ClubWPT is the newest show to come out of the World Poker Tour family and the first to premiere on Fox Sports Net, and, well, I expected better.
Let me start by saying that I’m a fan of the WPT and have been since I was employed in their accounting department. I always secretly pull for the WPT to do well. And in truth, despite my criticisms of the company and its decisions at times, I feel that they’ve weathered some storms and still managed to put together a quality product every time. That is why it pained me to watch ClubWPT when it premiered on Saturday.
The premise of the show is to take six tournament qualifiers from the ClubWPT subscription website, send them to Los Angeles for a ritzy stay at the Four Seasons, and arrange for them compete in a live SNG where the winner takes the $5K prize on camera. The six that made the first show were saying it gently beginners. Frankie, the irritating New York bartender who loved to trash talk, was the only one who seemed to have any real grasp of live play. Granted, this is a show about amateur players, but most of them seemed to have never handled real chips before. Some of them may have played before but were on camera for such a short time that they weren’t able to show it.
Announcers Barry Tompkins and Bart Hansen did as well as they could as commentators, questioning plays in a way so as not to disparage the players but indicate that there were better plays to have been made. I’m not familiar with Tompkins but Hansen I know from Live at the Bike and PokerRoad podcasts, and he is a great announcer, though seemed a bit nervous for the moments he was actually in front of the camera instead of just calling the action. All in all, they were in a tough position of analyzing play without insulting anyone.
The TV hostess, Alison Waite, was there in full-makeup to take the show to and from commercials and plug ClubWPT as exciting! at every opportunity. Again, considering it was the first show, it is understandable that she was a bit nervous, but her feigned enthusiasm was a bit much to take. If she gets more comfortable in the spot, or if they’d let her talk to the players – anything to be in a more relaxed setting – she might seem more at ease.
And the players. Oh, the players. The whole idea of the show is to put the online players in a new setting and see what happens, but what happened was almost embarrassing. Every other play had me shaking my head, either at the betting amounts or the cards they were playing. And more than once, a player acted out of turn.
Frankie and Betty ended up in heads-up action for the winner-take-all prize money. Frankie continued to trash talk Betty, the mild-mannered truck driver who was clearly inexperienced in live play, which was like watching a high-school kid try to bully a kindergartener. He even made a crack at the tournament director with regard to his inexperience, and that TD just happened to be Bellagio’s own Jack McClelland, one of the most respected TD’s in the country. Betty tried to make some witty comebacks, but they were overshadowed by her inability to handle her cards or chips; she had a tough time counting out her chips and remembering what amounts each represented, and she was completely unaware of the who-bets-when action in heads-up play. I’m not even sure she was aware that she won when she did.
All in all, I thought the production quality looked cheap and flavorless, the complete opposite of what we’ve come to expect from WPT by watching the World Poker Tour. And between the discomfort of the players and the level of inexperience with live play, it was tough to watch. I hope to see it get better as the season progresses
Earl Burton wrote a review for Poker News Daily in which he pointed out some of the faults but proclaimed it a refreshing change to poker television because of the possibilities that lie in WPT’s hands, such as creating a tournament of champions or bringing winners in to play with top poker pros. In that respect, I agree that there is potential.
