Taking your last point first, I agree with you that showing casinos
around the world was a nice aspect of the early World Poker
Tour shows. If you look at the early seasons, they tried hard to
make this a major component and actually fit the theme of their (soon to
be old) home of the Travel Channel. It was awesome, for example, to see
what the Aviation Club was like and be informed about it before a trip I
took to Paris where I actually was able to play there thanks to knowing
about it from the show.
However, I think that's less of a component of the show now. And, the
structure has gotten so crazy that the final table of the WPT is mostly a
preflop (or at most on the flop) game. This kind of poker is really
simplistic. They've just dumbed down poker to be a spectacle, which I
think is bad for TV and bad for poker.
I think the WSoP coverage isn't bad, and it's usually best when it
chases stories in a Bryant Gumble sort of way and finds out about
interesting paths people have made to find their way to the WSoP. The
actual poker content, though, leaves much to be desired.
Watching the final table on PPV was excellent. You really got a sense
of what was going on in the game. I wish they could show hole cards
there; I'd even live with a 30 minute delay for it, but there is just too
much risk of cheating to do that, I think.
Re: Poker TV
Taking your last point first, I agree with you that showing casinos around the world was a nice aspect of the early World Poker Tour shows. If you look at the early seasons, they tried hard to make this a major component and actually fit the theme of their (soon to be old) home of the Travel Channel. It was awesome, for example, to see what the Aviation Club was like and be informed about it before a trip I took to Paris where I actually was able to play there thanks to knowing about it from the show.
However, I think that's less of a component of the show now. And, the structure has gotten so crazy that the final table of the WPT is mostly a preflop (or at most on the flop) game. This kind of poker is really simplistic. They've just dumbed down poker to be a spectacle, which I think is bad for TV and bad for poker.
I think the WSoP coverage isn't bad, and it's usually best when it chases stories in a Bryant Gumble sort of way and finds out about interesting paths people have made to find their way to the WSoP. The actual poker content, though, leaves much to be desired.
Watching the final table on PPV was excellent. You really got a sense of what was going on in the game. I wish they could show hole cards there; I'd even live with a 30 minute delay for it, but there is just too much risk of cheating to do that, I think.