PokerWorldNow

Those who did a detailed analysis (not me) on the deal in which Gamynia bought the World Poker Tour may have noticed that in the associated 8-K that was filed with the SEC there was a clause in the acquisition agreement that gave the WPT an out if a better deal came along. More specifically, the WPT has the right to terminate “under certain circumstances, including a determination by the Company’s Board of Directors to accept an acquisition proposal it deems superior to the Transaction.” All the WPT has to do is pay an “I’m sorry for changing our mind” fee of $1,000,000.

The WPT is getting a pretty good deal from Gamynia, to summarize: Gamynia pay $9.1 million in cash, WPT gets to keep the $21 million in the bank and WPT receives about 5% of future revenues.Who has come over the top (I promise the last poker metaphor that will ever be used) and piqued the WPT’s interest?

Assuming that the  Gamynia deal is really just a shell company for  PlayTech as I predicted in my first blog about this transaction, then perhaps one of the big boys, and by that I mean FullTilt or PokerStars, has taken a page out of this book and opened up their cash coffers. It is strategically logical for both companies to a) expand their push for producing TV shows as way of advertising and b) act as a hedge in a U.S. regulated environment because, as I wrote in my blog about the Menendez bill, it looks likely that off-shore operators will be rejected for licenses.

Thus far the WPT execs have kept mum about the deal, but I suspect if the deal goes through it will take a couple of weeks for an official announcement. Technically the Gamynia deal will automatocally terminate on Januray 28th, 2010.

There is some great poker on TV, but for the most part it has become hum-drum and mediocre. At least with other sports (and I use that word very liberally since we are talking about poker), you know what you are going to get. If you turn on baseball you are going to see 9 innings, 9 players on the field, a batter and a standard for how it is produced on TV. Poker is all over the place. You have the WSOP and WPT that leave the actual poker playing on the cutting room floor and focus more on Norman Chad talking about his ex-wives. Then there’s Face the Ace, where you feel you are watching a game show — a boring game show. In order to reclaim some of the momentum that TV had 5 years ago, the producers of the shows need to focus on showing real poker and somehow making it exciting–some of this relies more on who is playing, but the right foundation of tournament structure and production needs to be laid.

Is this where poker on TV is going?

Elements of a bad poker show:

1. Not enough focus on real poker. The World Poker Tour was arguably the first poker show that really broke through to the main stream. For this reason, what they created became the standard, and unfortunately, because it is over produced and whittled down to the “big pot” hands it has encouraged others to do the same. The other side to this is that some of the best poker shows on today  have responded to consumer demand to see more “real” hands and have created a nice little niche, specifically Poker After Dark.
2. Too much focus on bad poker. Tournaments with ridiculous structures make for bad poker and consequently bad TV. An example of this is all too fresh in my mind: Ante Up for Africa. First, let me say, that I think ESPN made the right move this year by televising only 4 events, all no-limit hold ‘em, from the 2009 WSOP. The wrong move was to televise Ante Up for Africa. I understand the concept of celebrities helping ratings, but please don’t ruin poker because of it. The structure of this tournament was so ridiculous that it would have been more exciting watching a celebrity slot machine tournament. When the final table started the chip leader had 10 big blinds. When it was heads up (probably a few hands later) there was a total of 4 big blinds on the table. This isn’t interesting for the hardcore poker players or the casual fan. It is just bad TV.
3. No named players. I am kind of torn with this one because the beauty of poker–and the reason it has become so popular–is anyone can win. The Chris Moneymaker effect was huge, but is it dead? The casual fan can only remember so many new hot players. At some point, and that point has come, the no names become irrelevant. Caveat: unless it is the WSOP main event.
4. Bad casting. Well really I am thinking of one show in particular, Face the Ace. I haven’t  watched the show, but from reading blogs and talking to those who have, I hear that the players that actually won their way on to the show are horrible. It is my opinion, that if you are going to create a game show around poker, which Face the Ace invariably is, you better cast for it. Jeopardy doesn’t let you on just because you did well on the test.

