By
jeffbeesdat
As poker players, most of us are fans of televised poker, whether it be WSOP, WPT, PPT, High Stakes, or other shows. In the following article, I am going to show you how awareness to certain detrimental effects of televised poker can help you plug leaks in your game, while also potentially improving your game selection.
A few years back, the Real World used to be one of my favorite shows on television. The concept behind the Real World actually sounds pretty boring: "A group of strangers, living in a house while having their lives taped." How could anyone enjoy watching the lives of random people, of whom they have no prior knowledge or affiliation? In my opinion, people relish this show because the producers portray very little footage that actually pertains to the "real world," but instead show more of a "fantasy world" that hardly exists. Don't you find it a bit amusing that the cast is never shown brushing their teeth, paying their bills, or making their beds? The producers take small segments of the cast members' lives, spin these segments to their liking, and release new episodes.
Televised poker is Reality TV. The producers of poker shows choose not to focus on a disciplined player folding fifteen hand in a row or a good player making a solid continuation bet to take down the pot on the flop. Instead, they would rather divert your attention to action flops, huge bluffs, and borderline calls that can either be construed as genius or fortunate. Why? Because the general public does not find the nuts and bolts of poker to be sexy. This aspect of the game is the teeth brushing, bill paying, and bed making component that does not sell to the public.
A perfect example of this concept is theTakeover's domination of the WPT Foxwoods Final Table. If you were to poll a group of WPT viewers, most would tell you that this episode was their least favorite show of 2006. Nick Schulman finished off this table in such a short number of hands that the producers were forced to show a great player with a monster stack methodically grind down a Final Table instead of the mind boggling action plays that we have been trained to expect. Observers, in general, would much rather watch shows that include plays such as SDouble's brilliant "all in" bluff on a 4 flushed board against TranquilChaos or Phil Ivey's bet, raise, re-raise, re-re-raise, re-re-re-raise with air heads up vs. Paul Jackson in the Monte Carlo Millions.
We understand why producers show these situations to the public, but as serious players, why do we enjoy these situations more than the nuts and bolts scenarios?
There are actually quite a few potential answers to this question, but I would like to focus on one in particular. As human's we tend to desire things and traits that we do not possess. There are only a handful of players in the world who could make the bluffs that SDouble and Phil Ivey did with long run profitability in the aforementioned hands. As poker players, we want to have these "weapons" in our arsenal, as we feel that these additions are the silver bullets that will take our respective games to the next level. By viewing these rare plays as the benchmarks, but not looking at the situations that led up to these particular plays or the long run profitability of the play in question, we tend to value short term results over long run expectations. We also discount the thought, time, practice, and situational components of the equation that make these types of plays even remotely possible.
At the beginning of this year, I made a conscious decision to play MTT's on Wednesday nights. I had originally chosen this night due to the great tourney selection on Stars and UB, but my reasoning changed when I found this night to be more profitable than any other night of the week. After scoring some very nice cashes, I began wondering why so many players were making such loose calls and ill advised bluffs in Wednesday night tournaments. On one particular Wednesday, I was watching one of the new WPT episodes, and out of the blue, it hit me. Many of my opponents were also watching the new WPT episodes, and they were either consciously or subconsciously trying to integrate certain uber lag components seen on WPT episodes into their games, while in the process of actually playing these tournaments. Since many of these players were not familiar with this style of play, they were having about as much success in this endeavor as someone baking a chicken and then deciding halfway through the process to try frying it.
Fortunately, I was able to capitalize on poker television's influence on my opponents. But most players are not cognizant of this influence, leaving them in the category of the fish and not sharks.
Ask yourself a couple of honest questions. Do you watch televised poker while you play? If your answer is yes, do you think that televised poker influences the games or tourneys that you are playing? If your answer is yes to this question as well, I have a couple of suggestions that may help. First of all, I do not recommend watching television at all while you play. I have found that I play my very best when I am completely focused on the tournament(s) at hand and am not distracted by outside media such as tv, phone, etc. If you really feel the need to watch televised poker while you play, I would make sure that you are very aware of its influence on your game, as otherwise it will be a huge detriment to your playing ability.
Lastly, I would suggest that you integrate televised poker into your game selection process. If you have an opportunity to play in a tournament or cash game where a large group of players are not playing their "A game" due to an outside influence, take advantage of it.
The next time you are playing in a tournament and your opponent floats out of position on the flop and turn, and then proceeds to bluff of his stack on the river, ask yourself, "What poker show is on tv right now?"