Chicago  – Rush Street Productions announced recently that it is launching a one-of-a-kind TV poker experience with its new televised poker series Poker Night in America^TM (PNIA).  PNIA is the brainchild of former Heartland Poker Tour co-founder, and current Rush Street Productions President, Todd Anderson.  Anderson recently partnered with Chicago-based Rush Street Gaming, one of the fastest growing gaming companies in North America, to form a production company that is creating something new and exciting for poker TV.

“We are looking to film the biggest and the best poker events at premier venues,” said Anderson.  “We’re going to bring a fresh approach to how poker is shown on TV, making the show relevant to the average viewer.  We think the world is ready to watch poker in a whole new way.”

Besides showing the game itself, PNIA will emphasize fun, variety, entertainment, and interesting story telling.  PNIA will garner broad appeal with its plans to shoot “made for” events featuring poker pros and/or celebrities.  Viewers will also be engaged in a whole new way through interactive play-at-home components.  They will be encouraged to participate and play poker online for a chance to win prizes and even a TV appearance.

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Separated at Birth?

Just because I’m onto something new in the podcast realm doesn’t mean I’ve forgotten my original partner(s) in quasiradio crime.

Perhaps inspired by the Oscars or maybe just dismayed by sinking TV ratings for recorded poker — no, wait, it can’t be that because that would require Tom to do something at the table worthy of ho-hum recorded poker TV (rimshot, lol!) — it seems like our ole pal Tom, without a tragedy to exploit for YouTube views, is moving from country music to acting. Check it out … here’s word from, um, Ice Tom, regarding his crime-drama debut with a poker-infused episode of Crime Scene Investigation, called “Last Woman Standing”:

I make my acting debut on CSI tomorrow. I may end up on the cutting room floor and they may not show my face at all, but I did deal some poker to David Cassidy, aka Keith Partridge. You might just see me shuffling cards and cheating a guy. Who knows?

If you don’t see my face, but you see some half bitten finger nails and stubby hands doing some magic with cards that’s me. Next up … hand modeling.

Woot. We’ll be looking for it, as Schneider continues to cross items off his bucket list in time for the WSOP!

It’s been interesting seeing different industry people come and go as the poker world continues to churn over into something new. Good riddance for some, greener pastures and/or potential prison time for others … either way, it’s good to see poker people thriving in different places.

So check it out … Jeffrey Pollack, one of the more controversial figures in poker (c. 2005-2011) seems to have found his way back to the NBA. The exiled WSOP Commissioner, who partnered with Annie Duke in an effort to save the game (or at least rebrand it) before an Epic flop, apparently has been working closely with Robert Pera and Jason Levien, new owners of the Vancouver Memphis Grizzlies. Best I can tell it will now cost Pera $100 million to properly dick over a city, and maybe there’ll be a party with Justin Timberlake.

Before Black Friday, the poker world seemed to avoid the economic calamities faced by the rest of the world. I’m sure that made the ROW just love all those players seen on ESPN Full Tilt & PokerStars TV. Now, lest we be seen in the same way as the rest of the world when it comes to money, we have One Drop — that holy fugk big event that arguably changes multiple paradigms in the poker world moving forward.

Here’s Alexandra from the Wall Street Journal trying to explain the concept to people who have a hard time thinking of even a $1,500 buy-in as a small event:

Stumbled across this New York Times crossword puzzle from 2008, revealing a perception of shadiness that persisted well into the heyday of WSOP, Full Tilt, and PokerStars on TV:

They did, of course, use a question mark disclaimer in the clue, but it probably wouldn’t have made sense without it.

La Sengphet took down another one on the WSOP-circuit — winning a $345 NLH at the Bicycle Casino in Bell Gardens, Calif. for her fourth WSOP-C victory (third in a ring-bearing event) and a $25k payday. Her other half, David Clark, made a final table the day before, and won his second ring just a couple stops earlier at WSOP-Tahoe. Their story is becoming sickeningly charming … perhaps even inspirational … showing that true love and poker success can go hand-in-hand for a couple of old-fashioned rounders making their way across an ever-unpredictable poker landscape.

(That, or … Go Team Pokerati!)

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Check it out … poker movies seem to be proliferating ever since revelations of crime and darkness made the game semi-dramatic once again. This one, Ace High — not to be confused with the 1968 western of the same name nor the PBR bull that remains unridden after 90+ attempts — seems to be about a privileged extra-smart kid whose online poker success brings in backers … but not before he gets in too deep (presumably with people shadier than he realized) … where he’s sure to lose his hot college romance if he doesn’t win the big one (not to be confused with The Big One for One Drop, which screams for straight-to-DVD release).

