|
Ok, now bring in the other cards! No not there…
a little lower… yep ok, now… no a little
higher… yep that’s it! OK, now wait a second…
Right! Now go with the turn card!”
This is what the poker dealer might be hearing as he
is dealing a televised final table. I myself have dealt
numerous final tables for television, including the
2004 WSOP main event. Along with six other highly skilled
dealers, I was chosen because of my skill and integrity
as a dealer. Obviously, this exceeded all of my expectations
from life, tenfold.
Many people ask me (and most of them dealers): what
is it like to deal these big spectacle tables? Well,
it’s not unlike it is for the players, I guess:
you’re thrown into an environment where everything
is different. The table is nothing like a regular table
– there are hole card cameras which each player
must show their cards to; the dealer must place each
flop in the same place and must bring cards for any
all in players to the same spot every time. Apart from
these obvious differences, the dealer will sometimes
have an earpiece connected to the director of the show.
The director sees all the angles and is giving you direction
on where to place players’ cards when they are
all in, and exactly when to deal the flop, turn and
river.
This is a huge adjustment for most dealers, as they
usually just go ahead and deal when they are ready.
On a televised table, the director is trying to get
shots of the players reacting to certain things, shots
of the crowd reacting to the flop, and so on. In general,
these tables move at a much slower pace than regular
tournament tables.
Television has certainly changed our great game in
many ways, yet there is a disturbing trend I see developing.
The problem is simple really. Television executives
are concerned with one thing: ratings. This is fine,
we all have our own agendas and, after all, television
is the reason we have so many new players, so how can
we complain? Well, we’re poker players; that’s
what we do: we complain!
Take, for example, players who are selected to play
on highlight or feature tables. These players get considerably
less hands than those other players playing on regular
tournament tables. Now, this is something that is just
accepted I guess, but when we are talking about the
million dollar prize pools, this becomes more of a problem.
Some people would say that this is a good problem to
have – try getting the World Series of Bridge
on ESPN. I’m certain that the bridge players would
do whatever it took to get the exposure that poker is
enjoying at the
moment.
So I guess we are at a crossroads. Television has influence
over many of today’s major sporting events. For
example, here in Las Vegas, if you want to go and watch
a college basketball game, then you can expect it to
start at around 9pm. You certainly can’t take
the kids to watch a game if it finishes at around midnight,
but guess what? The network dictates what time they
start, not the fans, hence the stands are empty most
of the time. Television dictates sports on more levels
than most of us realize. Why should poker be any different?
Well, the biggest difference I see is that, in most
poker events, players are putting up their own money.
The players are the talent of their productions, so
how can television dictate to a poker player what to
do? Especially since the players are not getting paid
by any of these networks.
Thankfully for poker players, times are changing. More
and more TV shows you see today are, in fact, freerolls.
These are events that players are invited to participate
in for a chance at free money. The amounts are getting
bigger and bigger, so more and more is at stake, but
in more ways than ever television plays a big factor
in these shows. So what are we to do as poker players?
Well nothing – we are at the mercy of these shows.
The networks are the ones putting out the shows, they
know what they want and, as players, we are simply coming
along for the ride. So, I say we enjoy the ride as long
as we can, but sooner or later, there will be another
bus coming along that we all will want a ticket for.
The question is, do you have a reservation? I know I
do!
Until next time… May the Flop be with You,
THE HUX
|
