Is Televised Poker Killing the Game?

I’m going to cut through the chase and get right to my major gripe with current incarnations of poker on TV: These shows do not display anything remotely approaching the real poker world. These shows do not give an honest representation of professional poker players -instead focusing on poker’s mega-stars: They spend all their time on the feel-good stories and trumping up the big-name players: And they give players a false sense that poker is the quick and easy way to go from rags to riches.

Now, certain shows are much worse than others, but I have yet to see a poker telecast where the poker world is honestly represented. Even the shows where they try to show every hand are overly skewed: I am reminded of the Full Tilt Poker invitational tournament from Monaco where nine top players competed in a Sit & Go Tournament, where they televised every hand. The problem was it was an invitational; the player’s did not ante-up their own money.

Another show that receives high accolades for showing almost all of the action is High Stakes Poker. This show is a realistic depiction of the high-stakes poker world: The problem is only a very exclusive segment of the poker population is capable of playing in these high-stakes games.

I won’t even discuss such poker calamities as Face the Ace, or the current version of televised tournament poker, which is basically limited to a raise and a pre-flop shove. Or the 2 Months 2 Million telecast where four 20somethings with ZERO responsibilities play Internet poker and party. Yes, being a poker prodigy is cool and exciting, but it’s completely unrealistic -and don’t forget all of these players have lucrative sponsorship deals and work for Online Poker training sites.

So, what would make this writer happy? I’m looking for a show where a poker player is hitting the tables’ night-after-night to pay his bills and feed his kids. He doesn’t have a training site deal, or a PokerStars sponsorship to fall back on for income: Either he wins money playing poker, or he doesn’t earn a nickel! If you want drama then this is the television show for you: There will be weeks where he is down money, and weeks when he is rolling in dough. I want to see how he handles these swings, and how he manages his money/family/responsibilities. It doesn’t get much realer than that!

A player grinding out $20/$40 Limit Hold’ Em or $5/$10 No Limit would not only be exciting, but it would be real, real in the sense of that is how most professional poker players roll. And it would still draw in casual fans; people would be very interested in seeing this man buy-in for $1,000 every night, with $5,000 swings!

So before poker is so over-glamorized by multi-millionaire’s and long-shot success stories, I’d like to see television get it right, and follow around a middle-limit grinder for a year. As a former middle-limit grinder myself, believe me, this show would be more exciting, and more importantly real, that what we are being exposed to now.