No spoiler intended … Just guessing at the plot-line from the Ace High trailer, which is fairly good-lookin’ for an indie movie still seeking funding to complete. Wonder how PokerStars got the product placement … and which online pros may or may not make any on-screen appearances … and whether or not players would have legal rights use of the likeness of their online poker avatars or even screen names:

Good times at the WSOP … thanks for hanging with Pauly and me as we use this opportunity to try out some newfangled podcast technology. You know, kinda like ESPN and the WSOP (and NGCB) are trying out newfangled technology with this whole “live” broadcast thing. (Once upon a time we used those “quotes” around the word “live” for mockery. But now, at just 15 minutes off of reality, no less sarcasm intended.)

Episode numbering seems to be the only tricky thing … and maybe using the geo-locator toggle. But it didn’t seem to matter as we sought the best way to insta-podcast the exciting highlights “semi-live” as the November Nine whittled down to the three that ultimately would matter tonight, in a few hours, live from the Penn & Teller Theater, and “live” on ESPN and possibly in your pocket:

Nov. Nine – Giannetti Lives (Ep 5) by taopokerati

Dan and Pauly are ringside for a decisive hand between Matt Giannetti and Martin Staszko. Giannetti was crippled on the previous hand and moved all-in. Staszko called with a dominated hand. Dan and Pauly call the action….

Tao of Pokerati: Quad Lambs by Pokerati

Tao of Pokerati: Non-silence of the Lamb at Penn & Teller Theater by Pokerati

Matt Savage

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OP-ED

My dedication to poker tournaments and the game itself is two decades old. Starting with my first foray into the role of tournament director in 1997 and through my founding of the Tournament Directors Association (TDA) with Linda Johnson, Jan Fisher, and Dave Lamb in 2001, I have worked tirelessly to standardize tournament rules and to make poker a better game for everyone involved.

This is the reason that we host the website www.PokerTDA.com, open the TDA to all interested parties, and make myself available on Twitter and other social media outlets. My passion for poker only grows when I share it with others.

The rule is not new, and does not ban table talk by any means … A recreational player may not understand, nor even care to know all the rules, but professionals who make a living at the game should.

During the 2011 World Series of Poker “nearly live” telecast from the Rio, I became aware of comments from Daniel Negreanu (@RealKidPoker) through my own Twitter feed (@SavagePoker). He said that the TDA created a “new” rule that banned table talk. This certainly is not the case and in hindsight, it was learned that he had received an incorrect ruling at the table that had nothing to do with TDA rules. Since social media has limited words with which to sufficiently explain the rule and its longtime existence, this clarification seems necessary.

The TDA board, in conjunction with tournament directors and card room managers, has donated thousands of hours to standardize rules in the best interest of the game.  When well-known poker players like Negreanu and Phil Hellmuth choose to say on national television that “the TDA has it wrong” and “does not care about what the players want,” it becomes personal.

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You’d think practically living at the Palms with @Ziggy_Susan from Epic Poker League for the past, um … summer … that I might get a little inside info hook-up, but alas, I have to read about it in the “Hollywood media” upon retweet from @Mark_Gahagan. I’m away for barely a week and outta-sight outta-mind, I guess?

Anyhow, so Epic Poker League … the one with a $1,500 Pro-Am that I won a seat into and will air in Heartland Poker syndication … continues to develop, and it looks more and more like a real poker contender, with the league now having locked down the “pro” part of their TV deal.

Major network CBS will be airing Epic’s big $20k invitational events, with ousted WSOP film crew 441 Productions handling camera duties under the aegis of former NBC Sports exec David Neal. Longtime real-sports dude Pat O’Brien will be the TV host, with Ali Nejad as his analyst sidekick.

In my mind, this is yet another part of “the reconstruction” of poker we are currently witnessing, and testament to what can be may have to be done without the help of traditional online poker sites that previously pushed poker on TV but now face criminal indictment.

Also in with this deal is additional TV coverage — live-minus-30 maybe, or is that just wishful thinking on my part — on a soon to be relaunched Discovery B-side channel called Velocity. It’s supposed to be “a turbocharged network for an upscale male audience” now, according to the network … which, I dunno, haven’t seen yet so not gonna diss — channel launches in October; real, fully legal advertisers to follow — but sounds kinda, um, Epic?

