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Poker 2Nite – Episode 2

Comments (22)
by , Nov 26, 2009 | 12:27 pm

Here’s this week’s Poker 2Nite episode discussing Isildur1, a charity poker tournament hosted by Annie Duke, Brandon Cantu getting tased and an interview with Andy Bloch. Parts 2 and 3 appear on the next page:


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  • http://www.greasiewheels.com Lisa Wheeler

    I love this show. It’s about time we had a great poker news program. Great job guys.

  • Beanie

    The first one was OK. The second one was lacking IMO (except for the part with Lisa in it). More importantly I don’t think anyone is watching this show. They almost certainly aren’t googling it. I realize that UB is paying the bills for this but I thought not mentioning FTP on the Isildur1 part was a bit cheeky.

    The appeal of pokerroad for me was that they came off as genuine. Too much of the second show came off like some marketing persons dream of what they think poker players want.

    Just seems to me that is why they brought on Joe, Scott and Stapes let them do the show like they think it should go rather than just a UB commercial. That would come off more genuine and I know for one I would watch it with more interest.

    Even flawed it is infinite compared to Inside Deal.

  • http://greasiewheels.com Lisa Wheeler

    Lol. I was on for 5 seconds. Very sweet comment. But I have to disagree. I love the show. With or without me.

  • DanM

    I have mixed feelings about not mentioning Full Tilt by name. While it would be more genuine to do so … it’s not like the people who are watching this aren’t at least slightly aware of the news that’s going on already, so we lose nothing.

    And for those TV viewers who don’t dork-follow poker on the internet … well they probably don’t know the difference between Full Tilt and BananaRepublicPoker.com … and so does it make a difference to them? Enough of one to merit pimping a competitor?

    I don’t feel like I know the answer to this … and with that said, I’m certainly willing to give them some time to sort it out. They’re just starting. You gotta expect lots of adjustments along the way.

    Trying to think how other sports shows handle the balance between industry-wide news and sponsor competitors …

  • Kevin Mathers

    On this week’s show, Andy Bloch was wearing his FTP logo, while in the charity tournament segment, the Absolute Poker logo of Trishelle was blurred out.

  • Beanie

    obv he wouldn’t do the interview without that on.

  • http://www.greasiewheels.com Lisa Wheeler

    I don’t believe Trishelle’s logo was blurred. It appears she wasn’t wearing a bra. The logo has to stay still for the camera to focus on it.

  • http://www.twojacksinthehole.com/ Stapes

    The reason for not mentioning Full Tilt has nothing whatsoever to do with Ultimate Bet and everything to do with our network censor at Fox. The Fox networks consider online poker to be an illegal activity for Americans, so we’re not allowed to report on it exactly as it happens.

    We were lucky to be able to cover this story, as the participants were both overseas at the time. If not, we would had to ignore it completely.

    The reason Full Tilt is not mentioned is because we are not allowed, by Fox, to say “Full Tilt.” We’re only allowed to say “FullTiltPoker.net.” Since this did not take place on FullTilt.net, it was better to not say where it took place than to misrepresent what happened.

    This also applies to UB. We must say “UB.net” every single time. Bodog, however, is not approved at all (not even Bodog.net), which is why we didn’t say the name of that site either.

    The folks at UB are in complete agreement with us that anyone may wear any logo they like – provided it meets the network’s standards. If a logo doesn’t meet American television approval – it gets blurred. Trust me, UB did not want to blur out an AP logo.

    Again: all of these decisions were made by Standards and Practices at Fox Sports Net. To date (everyone read this very carefully) Ultimate Bet has made no attempts whatsoever to influence the content of the show, other than to say things like “Hey, Phil’s got a new book out.” You’ll notice we have yet to mention it on the show.

    Annie Duke’s event was covered (and more than likely would have fallen through the cracks for the show if I hadn’t brought it up) because a) we had easy access b) it had the word “celebrity” in it and c) it happened in Los Angeles. The tazing (tazering?) was covered because, again, we had easy access to the footage and to it featured people we knew would sign off on releases.

    Television puts a whole new set of constraints on things we don’t really have to deal with on the net. To name a few: ownership, authorship, royalties, copyrights, licensing, footage quality, releases, and generally-not-getting-sued-fined-or-canceled.

    Huff, Sebok, and I all believe that poker is too small for us to not all work together. UB has backed us in this sentiment. So far, anything that might have come out looking or sounding odd can be attributed to tackling a completely new medium.

    For as new as Huff and Sebok are to being on on television – poker in a news format is just as new.

    And to be perfectly honest, it’s going to take a lot longer for poker to look comfortable on television than it will for Joe and Scott.

    –Stapes

  • DanM

    Ah, thanks for sharing these well thought out, well-explained details. I think Seebs and Huff look funny in coats and ties.

  • Beanie

    I agree, I would imagine under those restrictions it would be difficult to have a show.

  • Huff

    Here here, Stapes. I wish we could blast out his response to every poker forum/website in the world. People love to speculate wildly and fire off theories, but as you can see from the information in Stapes’ cogent response, most of it is completely wrong. To me, the amount of freedom we’ve had as far as non-UB guests and story lines has exceeded by expectations by a long shot.

