Poker is Fun to Watch – Unbelievable

If I’m looking for material to blog on, I just dial up youtube and I can find all I need for 10 years.  First, I was looking for the Scotty Nguyen horse blow up.  That was pretty interesting.  Then I just started clicking on the next video and the video after that and most were pretty decent watches.  If you had told me before poker got real press that it would be fun to watch I wouldn’t have believed you.

Why is it so interesting?

For one, watching a magician like Daniel Negreanu is incredible.  He is the best I’ve seen at putting his opponents hands together.  Just an incredible feel for the game.  Besides the card players, you also have the prestige of the events.  The WSOP is a huge event and knowing the enormity makes viewing an even better draw.  And you can’t forget about the insane amount of money at stake.  It’s also interesting to see all the various people who play poker and how there styles differ  Along those lines, there is as much gamesmanship as you’re going to see in anything.

Poker’s appeal has also manifested because of all the drama.  This has probably caught a lot of the non-afficianado fans.  Some of us enjoy poker for poker.  Others need something more to draw them in and the blowups of all varieties do just that.  Mike Matusow and Phil Hellmuth are the standards for ill behavior.  Others like Jean-Robert Belland and Shawn Sheikan walk a fine line around irritating opponents and repulsiveness.  The names continue.  I still remember young punk Eric Molena serving as an embarrassment to the parents who raised him in the 2007 WSOP.  Recently, the Prince of Poker, Scotty Nguyen, had a drawn out tirade at the final table of the HORSE tournament.  Alcohol was definitely in play, but drinks or not, one’s actions are one’s actions.

So the question becomes is this good for the game?  Unfortunately it might be – at least for the immediate proliferation of the game.  Drama sells in our current society and poker is proffering plenty of it.  Like it or not, bad behavior “puts asses in the seats.”  The act does grow old though.  Eventually, more will be repugnated by the disappointing actions.

I saved a clip of Tony G. for the end.  If anything epitomizes embarrassing, ugly, and unsportsmanlike it’s this.  Watch it and ask yourself, is there a need for poker players to initiate some sort of minimal, self imposed code of conduct.