Is Televised Poker Dead?

Many may feel that the title of this article is quite overstated, but there is plenty of evidence to support such a claim, and if it’s not dead, televised poker is certainly dying. Just a scant few years ago poker was the hip show on television: The WPT owned (or as we online poker players say “pwned”) the Travel Channel’s ratings, The WSOP on ESPN was putting in a highly anticipated episode every week, and Poker Superstars on Fox Sports, along with High Stakes Poker on GSN, and Poker After Dark on NBC were offering an alternative to the big field tournaments.

More to the point; in 2006 you knew precisely when a new episode was airing. In today’s watered down world of televised poker the only network that has kept a consistent time-slot is ESPN. The WPT (once estimated to be worth $500mil) is in the middle of selling its assets to PartyGaming for a mere $12mil, and has moved from its cozy timeslot on the Travel Channel to Fox Sports.

Ratings have declined across the board, and networks are trying to reinvent poker in the reality and game show genre: So far with very mixed results. In fact, most of poker’s ‘buzz’ has come from shows where poker is a secondary or tertiary element of the show (such as Jean-Robert Bellande on Survivor or Annie Duke on Celebrity Apprentice).

Poker had a very nice niche in the television market for the better part of five years (which is a pretty solid run in television years), but as the saying goes “If you’re not evolving, you’re dying.” And unfortunately poker is not evolving: At least not in good way.

Poker is at a point where we have seen all the million or multi-million dollar prize-pools; the long-shot stories; the top pros proving why they’re the best; and the feel-good segments. From what I hear, the average poker fan has seen the all-in move ad nauseam, and is thirsting for more in depth coverage. So here are a few suggestions on how televised poker could evolve:

First, I would love to see the players who were involved in the hand give commentary on what was going through their mind at the time (this would be even better if it was done for hands where their opponent’s hole-cards are not revealed at the time). Instead of all the silly stipulations how about making it mandatory that each player must do 1 hour of commentary on certain hands picked by the producers: That would give the WPT and WSOP 6 extra hours of commentary to add to their programs.

Second, let’s go back to season 1 of the WPT and the 2003 WSOP. I loved the dress code the WPT used to enforce: No sunglasses or hats, and a collared shirt. Is this really asking for too much? Additionally, get rid of the advertisements for poker rooms! My god, could someone like Tiffany Michelle add another patch anywhere on her body? What’s next tattoos and face paint? How about shaving the PokerStars logo in your head?

Finally, we need bigger prize pools. I realize that the top players are now averse to risking large portions of their money when their sponsors will enter them into any $10k tournament of their choosing, but how about a $100,000 or $250,000 buy-in tournament? Could you imagine the buzz over 100 top players competing for a $25mil prize-pool! Even if it was a 10-player Sit & Go, I think ratings would be huge for such an event.