A few weeks ago, I was on my way to Nottingham to play the Sunday afternoon comp, when, out of the blue, my seat in the tournament was suddenly placed into jeopardy. I was tootling down the M42, glancing down at the clock and complacently chirping at the amount I time I had to play with, when, from nowhere… SCREECH!
Before I knew it, the car in front of me had gone from 90 – 0 in the space of a few seconds and, although I was fortunate not to rename the Fiesta Encore to the Fiesta Write-off, I found myself within a whisker of the other car’s rear.
Although the M42 doesn’t hold the greatest reputation for free-flowing traffic, a traffic jam as jammy as this one was eye-opening to say the least. ‘Must have been a crash,’ I said to my self dejectedly (I don’t make a habit of talking to myself, honest!). ‘Guess I’m going to struggle to make Nottingham by 3.’
However, after condemning my earlier complacency, the traffic began to move, although at snail’s pace, and it looked as though I had a chance of making my comp after all.
This snail’s pace continued for quite a few miles, never moving freely, and always being forced into that rather annoyingly repetitious stop and start pattern.
After a while, I eventually reached the cause for this delay that had been making me fret about making the comp. To both my chagrin and surprise, the reason for the hold-up wasn’t even on our neck of the motorway. In fact, it was way across the other side, and the jam was no more than the result of people slowing down to take a gander at the wreck. What a bunch of nosey so and so’s they all are!
As soon as I passed the point of the crash, the traffic evaporated and my journey continued as normal.
Now, although I was admittedly flabbergasted by the fact that my journey had been interrupted by the sheer nosiness of bloodthirsty drivers, it made me think about people’s hunger for head-on collisions, and how this relates to the world of poker.
The question is, do people still like ‘car crash poker’? True, nobody can deny an interest in two big hands colliding and all the chips being thrown in – it’s darn exciting. However, are things changing?
Poker shows have, up until recently, always tended to favour short-handed shoot-outs in which the blinds quickly whoosh up to bingo inducing heights, where players are frequently forced to utter those immortal words – ‘All-in’. Fast, fierce, ferocious, action-packed poker – this is what we all want, isn’t it?
Well, I’m not so sure, and I have a sneaky suspicion that times have changed. Look at the popularity of live broadcasts such as the UK Poker Open and the PaddyPower Irish Poker Open, even the William Hill 8-handed slower clock match-ups have been well-received.
It seems to me that viewers are becoming tired of the WPT-esque edits, we’ve seen it all before. Yes, it can be exciting, and yes, it is fun to watch, but we have reached the stage now where we want to see the other hands, not just the wild all-ins. In a way, it’s as if the real game is being hidden from us.
How did the chip-leader obtain the chip-lead? How did they play around the bubble? Who’s been nicking the blinds? Who’s been protecting the blinds? What have they been folding? These are the questions that I want answered when I watch a poker show, not who was forced to chuck their stack in or who lost an unavoidable coinflip.
Tournaments are often days long, and it seems a shame when all we witness are the reckless moves forced by the heavy blind and clock structure. For once, I want to learn how to improve my game, and the best way of doing that is by watching the pro’s.
So, to all TV producers, please show us what these stars do, show us how poker is really played, and allow your new, more evolved audience to learn more about the game beyond the art of gambling.
Admittedly, I also slowed down to view the car crash on the M42, so there is no doubt I was as intrigued as the next man, but, at the same time, I was keen to know how it happened. Who crashed into who, how fast was he going, was it car failure, what was the build-up to the wreck? – and so on. I felt guilty for posing these questions, but I can’t deny that they ran through my mind.
So, to me, the message was clear. We can’t deny our interest in car-crash poker, but we’re also curious about the other stuff too. So let’s see some!
Before I knew it, the car in front of me had gone from 90 – 0 in the space of a few seconds and, although I was fortunate not to rename the Fiesta Encore to the Fiesta Write-off, I found myself within a whisker of the other car’s rear.
Although the M42 doesn’t hold the greatest reputation for free-flowing traffic, a traffic jam as jammy as this one was eye-opening to say the least. ‘Must have been a crash,’ I said to my self dejectedly (I don’t make a habit of talking to myself, honest!). ‘Guess I’m going to struggle to make Nottingham by 3.’
However, after condemning my earlier complacency, the traffic began to move, although at snail’s pace, and it looked as though I had a chance of making my comp after all.
This snail’s pace continued for quite a few miles, never moving freely, and always being forced into that rather annoyingly repetitious stop and start pattern.
After a while, I eventually reached the cause for this delay that had been making me fret about making the comp. To both my chagrin and surprise, the reason for the hold-up wasn’t even on our neck of the motorway. In fact, it was way across the other side, and the jam was no more than the result of people slowing down to take a gander at the wreck. What a bunch of nosey so and so’s they all are!
As soon as I passed the point of the crash, the traffic evaporated and my journey continued as normal.
Now, although I was admittedly flabbergasted by the fact that my journey had been interrupted by the sheer nosiness of bloodthirsty drivers, it made me think about people’s hunger for head-on collisions, and how this relates to the world of poker.
The question is, do people still like ‘car crash poker’? True, nobody can deny an interest in two big hands colliding and all the chips being thrown in – it’s darn exciting. However, are things changing?
Poker shows have, up until recently, always tended to favour short-handed shoot-outs in which the blinds quickly whoosh up to bingo inducing heights, where players are frequently forced to utter those immortal words – ‘All-in’. Fast, fierce, ferocious, action-packed poker – this is what we all want, isn’t it?
Well, I’m not so sure, and I have a sneaky suspicion that times have changed. Look at the popularity of live broadcasts such as the UK Poker Open and the PaddyPower Irish Poker Open, even the William Hill 8-handed slower clock match-ups have been well-received.
It seems to me that viewers are becoming tired of the WPT-esque edits, we’ve seen it all before. Yes, it can be exciting, and yes, it is fun to watch, but we have reached the stage now where we want to see the other hands, not just the wild all-ins. In a way, it’s as if the real game is being hidden from us.
How did the chip-leader obtain the chip-lead? How did they play around the bubble? Who’s been nicking the blinds? Who’s been protecting the blinds? What have they been folding? These are the questions that I want answered when I watch a poker show, not who was forced to chuck their stack in or who lost an unavoidable coinflip.
Tournaments are often days long, and it seems a shame when all we witness are the reckless moves forced by the heavy blind and clock structure. For once, I want to learn how to improve my game, and the best way of doing that is by watching the pro’s.
So, to all TV producers, please show us what these stars do, show us how poker is really played, and allow your new, more evolved audience to learn more about the game beyond the art of gambling.
Admittedly, I also slowed down to view the car crash on the M42, so there is no doubt I was as intrigued as the next man, but, at the same time, I was keen to know how it happened. Who crashed into who, how fast was he going, was it car failure, what was the build-up to the wreck? – and so on. I felt guilty for posing these questions, but I can’t deny that they ran through my mind.
So, to me, the message was clear. We can’t deny our interest in car-crash poker, but we’re also curious about the other stuff too. So let’s see some!