YO! Poker Surfers and Surfettes!
GSN's High Stakes Poker Season 7 debuted last night and unfortunately we watched it. Usually we're not to hard on some poker tv, because we love it however this show was just a tragedy. Here's a review
First it's obviously devoid of players like Tom Dwan, Gus Hansen, Phil Ivey, Eli Elezra and any other Full Tilt Poker pro because Poker Stars want's the exclusive on that. Well that's just stupid, now you're missing out on some of the biggest cash game players and the interaction that they have with the other players at the table along with built in reputations and characteristics. So that sucks. Then there's the host Norm MacDonald who you couldn't half way tell on SNL if he was trying to be funny or not and it's worst on this show. The decision to place him as the host seems to be single handedly one of the stupidest decisions EVER for a poker show, EVER. Now luckily Kara Scott is back and at least she's hot, even though the interviews are pretty much pointless she makes up for it in just her talking. She has a nice sounding voice and good presence on camera.
The show brought in some wealthy amateurs like Robert Croak the inventor of SillyBrandz, Bill Klein a retired businessman and Treasure Island Hotel and Casino owner and BILLIONAIRE Phil Ruffin. Ruffin actually donates all his winnings to charity and matches any loses he incurs and donates that too! So you would think the pro's would be happy about this money sitting at the table but (editing probably had some play in this too) in one of the first hands Vanessa Selbest (who is as boring as still water) gets in a hand with amateur Robert Croak who in trying to feel out her bluff raise and he asks her "how much do you have behind?"
now that is a good question and tactic, however it's usually seen in tournaments to see if that person is worried about their tournament life being at stake and get some sort of tell/read off of them. It's also used in cash games to feel them out b/c knowing you might lose your dough will usually give a tell too. Well he ends up calling and she loses her AQos against his JJ. Now after that Doyle Brunson for some reason pipes up and tells Croak that if someone asks him that question he doesn't tell them because it's right in front of them and Doyle said it in such away that it was like he was trying to establish who the "top dogs" were at the table, or maybe he was just taking up for Selbest but it just came across rude and Croak was very apologetic.
As a side note, the game has changed. There may be "pro's" out there but they don't make their money anymore from winnings. They make it from sponsorships and paid engagements regardless of winning or losing. The "pro's" sit down with "amateurs" and say they have an advantage but they don't b/c these "amateurs" play regularly and have way more money behind them in cash games then the "pro's", save for Phil Ivey and others who got in on the ground floor with FT. Like we said though, Doyle was probably just trying to take up for Selbest.
Another notable amateur mistake that was the only real entertaining part of the show was when "amateur" Bill Klein tried to raise out of turn, but instead of it seeming light hearted everyone was just frozen and not at all warmed up even though you know this was several hours of play edited for tv.
All in all this first episode sucked, but we'll keep you tuned in on the next one, we're hoping it's light years better!
as a side note check out one of our favorite surfer websites
http://www.surfermag.com
Have fun surfing the tables and hitting the waves!
