TV poker is not reality poker

By Mark Lasser

I started playing poker a long time ago. By that, I mean before it was on TV. Sure, ESPN covered the main event of the World Series of Poker. In the ‘90s, the event was played in one day, it was always held at Binions in downtown Las Vegas and the audience never saw hole cards unless there was a showdown and the players turned them over. The entire experience was so different. By not knowing what the players were holding, one couldn’t really judge how well anyone was playing. You couldn’t see the bluffs. You couldn’t see the slow plays. Of course, all that made for a boring viewing experience.

The real credit for modern televised poker needs to be given to Steven Lipscomb, a poker player and TV producer who created the World Poker Tour. He was also instrumental in using lipstick cameras on the tables that allow audience and commentators to see the cards being played. This makes the entire experience a legitimate pleasure for spectators. So why am I saying that this isn’t poker reality? Simple. There’s one thing you don’t see on TV. You don’t see everyone folding around the table and playing for small pots. Why not? Basically, poker on TV is edited. Unedited, real time poker would be boring! No one wants to watch 30 minutes of hands being folded. No one even wants to watch five minutes of tight conservative poker. We want to see the blood and guts. Let’s see some loose aggressive twenty-something push all in with A9 off suit and muscle out grandpa rock who’ll fold JJ to that 5 bet. Let’s see the pocket deuces spike a set and double up through Phil Hellmuth’s stack when he holds AK suited so we can see the hissy fit. That makes for good television.

By editing down poker to just the moments of drama, tension and conflict, we get a good show. The problem is that players try to emulate that play in real life. If you’ve ever actually sat down and watched a big tournament you actually see poker pros playing very few hands. There’s a lot of folding in poker, even by those we label loose. I see TV poker fans at table now all the time. They try to play every hand. I’ve seen some involved in 90 percent of the pots from the time they sit down. They defend every blind, even against big raises from nitty players. They also go on some great heaters. Temporarily. Then things catch up to them and they bust out with some off-suit connectors against AA, KK, AQ or AK and act like they can’t believe the other person didn’t lay down pre-flop.

Live poker has never been as aggressive as it is today. Pots are bigger. Players loosely raise and re-raise to see “where they’re at” and blinds are defended under all but the most indefensible conditions. Players assume every button raise is a steal and every continuation bet is a bluff. For tight players, this translates into fewer bigger pots with implied odds being a major strategic element. I like to be a tight player. In the good old days, a tight player’s raise would get most players to fold, but it is safe to assume today that folks will consider it a loose raise or a bluff. The old school strategy used to dictate a raise was to get people out of a pot or increase the money in the pot. Today, I’d say only the latter is true. Since that’s the case, the bigger pots are giving players longer pot odds and appropriate calls for straights and flushes. I think this kind of action gives more weight to playing nut straight and flush draws over small and medium pairs as opponents are almost always likely to pay off anything other than four-card flush draws.

Just keep in mind that inexperienced players who are loose and aggressive are usually unbluffable pre-flop, unbluffable post flop if they have any kind of draw and are very susceptible to calling non-nut hands. I wouldn’t bother slow playing a TV poker fan who admires Cada, Hansen, Esfandiari, etc. Just keep betting and raising when you want them to call and fold when you have nothing. If they do decide to sit out a hand, use the opportunity to shift gears and maybe muscle weaker players at the table.

— Mark B. Lasser is Denver writer and international poker player. He regularly plays in Colorado, Arizona, California, Missouri and Nevada. You can also find him on Full Tilt Poker. Readers can send questions and comments to him at ColoradoPokerMark@comcast.net.