Only logged-in members can vote!
→ Click here to create a Mob account which gives you access to our forum and all our free bankrolls (no deposit bonuses) → Log in to existing account!
Joined: Feb '08
Location: United Kingdom
Age: 35 (M)
Posts: 1886
How much is poker televised in your country? I find that in the UK there are quite a few poker shows on mainstream TV channels late at night although it probably peaked a few years ago. But all this televised poker is not necessarily all good.
Of course it's good for poker fans who get to watch their heros play and it's good for online poker encouraging new sign ups. But it tends to be shown only late at night or in the early hours of the morning so it's not great for poker fans who work in the day.
The fact they are shown so late means that they are associated with seedy adult television and as mentioned in my other thread poker is already a taboo subject. They share a time slot with many of those gambling shows where you phone in to waste money playing fixed games, so it's no wonder more clueless gamblers are playing poker.
Also televised poker is edited to make it more exciting for the audience and it doesn't really represent true poker leading to many over-aggressive play-any-s**t pro-wannabes online. Which I guess you can see as a good thing if you like taking money off donks.
I don't watch these shows anymore so I can't criticize them too much but I remember many of the analysis on these shows was poor, the celebrity commentators knew literally nothing and some tournaments were actually quite boring. One or two were quite good but they are so similarly named I forget what the good ones are.
Joined: Apr '09
Location: Portugal
Age: 44 (M)
Posts: 4827
Not much. I only have the chance to watch Poker Channel through cable TV, and, if i want to see some action on national television, it has to be at 3a.m. week days and it just shows some tables of old action at EPT. It's not the best, but nowadays those who want to see something good about poker also prefer to look for it on the net, so i don't mind not to see it on tv.
Joined: Mar '11
Location: Croatia
Age: 43 (M)
Posts: 1738
Here I get to see from time to time a live show on cable tv. Its in german so i dont get what the commentators are saying but it doesnt bother me much since poker on tv seeing the cards of both players is quite self explanatory. Would like to have at least a guaranteed show to see every saturday night or so.
Joined: Mar '09
Location: Greece
Age: 47 (F)
Posts: 14136
Not enough i must say. Or we could get it to not at all option if there was one, since there hasnt been a live show ever. They are all cans and most of the times they are showing them after hours like 2-3am
Joined: May '08
Location: Lithuania
Age: 39 (M)
Posts: 10090
very little- last year we had opportunity to see premier league of poker, sometimes we see one or two shows about our local sports poker association and it's events, but those are more funny than anything else, but in truth i don't see any interest in watching other dudes play some hands that were cut out form his all action...you probably learn nothing
Joined: Mar '12
Location: United Kingdom
Age: 40 (M)
Posts: 1277
It's dreadfully bad and always on at s**t times.
I don't pay for SKy or any of that bs, so the only things on are Ch5 Celebrity Poker now and again and Ch4 ocassionally (although less frequently) shows the odd tourney like Carribean Poker.
Not enough to get people interested really and it'll mostly be older people watching late at night.
Joined: Apr '09
Location: Australia
Age: 40 (M)
Posts: 6483
Posted by jessthehuman: basically none in Australia on Free-To-Air, there's a bit if you pay for it (WSOP coverage, etc).
Actually to be perfectly honest - I *think* there is none on Aus free-air TV. Personally - I don't actually watch TV, I switched over to a media PC + the internet years ago.. Watch what I want when I want, TV is so very 90s.
Joined: Apr '11
Location: Romania
Age: 58 (M)
Posts: 2432
In Romania televised poker is mostly comercial,promoting sites PokerStars and Party Poker(like paid advertise)I don't watch these shows ,many of the analysis on these are poor, the celebrity commentators knew little abouit poker,,are so comercial.Better to watch on line ,Pokerstars has a lot of events,live or recorded,with good commentators.
Joined: Oct '10
Location: Malta
Age: 43 (M)
Posts: 44
Well as for them only showing the exiting hands, shows are shows. They can't exactly make a TV show showing every single slow played, fold to the big blind hand hand as it would just not be entertaining to the general public. There are other options though. Most poker tv stations stream live on the internet for free (yes the ones you have to normally pay sky, cable etc for) and unless your pc/laptop or your tv is more than 15 years old, all you need is a couple of quid for a cable to hook them up together and watch your favourite shows on your big screen.
Oh and another thing, if you do want to watch hand for hand play and are on pokerstars you can actually watch hand for hand play with or without commentary and analysis on their main site for all big tournaments held there like wcoop etc. to learn how the pros play online.
Joined: Aug '11
Location: Portugal
Age: 39 (M)
Posts: 232
In my country we have only a show .. that shows every EPT tour with some poker commentators and players talking about it. It airs like kinda late which is kinda acceptable and comprehensive because poker is not a very well seen game by the masses. And imo like some said.. i'm glad there's no more poker on tv coz i don't wanna see so much tarded people watching a hand or 2 on the tv .. and 3betting with 87 off or raising EP coz they see someone raising a hand and they thought it was cool.. makes the game look tarded. Any TV show can be seen in the inet easily.
Joined: Mar '12
Location: Austria
Age: 30 (M)
Posts: 36
in Austria/Germany we can watch Poker on DSF from Tuesday- Friday from 6:00 - 8:00 am WSOP Main Event is shown every Thursday on 8:00 pm but it's gone down lately, I remember 1 week before Black Friday Pokerstars became an ad in Austrias main channel ORF 1 and I even saw ads on several dutch sport channels but afterwards they stopped the ads immidiately
I actually started playing Poker from a PS ad at 6:00 am that was streamed during Poker after Dark which was running when I was hving breakfast every morning.
The WSOP is a must every year cause Norman Chad is simply the best when it comes to the bubble so I download it on youtube. Remember when Phil Hellmuth dressed as Caesar? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7e5UGTMEd1Q
Joined: Feb '11
Location: United Kingdom
Age: 59 (M)
Posts: 5712
There is not enough Poker on TV and even when it is there is not enough of it on the shows that we get here in UK, even on SKY TV. SOme of the productions are really exciting. Earlier in the year I even got wifey to watch and she was more excited by it all than I was!
Joined: Jan '11
Location: United States
Age: 60 (M)
Posts: 3361
It definitely slowed down since the whole "Black friday" deal and there's basically none on the tregular tele stations. There are some WPT games on cable (pay T.V) which everyone has anymore, but I'd like to see some of the games that go on around the world.
Joined: Feb '12
Location: United Kingdom
Age: 46 (M)
Posts: 48
i wrote a whole big reply to this the other day then pressed the wrong button and lost it all but i digress, i was just saying how there used to be a lot on tv over here but it has really dried up this year, what with them cancelling ukipt tv coverage and giving us a 5 min snippet of what went down at each event at the ads of the pca programme. we also lost the big game on ch5 and i don't know what has happened to late night poker and premier league, so i like jess have turned to getting my fix online. youtube has a great back catalogue of shows that i'm sure could keep you watching for a lifetime lol. I can't think of 1 show on uk tv in the last month unless you have espn on cable to watch the wsop.
------------ YOUTUBE green mohave all old wsops, wsope, pca, ukipt, ept, late night poker and premier league poker. i must just add that with premier being a league format the 2nd commentator is always one of the pros that aren't playing in that particular game. it makes for some great insights into the thought processes of the players. partypoker premier league v being a really good 1 especially andrew feldman's commentary.