Poker on TV

As you know, one of my favorite pasttimes is watching poker on TV. There are various poker shows that I watch, here's a breakdown:

2005 U.S. Poker Championship:
Recently concluded on ESPN. Kept together the great announcing team of Norman Chad and Lon McEachern. They are by far the best poker announce team. They analyze the action (a bit light on technical poker analysis) without beating you over the head with the drama. In this tournament two amateurs (Joe Caparucio and Ralph Peccorale) from the same home game in Long Island went heads up. Norm loved Capo because both went to University of Maryland.

Full Tilt Poker/Mansion Poker Live events:
I recently watched 2 4 hour live events on FSN. The Full Tilt Poker event featured 7 top pros (Jesus, the Mouth, Seidel, Lindgren, Juanda, Ivey & Gowen) and the Mansion Poker was 3 pros (John Gale, Gavin Smith & Todd Brunson). The FTP one was particualrly interesting because it really was a quality field, and you got to see every hand. I'd say at the beginning when all 7 players were in about half the hands were walks (unopened pots) and the others were battles of the blinds. Pretty cool to watch once, or once in a while, but four hours of poker is a lot.

Professional Poker Tour:
It's only had two episodes so far, but I like what I've seen. The PPT is an off-shoot of the WPT, with a plan to be like the PGA of poker. Players have to earn their tour cards. It's cool that all the players are pros, and about half at every table are well known. They show you a featured table and constantly cut-in or flash on the screen, knockouts from other tables. Each tournament will be 5 2-hour episodes, 4 quarters and then a final table. Not quite sure how it works beyond that, but apparently each knockout is recorded and points are accumulated and a "winner" is determined. The show is hosted by some douche I never heard of and Mark Seif is the poker analyst. For some reason I think he's Shawn's poker idol. Anyway, they do a passable job, but you can tell Seif is uncomfortable with TV as a neophyte. Also, like the WPT they incessantly beat you over the head by telling you how exciting everything is. And how important this tournament is. And how unique the PPT is. It is an improvement over the WPT in that you get to see more than just the final table. Especially since in the past 2 seasons, WPT final tables were made up of 90% amateurs and unknown pros.

High Stakes Poker:
Maybe my favorite poker show. Gabe Kaplan ("hey, Mr. Kotter) and AJ Benza host this made for TV cash game. Pretty cheap TV since there are no prizes and basically four cameras shooting the table for one day. It's unique because you never seen cash games, and the players are more relaxed, and because they are all pros who know each other the trash talk is the best part of the game. The cocktail waitresses are second. I've seen Daniel Negreanu (my favorite player) at his best in this game, making great reads, although he did get bluffed off a flush by Todd Brunson.

Intercontinental Poker Championship:
21 players representing 21 countries got together into 3 groups of 7. Each group played twice, the winner of each round advanced to the final table. With all the great players (Doyle Brunson from the USA, Daniel from Canada, Johnny Chan from China, Humberto Brenes from Costa Rica) the final table was mostly anonymous. Tony G from Australia, David Benyamine from France, Steve Wolff from South Africa, Ralph Perry from Russia, Yosh Nakano from Japan were joined by Sammy Farha from Lebanon (the only big name). Tony G and Nakano won the 2 semi finals and will go heads up for the title next week. Gabe Kaplan hosts this show too, and other than making fun of Tony G there really isn't that much production value. Also, the blinds go up too fast, so after the first few minutes someone is all in virtually every hand they show on TV.

World Series of Poker:
Starts tomorrow night at 8 on ESPN. I cannot wait. My favorite broadcast team, with the best production values, showing the best tournament. I enjoy the circuit events (which we'll be seeing for the next few months) but I love the Main Event. They say every pro says his worst day of the year is when he gets knocked out of the Main Event. My worst day of the year is when they air the final table. Pass the sugar!