BLOG - ESPN's World Series of Poker

BLOG - ESPN's World Series of Poker

Friday, 6 August 2010

Personally, I hate watching televised poker tournaments. I'm not taking the "hurrr durrr donkaments are all luck" line that cash game aficionados love; I'm criticising the everyman's broadcast of poker tournaments. Ivey, Hellmuth and Negreanu prove that there is skill in tournaments.

The thing is that tournament poker, particularly towards the late stages of an event (when more hands are televised) means lots of pre-flop all-ins.


That's fine - it's the nature of tournament poker; a knowledge of pre-flop play and ideal spots to steal pots in the first betting round is integral to becoming a tournament winner. However...


The World Series Of Poker, EPT, WPT and other televised events pit the best in the world against one another in the most prestigious event on the poker calendar. Restricting it to pre-flop play is like watching Brazil versus Germany in the World Cup Final only to find that the teams are made to stand on opposing goal lines and belt it towards the net. Again and again and again. That's my main beef.


Now, we discussed ESPN's position error - labelling the blinds as late position, etc. A post, tongue in cheek, on Two Plus Two, made me realise - when you only show pre-flop play then that is technically correct. It all boils down to what tournament poker is - a lot more luck-based than a deepstacked cash game.


The main issue with the position mistake is showing position each hand, even hands that are orbits apart. For obvious reasons that misses the point. I, of course, have no qualms with fish raising lots of hands in "late position".


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Tags: Poker News, BLOG, -, ESPN's, World, Series, of, Poker