Dan Harrington in the November issue of Two Plus Two Internet Magazine:
Q: Does the structure of a tournament have any bearing on whether or not you participate?
A: Yes, many times it does. There are certain things that I’m invited to that are just a total crap shoot and give you a chance to be on TV. Usually I just turn those down because all they are is TV events and you go and flip a coin.
I couldn't agree more. It's unfortunate that so many poker shows are those invitational, made-for-TV, shorthanded, short-stacked, all-in-fest single-table tournaments.
Sunday, November 05, 2006
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I hear this sometimes, but I'm not at all convinced that turbo STT's are just total luckfests. I think there are some things that give an edge to people who can do the right kind of calculations.
ReplyDeleteIt's not "poker" in the traditional sense, but you can still be +EV at push-or-fold poker by knowing when to do which. I surmise that Chris Ferguson and Gus Hansen (for example) have an edge on the field.
Two points mcs:
ReplyDelete1) Luck is a matter of degree. Poker tournaments' innovation, when they were invented about 35 years ago, was to inject enough more luck to get the field down to one winner within a specified time. TV formats inject even more luck. If formats like some of the made-for-TV poker shows were the only thing that existed in real life, you'd have about as many professional poker players as professional video poker players. There just wouldn't be enough skill for many professional poker players to exist.
2) The made-for-TV shows aren't like real-world poker. Try and find a shorthanded, winner-take-all single-table tournament somewhere. Good luck. Even if you do find it, it's rare. Much of what people see on TV isn't played in the real world, or is rare. Televised poker is becoming closer to a game show than a televised sport that people actually play off TV.