O-Poker

POKER ON TV

Poker on TV isn't dead, but they definitely need more cash games. I watched two weeks worth of episodes of Poker After Dark this month. That is probably as many as I have watched the rest of 2009 even though my DVR still records every episode. The reason that I watched every episode of PAD for two weeks this month - cash games. The show is just so much more interesting when they have cash games. There is always action when you get the right players at the table. The 6 max SNG format is very boring when you drag it out over five days. The early levels (first part of the week) are usually tight and the later levels (mid-end of week) become all-in or fold as the average stack dwindles relative to the BB. IMO, PAD should switch to 100% cash games.

WSOP ME - The jury is still out on the extended Main Event coverage, but I am starting to think it is going to be overkill. I feel like 2 more weeks of coverage before the final table would be more than enough, but there are still 6 more weeks of new ME episodes before the Final Table. Yes, we will get to see more interesting spots, but do we really need six more full weeks of coverage? How many more human interest (fluff) player profiles do they plan to squeeze in? Is the casual fan (occasional poker player or non-player) going to stick around for six more weeks? Surely there will be a pretty significant drop in ratings when people start realizing how long they have to wait until there is a conclusion.

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BACK TO NLHE

After an extended stint at the LHE cash games, I am starting to dip my toes back into the NLHE waters. I am going to keep very stringent bankroll guidelines and start at NL50 full ring. I have reviewed some old NLHE hand histories and discovered some big leaks and a couple of small ones. There are two in particular that are costing me a lot of money in the long run, but on the surface seemed very small. I will post more on those leaks and how I am doing with plugging them in a future post.

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RANDOM FOOTBALL THOUGHTS

College Football is so much more interesting than NFL imo.

How many NFL games would you really be interested in if you didn't have a Fantasy Football team? Would you even care to know the score of a Browns/Rams games if one the players wasn't starting on your FF team that week? I find it funny to watch friends rooting for teams that they would normally hate, because they have X, Y, or Z player.

Don't get wrong, I still enjoy watching NFL games, but the excitement and energy level of college football seems to be a few steps above the NFL. For the top 25 teams, each week is like a playoff game - a must win.

Maybe I'm just having a harder time getting excited about the NFL this year because my three favorite teams in order are Miami, Jacksonville, and Tampa.

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Blogger Tourneys

Hoy had a post last week about "The Death of the Private Blogger Tournament." I don't agree with some of his points, but it is worth a read. People used to play the Blogger tourneys for fun, but somewhere along the way things changed for various reasons.

I always tried to avoid the drama surrounding the blogger tourneys. I found it funny when grown adults would get into pissing matches about how someone played AJo or how someone "should have known that their gutshot draw was way behind." Some people were joking or purposely fanning the flames and others were seriously hurt or upset. No reason to want to beat someone up because they made a donkey call and sucked out on you. It doesn't matter that they think that their call wasn't bad. You don't need to convince them. LOL, it is just a tourney that you are supposed to be playing for fun.

My reason for playing less of the blogger tourneys may be different than some. I got burnt out on them during the last BBT. It seemed like we were having to play almost every night and by the end, I just didn't feel like playing them for a while. There were too many different tourneys even when the BBT wasn't going on.

I really think/hope that the right connected person could get a more casual blogger tourney series running again. It would just need to be something simple - maybe once a week. I'm sure that FTP or Pokerstars would donate all of the rake during the tourneys into an overall leaderboard prize pool or final tourney.