I don’t think reality poker shows, such as Two Months Two Million, even deserve to be mentioned until at least one becomes moderately relevant.

Norm

The two shows that have combined elements of excitement and real poker play are Poker After Dark and High Stakes Poker (and that’s not just because SpadeClub advertises on those shows). However, these shows aim to serve the hard core poker enthusiats–poker players are the only ones still awake when Poker After Dark airs. As far as the shows that aim to reach the masses, the World Series of Poker is by far the most important broadcast; it gives life to all the other poker show by keeping poker relevant. It serves its purpose and is produced well for the masses in spite of (or maybe because of) what seems to be a discussion between  Norman Chad and his therapist.

So what does the future of poker on TV hold? Will producers continue to take the equity that has been created by the best most relevant shows and continue to make junk?

Freaks and Geeks

Thank you G4 for rejecting our SpadeClub.com advertising. I watched the first episode of Two Months Two Million last night and can honestly say it ranks as one of the worst poker shows and one of the worst reality shows that I have ever seen. It’s Real World meets Freaks and Geeks, but unlike these shows, it lacks any sort of interesting premise. At least in the Real World you are guaranteed to see some debauchery or a good old fashion girl fight. The only thing these guy do is prove that if you spend your life in a cave on a computer you are going to be awkward in all imaginable social situations, for example watching Emil try to hit on girls (who were most likely hired as props) in a bar via debating the color of his sweater. Peach or salmon?

I also have a pretty major poker gripe as well: the four members of the show play online poker side-by-side and on least one occasion in last night’s show there was an inference that more than one person was playing a single hand. There is also the problem of collusion, or the perception of collusion. The whole premise, and title of the show, imply that they are working as a team; they are attempting to win $2 million in two months as a group. And if this isn’t bad enough, they all sit in the same room as they play. I am not saying that there is definitely collusion, but it sure comes across like that. They should have at least written in something that explains that they are never playing in the same games.

Next, I wanted to follow up on my original blog about the show where I discussed the fact that G4 didn’t take our advertising. I concluded that because they were going to show real online poker as content within the show, that they must have some sort of exclusive deal. I was on the right track, but it ended up not being the case. Instead, they are not taking any online poker advertising at all and do not have any exclusive deal to show one poker room. In fact, they edit out all the logos. G4 is undoubtedly trying to draw a clear line within the show of what is content and want is paid advertisement. I do not think they want to muddy this line. Fair enough.

Two Months Two Million Stars

G4’s new poker show, Two Months Two Million, premiers on August 16th. The premise is pretty straight forward: 4 poker pros compete against each other to try to win $2 million in 2 months with various challenges and prop bets along the way. I am very curious to see how they are going to present real money online poker on TV.

I have been buying various national TV media for SpadeClub for the last year and am (way too) intimately experienced with the strict policies that every network enforces when it comes to .com advertising. The site I run, SpadeClub.com, is a subscription site and is of course not a real-money .com so the networks don’t really know what to do with us, but that is a whole post in itself. It is a bold move that G4 is even airing a show with a premise based on playing real money online poker. It is hard to believe they will actually show the stars of the show playing on a real money site. When we called G4 to advertise they rejected us with no explanation.

At first, I thought the reason for the rejection was the usual “we don’t take .com advertising,” but typically we at least get told that and have a chance to explain ourselves and provide legal support. Since they didn’t say anything, and were actually quite rude, I have concluded that they have some sort of exclusive with an online poker room. (It’s not like we aren’t in a recession and it’s not like TV ad dollars aren’t vanishing…TAKE OUR MONEY PLEASE.) This leads me to believe that the four stars Dani Stern (a beloved CardPlayer Pro instructor), Brian Roberts, Emil Patel, and Jay Rozenkrantz will all be playing on one site that paid G4 a sum of money for the privileged.

If my prediction is right and they are so brazen to do it, perhaps it will loosen up some of those strict policies in the future.