    As for “no one watching it.” It depends on what you consider no one. Our week one show was seen by hundreds of thousands of people. Is that no one? Compared to The Office, yes. Compared to the other poker news shows on TV it’s a lot…

  • http://wisehandpoker.com scott diamond

    I’m “no one” and I watched it! :)

  • DanM

    hundreds of thousands, really? fuckin’ a … nice job huffstapes!

    huff, get ready for the haters … they go hand-in-hand with increased exposure. obviously that’s not something you are used to, lol.

  • Beanie

    Haters? I am not a hater, lol. I specifically referred to people googling the show, something I know a little about since I rank relatively highly for poker2nite episodes, something someone LOOKING for the show would obviously google.

    I am a big fan of most of the stuff that you guys do. I don’t care to argue the point whether or not “hundreds of thousands” of people have watched the show, I will trust you on that.

    Stapes explained why I was misguided and I fell on my sword about the Isildur1 thing. Then I get the haters bomb dropped on me.

    This weeks show was predominantly UB material, whether that was by accident or not I don’t think that point can be argued and don’t try to put me in the box of people that hate UB, therefore hate this show (partly because I don’t hate the show). I actually think having UB as a viable option is a good thing for poker.

    I didn’t think the second show was as good as the first and like stapes mentioned there could be a few reasons for that. I made it very clear that I liked the show more than Inside Deal, so in a two horse race you guys win in my eyes.

    Either way I can not imagine that I am your harshest critic (since I for the most part like the show). I think you are being a little uptight Scott, I think you are good at what you do (ditto for Seebs and Stapleton). If you say UB is giving you freedom then great, that should make the show more entertaining in the coming weeks. Just lose the Tur-Duke-En jokes;-)

  • http://espn.com Andrew

    Hey Beanie – “Even flawed it is infinite compared to Inside Deal.”

    Would love to hear your thoughts on how to improve our show.

    I also think that the P2Nite team is doing a great job in their first two shows.

  • Beanie

    The take feels like it’s for an older audience and doesn’t speak to the people that play on Stars or play online (ultimately that is who you should be appealing to).

    Ironically I think the best show would be similar to what Dan Patrick does with his radio show. Both shows are too stiff because the people doing them are out of their element for the most part.

    If there was an hour long Poker Beat every week that would be must see TV in the poker world. From what I understand no one is actually paid to do that show so they should be easy to get.

    That is my 2 cents. Right now everything seems too stiff, it’s not like poker really is and I think that is why it feels wrong. Does anyone else feel me on this? I am not just trying to be a jerk. I know everyone kind of knows each other so they don’t want to step on toes but if your friends won’t tell you the truth who will?

  • DanM

    ***it’s for an older audience and doesn’t speak to the people that play on Stars or play online (ultimately that is who you should be appealing to)***

    I kinda disagree with that. Sure, these are some of the people they want to appeal to, but ultimately I think ESPN (and PokerStars) is interested in far more than just the small percentage who already know all the inane details going on already.

    Likewise, as an interested viewer, I gotta think a little competition between these shows is only going to be a good thing. (When will Full Tilt come out with theirs?)

    ***If there was an hour long Poker Beat every week that would be must see TV in the poker world.***

    Gary Wise is no Laura Lane.

  • http://twitter.com/bjnemeth BJ Nemeth

    I don’t think the Poker Beat podcast would hold up very well in a video format, and not just because we’re not a photogenic group.

    The Poker Beat on video would look a lot like ABC’s “This Week” on Sunday mornings — a political roundtable show. As a poker show, I think it would be painful to watch. (Though I love “The Poker Beat” in its audio-only format, and I am immensely proud to be a small part of it.)

  • Schecky

    ***I don’t think the Poker Beat podcast would hold up very well in a video format, and not just because we’re not a photogenic group.***

    Yes, if we had PBeat on TV, here would be viewers reactions.

    “Wow, Caldwell got fat”

    “Now I see why he’s called the Wolfman”

    “I’m launching a ‘feed BJ’ campaign, stat!”

    “Wow…….Gary Wise has….a…..girlfriend????”

    Thank You. I’ll be here all week. Tip your waitresses.

    oh, PS – “Hmmmm…Huff looks 13. I like young boys” (unidentified male viewer)

    The one upside is that we would finally all figure out who the insider is. I got a bone to pick with that guy/gal. :)

  • http://wisehandpoker.com scott diamond

    You all may have stumbled on to something here. I think you should do a video of Poker Beat Like ABC’s “This Week”. Put it up on you tube or on the Poker Road site. Not only would it be fun for you all but it would be enjoyable for all of us to watch.

    Get Seebs to have UB get everyone of you to LA. Put a UB backdrop up and have an hour of fun!

    Just a thought, but who am I?

  • DanM

    i appreciate the invite, but i think i’m going to have to pre-emptively pass on that.

  • http://www.jouerpokergratuit.com jpgcom

    I didn’t know this show before. That’s pretty good !