2007 Aussie Millions Review

The 2007 Aussie Millions just isn't very focused on poker. It has a lot of weaknesses and very few strengths, so I give it two stars. Among the show's weaknesses:

• There's a lot of non-poker content, e.g. a piece about the tournament doubling in size; video of a river cruise; and a "Down Under Dictionary" segment. Amid all the time wasted on fluff there are a few interesting nuggets, e.g. Gus Hansen using a tape recorder at the table; and Jimmy Fricke saying he liked playing against pros because he considered them to be weak-tight. Unfortunately those few tidbits are not nearly enough to justify all the time wasted on non-poker content.
• They constantly flit around the room showing the ends of big hands. Are they trying to do a highlights show or cover the actual play of the tournament? I want to see poker hands, not pictures of people busting out.
• They show video of each player folding their hands preflop, but don't bother to show us what their cards are!
  
• They don't show the action on the screen (e.g. bet amounts), making the show a bit hard to follow.
• They waste our time explaining how Hold'em is played.
  
• The tournament structure is also odd: it goes to shorthanded play when they get down to 36 players.

On the other hand they do provide some nice data, like average chip stacks and the number of players remaining. Unfortunately, as with most poker shows, the information flies by. They need to leave the blinds/antes, chip leaders, and other information on the screen long enough for us to absorb it.

The 2007 Aussie Millions just isn't very focused on poker. The two star rating I'm giving it may well be generous. I wish they'd just concentrate on showing us poker hands, one table at a time.