Best TV
Well, High Stakes Poker is back and the WPT found a network. ESPN has kicked into WSOP mode. PokerStars has their own network on the net. I don’t think that the best TV is on any of them although it is on PokerStars.
I mentioned yesterday they are ’showing’ some final tables under the Specials tab in the tournament lobby. I said the ones I watched were great but probably gone. Well, I lied again. They are both dated the 25th and I’m guessing that it takes a while to process the new ones and that you can watch for a day or two more.
The $5200 freezeout is a good look at early play. The blinds are very low and every seat has a workable stack. The Million is late play with nasty blinds. You’ll see a fellow — “Moorten“ — overplaying hands. Nasty suckout? Flip-flopping at turn and river? Yeah, got both of those. You’ll see all-in play by a player who waited too long. I thought Sam66’s table captain play was about as good as it get. Even with the occasional poor move, he seldom overplayed by that much. And that’s the fine line between good captaining and poor.
If you’re giving thoughts to going to one of those pay to learn sites, you’ll find that with a bit of application of your own gray matter, you can save a few bucks and learn as much or more. The demos from them that I’ve seen are recorded tables that don’t give you hole cam access. That’s great to get the thinking of a top player. He shares his thoughts and that might be invaluable.
But viewing with every card exposed in the ebb and flow of normal play it goes far beyond what you can garner from edited shows. How people work their stack is worn on their collars. That affects the how, when, where of bluffing. Position against the table captain gives differing play to different folks.
The 5200 is great early play. Yeah, you’ll see mistakes like we all make but the stacks remained workable for the majority of players right up to the end. The short stack in 3-way action had a M approaching 50. (blinds 50-100 ante 20) It doesn’t take much to contrast the way blind structure affects play and you’ll see good and bad approaches at both.
I remember watching one of these a while back. Either the play was weaker or it didn’t register. But, on this set, I’m impressed and wondering what I’ve missed over the intervening period that could have helped my game. Can’t say if those following will be better or worse; so try to hit these while they are still available.
ADDENDUM:
I like talking about a tight game. Now if I only played that way. Over the weekend, I had a good set of games going. The last several days went pretty well. So, I moved up a level and dumped a double buyin. Not a good feeling. It was one of those tables you can play a lot of hands on and then watch cards either not appear or better appear elsewhere.
On Monday I managed a decent 1-2 session and made back close to 1 buyin. It also put me back in the green for that level. That greenness is chump change though and that with a 70% session win rate. That’s actually my best win rate against all levels. None are below half but the .50-1 still sucks like a sump pump.
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August 3rd, 2008 at 7:12 am
Thanks for the heads up on WPT. I think that WSOP is a stronger mainstream brand, and overall hotter in the media. Still, really the only thing that matters is the real books - the bottom line, expenses, revenue and profit. I understand that WPT and WSOP are quality and respected, so that’s a good thing for the industry. Here in Australia ESPN has a strong following and is found on all the major pay TV networks, namely Foxtel, Austar and Optus, and its also found on some hotel channels with pay TV dishes. PokerStars may be on the net, but nothing beats TV, even these days. Just look at the success of Challenge Jackpot and the Virgin Media connection. Having said that, even Rupert Murdoch told his staff to pay attention and be active with the internet or they “will die”. News.com.au and MySpace.com both have plenty of multimedia footage, so we know that internet is where the action is, for the bottom line also. When casinos meet the internet, and media moguls are in on the action, that stakes couldn’t be higher. It looks like PokerWorks is doing alright out of the surge in interest also, and news media should eat it up, not only here in Australia, but globally, thanks to the internet.