The Poker Beat - 10-15-10 - MONDAY SHOW

[Huff]

The Poker Beat will record and post on Monday night 10-15-10 to accommodate a few panelists schedules. Wish Jess Wellman luck in the NAPT ladies event, and wish Gary Wise luck at pouring maple syrup all over stuff.

See you all Monday with the beat.

[The 6th Wilbury]

Originally Posted by Huff

The Poker Beat will record and post on Monday night 11-15-10 to accommodate a few panelists schedules. Wish Jess Wellman luck in the NAPT ladies event, and wish Gary Wise luck at pouring maple syrup all over stuff.

See you all Monday with the beat.

Fixed. And looking forward to it.

[5carab]

Originally Posted by Huff

The Poker Beat will record and post on Monday night 15-11-10 to accommodate a few panelists schedules. Wish Jess Wellman luck in the NAPT ladies event, and wish Gary Wise luck at pouring maple syrup all over stuff.

See you all Monday with the beat.

Properly fixed - you Americans and you dumb dating system

[Enzown]

Has Brotha D won anything else in the last week?

[The 6th Wilbury]

Originally Posted by 5carab

Properly fixed - you Americans and you dumb dating system

Haha nice.

I'm not a huge fan of the American system, either. In fact, on my press releases, I always list the date as "15 November 2010." That way, it goes smallest increment (day), middle increment (month) and largest increment (year) from left to right. As is, the American dating convention is as nonsensical as if we listed times like mm:ss:hh.

[listening]

But our money makes more sense. It's a wash.

[5carab]

Originally Posted by listening

But our money makes more sense. It's a wash.

Yep, the decimal system is just so hard to work with here in Europe

[Enzown]

And 5carab wins another one.

[The 6th Wilbury]

Loose thoughts on the episode...

As an Asian person, I'm glad to hear how white internet poker players all look alike.

The quick "report card" of Joe Cada was slightly tilting until Dan Michalski made the great point: how good a champion Cada is cannot be measured in a year. Not that I think it should be measured at all -- the world champion has no obligation to be an ambassador -- but if it IS going to be measured, it's a long-term achievement. (Wow, amazing that something in poker must be measured over the long run.)

To the discussion about the ME final table TV ratings, I never reac much into the Nielsens when it comes to the WSOP. The ESPN coverage is different than almost any other TV show in that each weekly episode airs several times during the week. If you don't see the one on Tuesday at 8 p.m. ET, you know you can catch it again on Wednesday, or DVR it on Friday, or get up on Saturday. Of course, only the Tuesday episode never seems to get preempted by NASCAR, but still... it's available several times over for people who want to see it, making the Tuesday overnights less meaningful.

The same isn't true for episodic TV. If you miss Thursday's episode of Community, you have to go to Hulu, on-demand TV, the NBC website or some other source to get your Greendale CC fix. (Note: the reference of this TV show will garner Hughes' attention in 3... 2... 1...) This forces its fans to tune in on that Thursday night, concentrating all interested viewers into a 30-minute window.

However, if one still wishes to get caught up in the ratings numbers, I'm surprised no one mentioned what BJ brought up the week before: the coverage aired an hour later than it had in previous years. I don't know the exact effect this would have on ratings, but 10-midnight Pacific time hardly qualifies as prime time. Maybe the 600 thousand fewer fans are those who had to get up early the next morning. Hell, if we use it as an excuse to escape a bad date, we can use it to avoid seeing Racener chew his cud.

Finally, Scott's points that poker is nothing more than a niche and that its tipping point occurred seven years ago were, well, painfully realistic. I work with quite a few "non-traditional" sports (gymnastics, water polo, lacrosse, volleyball are my primary assignments) in my profession, so I see the sharp differences between the enthusiasm of a those inside a sport and the lack of interest of those outside it.

In particular, I see American fan interest in women's gymnastics spike during Olympic years if the U.S. boasts a few gold medalists and/or American Darling-types. The names Mary Lou Retton and Dominique Moceanu and Nastia Liukin are recognizable to mainstream sport fans who normally don't follow gymnastics, because those individuals flourished in an Olympic year. Names like Vanessa Atler and Kristie Philllips are less well-known because they won their national and international titles during years between Olympiads. Yet they were comparably successful and comparably marketable as their Olympic counterparts.

Poker's popularity has seemed to mirror this trend. The players who flourished in the glory years of 2003-05 reached a mainstream crowd in a way that was both unprecedented and unmatched since. Even non-poker fans seem to know who Daniel Negreanu and Gus Hansen are. The players who succeeded in the years since are more like those non-Olympic year gymnasts -- arguably as good if not better, but now off the radar except for us niche fans.

For what it's worth, I like our niche.

Anyway, good to hear from you guys again.

[5carab]

Linda Johnson tweeted she was listening to this... you guys are bigtime (deservedly so)!