EPT Live Streams Dortmund Friday and Saturday

EPT Live is covering the final two days of the EPT Dortmund tournament starting Friday.

Poker After Dark is still in rerun.

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

Torrent Reviews: The Game and Million Dollar Cash Game, Season 2

I recommend you watch The Game (torrent), a poker show that recently started airing on Swedish TV. It's a shorthanded $100/200 NL cash game with $25 antes. It features some terrific players like Patrik Antonius, Tony G, Ilari Sahamies (Ziigmund), Juha Helppi, and Fredrik Halling (Hallinggol). The commentary is reportedly bad, so it's fortunate that I don't understand Swedish. The table talk and most of the interviews are in English. The show is well made and, like all foreign-made cash games, shows the players' profit/loss. There will be 10 episodes (not counting the first two episodes, which were qualifiers).

I can't recommend Million Dollar Cash Game, Season 2, however. It's a high stakes game (same structure as High Stakes Poker) with some of the best and most famous players in the world. Unfortunately, the show isn't good at basic things like showing the cards or the action. The table talk is inaudible as well. I found it hard to follow the action, was frustrated by the show, and stopped watching it.

See our Downloading section for further information on watching foreign poker TV shows.

Can an Invitational Be a Championship?

Bodog Beat writes:

Proving that the NBC Heads-Up Poker Championship is definitely more of a TV show than a, well, poker championship, NBC released the list of participants and it included several players who are sure to bring in viewers if not raise the quality of competition.

TV stars Jason Alexander (Seinfeld) and Brad Garrett (Everybody Loves Raymond), movie star Don Cheadle (Ocean's Thirteen and Hotel Rwanda) and baseball legend Orel Hersheiser will all be at Caesars Palace on February 29 to take part in the 64-player single elimination tournament. In the "confused" category are several poker celebs who are now more well-known as poker players than for their on-screen careers including Jennifer Tilly and Shannon Elizabeth.

In Orel's defense, he reportedly crushes the $1/2 NL at the Red Rock Casino.

Can an invitational event ever really be a "championship?" An open tournament can be a championship, or even one with clear qualification standards (The Masters)... but a made-for-TV invitational where 7 of the 64 participants are celebrities, 4 are qualifiers, and of the remaining 53 many are chosen for their fame (e.g. Jamie Gold) or entertainment value (e.g. Sam Grizzle) rather than their skill?

Poker on TV Update, January 20, 2007

Poker After Dark will be airing reruns till February 12 (schedule).

WSOP Live streams the final table of the WSOP Circuit event from Harrah's Tunica Tuesday at 2:15 PM. Despite having hole cards, these streams aren't as well-regarded as the EPT Live streams.

NBC issued the rest of the invitations for the National Heads-Up Poker Championship. It airs in April.

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

Poker on TV Update, January 13, 2007

They're calling the next Poker After Dark hecklers week. The players are Gavin Smith, Sam Grizzle, Jean-Robert Bellande, Mike Matusow, Shawn Sheikhan, and Phil Hellmuth.

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

I Bet You Returns For Season Two April 10

Season 2 of I Bet You airs on MOJO starting April 10. They've shot 14 episodes for season 2.

World Poker Tour Introduces Ladies Tour, Championship To Be On TV

The World Poker Tour announced the WPT Ladies tour (WPTL), with buy-ins ranging from $300 to $1,500. It starts January 20 at the Borgata, with additional tournaments at Foxwoods, Commerce Casino, Bay 101, and Bellagio. The Championship at Bellagio will be filmed for TV.

PokerBowl In Trouble

Pokerati reports that the PokerBowl (see our previous note) was unable to pay its winners and is being taken over by Poker Business Enterprises. Poker Business Enterprises is evaluating the company's financial situation and hopes the show will air this spring. It had been on our upcoming list for January 26th, but we've removed it for now. These new poker on TV startups don't always pull off their plans, and I've even stopped reporting on some that I don't find to be credible.

Poker on TV Update, January 6, 2008

This week's Poker After Dark features Gavin Smith, David Oppenheim, Erick Lindgren, Phil Ivey, Doyle Brunson, and Daniel Negreanu. They're marketing it as a golfers' gabfest, but the quality of the players interests me more: it's one of the best lineups they've ever had. David Oppenheim may be less well known than the others to you, but he is one of the world's best cash-game players.

EPT Live is broadcasting the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure (formerly a WPT event) this week. They start with a TV table Wednesday at noon and air the final table Thursday at 10 AM. These are high quality streams but without hole-card cams.

NBC has announced 37 of the invitees to the 2008 National Heads-Up Poker Championship. Due to the time slot and network, previous seasons have been the highest-rated poker shows on TV.

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

Why Aren't Poker TV Shows More Widely Available?

Earlier this football season I was frustrated at rarely being able to see my Pittsburgh Steelers on TV. Every NFL game is filmed and broadcast somewhere, and no more than 7 games take place at any one time. My cable system has hundreds of channels. So why can't I watch any NFL game I want to? The national broadcast networks and cable sports channels alone could broadcast every NFL game. Dozens of national cable channels would also jump at the chance to get such highly-rated programming. It's already being filmed, so why not distribute it? It would generate more revenue and more fans.

I'm similarly frustrated by poker on TV. Every day, all over the world, people go to great lengths to find poker programming from sources other than the shows' owners... because the owners don't make the shows available to them. People go to the trouble of recording shows, converting them, and uploading them to sites like YouTube, PokerTube, or The Poker Bay for others to watch or download. All that work is unpaid, but people do it anyway. Most potential viewers will still never know that they could find a show in those places. So why aren't shows' owners making them more widely available in the first place?

I'm a big fan of the the ad-supported television model, which has given us all these free shows. I think the shows' owners should be the ones hosting ad-supported streaming videos and torrents in places where viewers can easily find them (e.g. the shows' sites, network sites, and YouTube). Some shows are starting to do this: old High Stakes Poker episodes are available ad free on YouTube and new Poker After Dark episodes are available with ads on NBC's web site.

The few broadcasters that used to produce DVDs of poker shows seem to have stopped. Perhaps they can't make a profit with their high cost structures, but there are thousands of entrepreneurs out there that could produce DVDs cheaply and would love to pay a royalty to sell them. Remember, many people are already creating torrents or streams of these shows for free.

If I want to watch a European poker show I download a torrent. If a European wants to watch an American show they probably have to download a torrent or find a stream as well. Even in America I regularly hear complaints from people who can't watch High Stakes Poker because they don't get GSN. Why not just make every episode of every show freely available as ad-supported streams and torrents and paid DVDs?


See also our advice on downloading and streaming poker TV shows.