Celebrity Poker

[ACE2M]

Whats the point?

Just read negreanu's bit about the soccer player/proffesionals tournament and having read dc's bit as well, it makes me wonder who gains anything from these tournaments?
Proffesionals get a fee, but who enjoys watching them?
the ladies event on sky recently was embarrasing to watch (even with a 3k buy in, i didn't see chilli's game but it must have been better than the crap i watched)
Celeb poker is also complete crud and these team events are pretty lame to.

[CelticGeezeer]

Yep spot on 

[Nem]

Whats the point?

Anything to milk the $$$ Cow.

[TightEnd]

I suspect the point is that Matchroom (or similar company) gets a large fee from the TV company, then gets people to stump up the buy in, adds in a mix of its own contracted snooker players/footballers/actors/delete as applicable which it gets for free.

In the morning it then deposits large sack of money in bank.

[NoflopsHomer]

It's celebrity everything these days. Most of them are 'no-name know nothings', frankly I'd rather watch a bunch of good amateur players, heck, you'd learn 100 times more about poker watching a SNG from the blonde bash than one of these celeb heats.

Any chance of a televised blonde tournament on Poker425?

[Claw75]

I think there is a place in today's TV market for celebrity poker - it was after watching one of those shows that I got into the game in the first place.  It did take me a few weeks though to 'unlearn' everything I'd seen and start from scratch.  I agree with your comments about the womens poker open - it was painful to watch.

There must be some balance to be struck here - I'm sure there must be plenty of 'celebs' who actually play poker on a regular basis that would be willing to sign up for these things. The TV execs have lost nothing, and anyone that wants to tune in to watch a half decent game of poker can.

[Claw75]

.....should clarify that I only saw about 10 minutes of the first 'celeb' heat of the women's poker open - I'm sure there was some great viewing once they got to the proper heats.

[TightEnd]

I suppose Claw has a point in that it can attract new players into the game

Hopefully unlike Claw these new players will not make such efforts to improve and will play the way they see these celebrities play

Of course one should be careful of generalising too....the teachings of MadMarty lay behind the successes of Helen Chamberlain, Matthew Stevens and Phil Taylor in pro/celebrity and poker million tournaments in 2003-05.

Teddy Sheringham is also a good player

Michael Greco is also very good, and has improved tons

[ACE2M]

Of course there are some decent players who take it seriously enough to afford some sort of pleasure from watching it, but if any one has not read dc's bit on neville southall's all in call with 7 high, this is car crash tv.

[TightEnd]

Mind you, not many Welsh poker playing footballers to choose from I suppose

However they might have found one who would not call two bets and then an all in down the streets on a board of AQQA8 with 76!!!

[ACE2M]

Mr Southall was one of my boyhood heroes, a machine designed for stopoing shots but clearly stopped a few to many with his head.

[TightEnd]

It also reminds me of the classic John McCririck moment at the Vic last year

The board is 

Chris Moneymaker bets the river

He folds

Moneymaker literally gasped.

[Claw75]

Of course there are some decent players who take it seriously enough to afford some sort of pleasure from watching it, but if any one has not read dc's bit on neville southall's all in call with 7 high, this is car crash tv.

did he have a 4 with his 7 though...in which case calling all-in is surely the correct play?

[Dingdell]

I watched some of the ladies tournament - and I cringed a lot - the one with Stephanie Beecham and her friend who was 'talked' into playing and didn't have a clue - it's not poker and it's not pretty......last nights one with Rhowena in it was better as they had some serious players - but the inexpereince of women like Tina Hobley who bets with anything doesn't make it good viewing - just frustrating.

it's only good poker if all the players are of a similar standard. Mixing them up is just bad.

Tracey 

[Gryffles]

Poker on TV is crap regardless, its good TV when:

The banter is amusing. eg Gsns high stakes or some annoying twat at the wsop. ( read matusow/hellmuth/etc ).
The plays are tension filled. Hence the high amount of bluffs/rebluffs shown on TV as well as badbeats.

Celebrity poker tournaments are thus crap because:

They are all zlisters who couldn't be witty if you had them strapped to a large catapult and had someone threatening to chop the rope holding it back unless they were witty.
They couldn't make a good move if you had some sharks with lasers on their heads threatening them.