Watching Poker on TV

The new season of the World Poker Tour is in full swing, and there are at least four other poker shows on every week, not including old WSOP reruns, which ESPN still runs for the three or four poker fans who somehow missed them. Nearly all of these shows are entertaining, but for the poker player who wants to move his game to the next level, are they instructional? The WPT seems to want us to believe that they are. Their new ad "It Pays to Watch" campaign pushes the notion that watching the show will make us better poker players, or at least better bluffers at the DMV. But how much of that is true, and how much is hype? The answer has to do with how you watch these shows, and how you understand the relationship between the game you are seeing on TV and the games you're playing in yourself.

Lots and Lots of Editing

First of all, keep in mind that you are seeing less than ten percent of the hands that are dealt at the final table. Specifically, you are seeing the hands that produce the most decisive action, and those that eliminate players. You are not seeing blind steals, bluffs on the flop which are not called, and early check-raises which bring home small pots. These moves don't produce much TV drama, but you can bet that they are an important part of tournament poker. Small moves to win small pots are essential tools for getting to the final table, you will see a lot of all three whenever you play in a live tournament. You just won't see them on television.

The End of a Long Road

Another thing to keep in mind is that you are only seeing about five percent of the tournament itself. In their book, Cloutier and McEvoy divide poker tournaments into three stages. Each stage requires a different strategy, and that means that the exact same hands are played much differently. The early stage is about survival. The middle stage is about accumulating chips, and the final stage is about winning. Although watching a WPT final table may help you once you reach the final stage of a tournament, it won't do much for your quest to get there. In fact, if you emulate some of the moves that you see on TV while playing at the beginning of your next tournament, you may actually prevent yourself from doing so.

Table Image

At this stage, the players have played together for several hours, even a few days. They know each other, and remember moves that they have seen from them before. They know who bully is, and who only moves in with the nuts. Some of the moves that you are seeing are deliberate departures from the players' table images that they've been showing throughout the tournament. If a player has been betting aggressively on the flop for the past six hours, you may see him check when he has top pair, just because he knows that no one can put him on it. That doesn't mean that it is wise to slow-play top pair in your game - it almost never is - but it can work in the right situation, if you have the right table image.

Big Bluffs

Some of the most exciting moments in TV poker are when players fold the best hands for enormous pots. Sure, Sam from Schenectady has top pair with a decent kicker, but can he really call $800,000 more from Gus with just a pair? Those of us watching know he's playing 3-5 offsuit, but Sam doesn't know that. And if he folds here, and another short stack goes out first, Sam can make an extra $85,000 in real money, which it normally would take him two years to earn. So he folds, and we shake our heads as Gus scoops yet another pot.

If you try this in your cash game at home for $20.00, you'll get called faster than you can get your chips in. And not just with top pair either. You're liable to get called by Mike with middle pair, Frank with a flush draw, and Bill who called just because he thinks you're bluffing. In these big tournaments, the players - even the players you've never heard of - got there by knowing when to keep their chips out of harm's way. The guys in your home game, or at the $50 NL tables online don't have that gift. Not that they don't think they're beat, but there is not the same downside to them as there is to Sam from Schenectady. If they lose $20 to you, what's it to them? They still have another $140 on the table, and $200 more in their pocket, so it doesn't have the same meaning.

The point is that you cannot get away with bluffs nearly as often in your games as they do on television. They're going to call you a whole lot more often in real life. This is especially true in a cash game, where even if they go broke, they can just reach into their pocket, pull out another hundred, and keep playing. For amateurs playing for low stakes, the biggest problem is that they call too many bets. So why would you bluff into them, so that their weakness actually becomes a strength? To borrow a baseball analogy, if you're on the mound facing a hitter who doesn't have the bat speed to hit the high inside fastball, why would you throw them low curve balls? Maybe your curve is your best pitch, but you don't throw it to someone who cannot hit the high hard one. Play to your opponents' weaknesses and help them make mistakes. Its the best way to win, in tournaments and in cash games too.

Respect Lady Luck

Looking back over this article, I have been pointing out instances where TV poker differs from the games that you and I play in. But here is something that the two share: the overwhelming power of chance on the poker player's fortunes in the short term.

The next time you watch a tournament on TV, notice how many players go broke in hands in which they did absolutely nothing wrong. Perhaps they went in with the best hand, only to be gassed on the river. Or they went in with a very good hand, not realizing that they were up against a monster. Or they were short-stacked, picked a spot to go all in, and finished with second best. They didn't make any mistakes, but failed to win the tournament.

Notice how often players go broke through no fault of their own, and take that to your own game. Realize that hand by hand, poker is a game in which chance has a big effect on whether you win or lose, and have the wisdom to separate good and bad decisions from good and bad outcomes. Your goal in a poker game is to make good decisions as often as possible. That is all you can do. If the cards don't help you - or if they do help you, but just help someone else a little more - then understand that that's poker. If you make good decisions, you'll win in the long run, but you certainly won't win every time, no matter how good you are. Perhaps that's the best lesson that TV can teach us.

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