, the one that improves the fastest wins. An example from economics comes to mind: a country like France has been rich for centuries, but their economy hasn't been growing much lately. Places like Ireland, Singapore, and Hong Kong, on the other hand, were relatively poor just a few decades ago but have been growing fast since. The latter countries have been able to pass out France in prosperity in just that short time (those interested in economics may want to check out 1 and 2).

Since 2006 I've been trying to improve the quality of poker on TV through the reviews and editorials on this site. I've been disappointed to see very little change, however. Consequently, I was thrilled last week to hear that High Stakes Poker would be showing all the hole cards next season. Not showing all the hole cards was one of my criticisms of the show (though I have plenty of other criticisms and I hope they make other improvements as well). The real significance of the announcement is that it shows that GSN/Poker PROductions are able to change and improve, which makes anything possible.

ESPN, on the other hand, seems content with producing the same wretched broadcasts of the most important event in poker year after year, despite my best efforts (and are now the last one, among the big five US poker shows, that don't show all the hole cards).

World Poker Tour Enterprises has done slightly better than that. They've been criticized for being stagnant, but they did start altering the blind structure less for TV. Once upon a time they even tried to do something groundbreaking: the Professional Poker Tour was an attempt at the PGA-style organization that some people think is the holy grail of televised poker. It didn't survive beyond one season, but at least it was a valiant effort.

The WPT has now partnered with Fox Sports Net, which has a history of innovative poker programming: they've run various live broadcasts as well as Poker Dome, which won the 2007 Special Award For Innovation Poky. Unfortunately, their innovations haven't become widespread yet.

I don't think any poker producer or broadcaster is the equivalent of Hong Kong or Singapore in economics yet, but Poker PROductions has made some of the most successful innovations in US TV poker: High Stakes Poker was the first cash game to air in this country; Poker After Dark showed most of the hands and recently added some cash game weeks; and now it looks like we'll see an improved version of High Stakes Poker.

The ability to change and improve is the key to success in any field. It's easier to improve a TV poker show than a fictional show, so there really isn't any excuse for the slow rate of change. Fiction requires talented writers, but poker TV shows can be improved just by making the technical changes talked about in our reviews and editorials (as well as poker forums all over the net). It's time for TV executives and poker producers to commit to making some simple changes for the better in their next broadcasts.

Read Full Poker Blog Post

The One That Improves The Fastest Wins

Date: Mon, Aug 18, 2008

In any field, the one that improves the fastest wins. An example from economics comes to mind: a country like France has been rich for centuries, but their economy hasn't been growing much lately. Places like Ireland, Singapore, and Hong Kong, on the other hand, were relatively poor just a few decades ago but have been growing fast since. The latter countries have been able to pass out France in prosperity in just that short time (those interested in economics may want to check out 1 and 2).

Since 2006 I've been trying to improve the quality of poker on TV through the reviews and editorials on this site. I've been disappointed to see very little change, however. Consequently, I was thrilled last week to hear that High Stakes Poker would be showing all the hole cards next season. Not showing all the hole cards was one of my criticisms of the show (though I have plenty of other criticisms and I hope they make other improvements as well). The real significance of the announcement is that it shows that GSN/Poker PROductions are able to change and improve, which makes anything possible.

ESPN, on the other hand, seems content with producing the same wretched broadcasts of the most important event in poker year after year, despite my best efforts (and are now the last one, among the big five US poker shows, that don't show all the hole cards).

World Poker Tour Enterprises has done slightly better than that. They've been criticized for being stagnant, but they did start altering the blind structure less for TV. Once upon a time they even tried to do something groundbreaking: the Professional Poker Tour was an attempt at the PGA-style organization that some people think is the holy grail of televised poker. It didn't survive beyond one season, but at least it was a valiant effort.

The WPT has now partnered with Fox Sports Net, which has a history of innovative poker programming: they've run various live broadcasts as well as Poker Dome, which won the 2007 Special Award For Innovation Poky. Unfortunately, their innovations haven't become widespread yet.

I don't think any poker producer or broadcaster is the equivalent of Hong Kong or Singapore in economics yet, but Poker PROductions has made some of the most successful innovations in US TV poker: High Stakes Poker was the first cash game to air in this country; Poker After Dark showed most of the hands and recently added some cash game weeks; and now it looks like we'll see an improved version of High Stakes Poker.

The ability to change and improve is the key to success in any field. It's easier to improve a TV poker show than a fictional show, so there really isn't any excuse for the slow rate of change. Fiction requires talented writers, but poker TV shows can be improved just by making the technical changes talked about in our reviews and editorials (as well as poker forums all over the net). It's time for TV executives and poker producers to commit to making some simple changes for the better in their next broadcasts.

Read Full Poker Blog Post

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.

Read Full Poker Blog Post