The numbers for Live-minus-30 coverage of the WSOP on ESPN are in. About a half million viewers on ESPN 2, 23 million minutes of click-friendly eyeball time on ESPN 3, and a “cute” little 646,00 viewers for two hours during prime time on ESPN 1.

Clearly poker is no women’s soccer, but still … those returns seem high enough that ESPN will probably do it again — though nothing in the ESPN press release assures as much — and low enough that next year ESPN and the WSOP will easily be able to report massive growth in whatever numbers prove most beneficial for them to deliver.

It’s hard to determine a success with a new type of coverage … but these numbers do set a certain bar, and at a minimum dohelp quantify the size of the true-poker-geek market. And thus, with results of the Pokerati love-it-or-hate-it poll, combined with the television numbers, I’m relatively convinced that if ESPN doesn’t expand their “live” poker coverage in the future … somebody else will.

(It really is all in the announcing.)

Read below for the official Nielsen data presented by Jack Link’s Beef Jerky, er … I mean:
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With the live coverage of the WSOP main event on ESPN2 and ESPN3, live poker coverage really has been taken to a new level — that much is certain. In fact, now that they are down to 14 players, the WSOP Live is about to move over for a couple hours to ESPN1. But there seems to be a rift over it all that frankly, I find kinda surprising.

While I think it’s been friggin awesome and indeed downright historic, a cadre of Pokerati commenters seem to have a vitriolic distaste for the live coverage that goes far beyond a typical poker whine. (I’m very disappointed in them, obv.) Not much in-between … it seems a love-it-or-hate-it affair.

So at Marvin in Bedford’s recommendation — though I did try to remove bias by not calling the live coverage “phony” — I put it to the readers of Pokerati with a simple multiple choice question asking your quick gun-to-the-head take on how ESPN has elected to bring us the 2011 WSOP:

2011 WSOP – Episode 34: Tent City (5:01) – Dan and Pauly went outside and wandered around tent city, where all of the ESPN live feed production trucks and Poker PROductions trailers were located. Pauly hasn’t seen much of the semi-live coverage on ESPN and Dan clues him in on what he’s been missing…

For more episodes, visit the Tao of Pokerati archives.

I couldn’t help but switch over from ESPN3 and ESPN2 to ESPN1 … and wow, what a game. I’m curious to see how TV numbers compare for what is essentially the FIFA Ladies Event vs. those for the November Nine.

Anyhow, check out Adidas’s new ad campaign on display around the rails at the 2011 Women’s World Cup in Germany — targeting fans of international women’s soccer with phrasing that may or may not have been grifted from poker:

“adidas is all in”

BTW, go USA still, but really, seriously, gg Japan.

UPDATE: Apparently the “adidas is all in” campaign launched back in March. Click here to see the multimillion-dollar YouTube commercials wrapped around a distinctly poker phrase … as interpreted by the world of sports.

Marvin in Somewhere — shoot, I forget where he’s from, but somewhere in America, I know — writes in to complain:

I’m watching the “Live” ESPN coverage and it sucks. It’s like it was before the cameras. Not only don’t we see all the hands, but we don’t know whether the better has the “Nuts” or is bluffing. Since they are afraid of people telling what the other players have, how about a one hand delay?

Marvin, Marvin, Marvin … c’mon, can’t you see the positives at all? This is semi-monumental … not the kinda Poker TV you see on Versus, ya know? Though not perfect yet, they gotta start somewhere, right? You bring up some good points that I’m sure they’ll consider in the future … but really, remember, while not necessarily “alpha” version of live coverage, it is rather “beta”.

In an ideal world — according to Pokerati — all cards and chips would be RFID’d worldwide and you could watch all poker anywhere in any place at any time, as live as possible as permissible by gaming jurisdiction, and decide for yourself whether or not you wanna see hole cards. (I tend to enjoy guessing sometimes.) With super-duper extra-HD All-360 technology, of course … on my iphone should I so choose. But we’re just not quite there yet!

From the Rio sportsbook: For people not glued to Twitter, "live enough" coverage is ... um ... not too different from reruns usually airing on screens in many sports bars.

Not sure how it would work with exposed hole cards and future "in-game betting" on the WSOP. (Seen at the sportsbook in the Palms, where you can't yet bet that way.)

And remember, one other factor complicating matters here is approval by Nevada Gaming. Even just allowing twitpics in casinos and cell phones in sports books is relatively new territory for them. And there are some people who don’t believe you should be able to know a players cards a half-hour later when your buddy — or even the players themselves — can find out if that key tell thy picked up goes along with the nuts or nothing.

Click the promo banner to watch things as live as we’re gonna get them for now.