Most poker fans will agree on the two major factors that contributed to the poker boom of recent years: online poker and TV poker shows. Not only has the customer base for online poker exploded in the last eight years, the sheer amount of TV poker content has also expanded. In a five-hundred-channel universe that must fill its voracious twenty-four hour programming schedule, poker shows have become nearly as omnipresent as late-night infomercials.

WPT Borgata Winter Poker Open (1 of 4) March 29, 2020: April 6, 2020: WPT Borgata Winter Poker Open (2 of 4) April 5, 2020: April 13, 2020: WPT Borgata Winter Poker Open (3 of 4) April 12, 2020: April 20, 2020: WPT Borgata Winter Poker Open (4 of 4) April 19, 2020: April 27, 2020: WPT L.A. WPT Borgata Winter Poker Open (1 of 4) March 29, 2020: April 6, 2020: WPT Borgata Winter Poker Open (2 of 4) April 5, 2020: April 13, 2020: WPT Borgata Winter Poker Open (3 of 4) April 12, 2020: April 20, 2020: WPT Borgata Winter Poker Open (4 of 4) April 19, 2020: April 27, 2020: WPT L.A. Poker Classic (1 of 4) April 26, 2020: May 4, 2020: WPT. The Best Poker TV Shows Poker in the United States can be found on ESPN, Bravo, GSN, and several other major networks, such as CBS, NBS, and CNBS, when the shows have been syndicated. In Great Britain, television stations which broadcast poker shows include Channel 4, Challenge, and Five, while Italy shows Pokermania on Italia 1. What you're missing on PokerStars.tv. Brad Willis October 14, 2010 10:12 AM. The Online Poker Show (7-19-09) Brad Willis July 21, 2009 7:59 AM. The Online Poker Show (5-5-09) Brad Willis May 5, 2009 9:14 AM. SCOOP: Event #1 $55 highlight show. Brad Willis April 3, 2009 11:42 PM.

Here are some of the best US-based poker TV shows:

#5: Doubles Poker Championships (Game Show Network)

GSN’s “Doubles Poker Championship” is probably the most unique poker show on TV. Instead of playing against each other, players must cooperate as duos win a four-team single-table tournament. The format presents challenges for the player beyond reading a single opponent: each player must also understand his partner’s moves, as well as both members of the opposing teams.

The fun for the viewers often comes less from the stellar poker play the pros exhibit, but the clash in personalities among these strong characters. If Phil Hellmuth is a sore loser when he only has to depend on his own ability, imagine the meltdowns he has when a teammate lets him down.

#4: Poker After Dark (NBC)

The presentation style of “Poker After Dark” comes across much more as a high-stakes home game rather than a high-pressure winner-take-all tournament. Players are often looser and more given to table talk… at least according to Phil Hellmuth. Speaking of Hellmuth blowups, the clip above shows how the “Poker Brat” starts comparing the show to the “World Wide Wrestling Federation”.

The players take the game seriously (sometimes too much) and the commentary is insightful and educational. “PAD” is without question the best poker show on any of the major broadcast networks.

#3: World Poker Tour (Fox Sports Net)

Over the last eight years, the World Poker Tour has been one of the pillars of TV poker programming. With a new tournament nearly every week, the WPT has produced more poker content than any other regular poker show. The graphics and presentation in each broadcast give the tournaments a dramatic feel, in spite of some of the corniest commentary seen this side of Norman Chad.

For the last few years, the show has been hopping networks. Starting at the Travel Channel in 2003, then moving to Game Show Network in 2007, and later to Fox Sports Net. The FSN format split each two-hour show into two one-hour episodes, making it harder to follow the action

#2: World Series of Poker (ESPN)

The familiar guitar twang of the intro has carried the “Grandaddy of them All” from the run-down rooms of Binion’s on Fremont Street all the way to the spacious Amazon Room at the Rio. ESPN’s coverage of each year’s WSOP is still the measuring stick for every other TV poker show.

Despite the ratings decline in recent years and criticisms over the commentary (“I believe they are the ‘Ramblin’ Wreck’!”), the WSOP will remain the most popular TV poker show for the foreseeable future.

#1: High Stakes Poker (Game Show Network)

Although the WSOP has the glamour and prestige, GSN’s “High Stakes Poker” has the best in-game action of any poker TV show. The main difference between “High Stakes” and the other poker shows is that it shows real cash-game action, rather than a tournament. Players will often throw bundles of hundred-dollar bills in a pot along with their chips. The visual impact of seeing a player toss in enough cash to equal six months’ salary cannot be underestimated.

Of course, for every classic TV show, there are a dozen failures. Poker shows are no exception, especially ones that try to go “behind the scenes” or tell the “real story”. I’ll cover those in the follow-up to this article.

By Gerald Hanks

Poker Tv Game

Gerald Hanks is from Houston Texas, and has been playing poker since 2002. He has played cash games and no-limit hold’em tournaments at live venues all over the United States.

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For over 30 years, poker players and fans alike have been tuning in to Poker TV to see the strategy and thrill of a live poker game. Since that time, the way that people watch television has revolutionized, and Poker TV has evolved with it, and what started with a single televised poker event has become a whole world of poker, right at your fingertips.

The original Poker TV began in the United States back in the 1970s and consisted exclusively of television broadcasts of live poker tournaments, namely the main event of the World Series of Poker. Although these games offered viewers their only glimpse into the life and events of big name players in poker and the way that they executed their strategy, a lot was missing. Technology at the time meant that spectators could only see the game from an outsider’s perspective, which had its limitations because those watching at home could only truly understand the players’ strategy in retrospect or by using video playback, which was too expensive to be practical until the 1980s, and, even then, was horribly inconvenient. Likewise, commentators also had to guess what was happening, which made for dialogue that wasn’t overwhelmingly engaging for the viewer at home.

It would be two decades before a breakthrough transformed Poker TV, making it far more entertaining for the at-home spectator as well as amateur and professional players who were trying to examine strategy. In Europe, the “hole cam” was born– a device that sat under the table and showed what cards a player had, giving the audience the perspective of each player. Unfortunately, this groundbreaking innovation came at an awkward moment in Poker TV history, as Poker TV in Europe was grinding to a halt, and the US was only televising a one-hour synopsis of the World Series of Poker tournaments.

The Best Poker TV Shows

Poker in the United States can be found on ESPN, Bravo, GSN, and several other major networks, such as CBS, NBS, and CNBS, when the shows have been syndicated. In Great Britain, television stations which broadcast poker shows include Channel 4, Challenge, and Five, while Italy shows Pokermania on Italia 1. In Europe at large, Poker TV can be found on Sky Sports as well as The Poker Channel and Pokerzone, two free-to-air channels that were created during the big poker boom in the mid-2000s.

Poker After Dark

Poker After Dark offers viewers a look into the evolution of a single poker table over the course of a week and has minimal commentary so that spectators can hear and assess table talk between the players. One of the most popular programs in Poker TV since its inception in 2007, Poker After Dark is a unique show that has had seven seasons as of mid-2011.

Late Night Poker

This show, originally broadcast in the UK, is one of the best known Poker TV programs, in part because they were responsible for the introduction of the special cameras that revolutionized the Poker TV world. While the show was originally created between 1999 and 2002, it lead to the creation of several other programs, including Late Night Poker Ace, Late Night Poker Masters, and Celebrity Poker Club.

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Million Dollar Cash Game

This show is touted as being “Europe’s biggest ever televised cash game,” with a $100,000 minimum buy-in and no maximum amount that players can put down. Sponsored by Full Tilt Poker (who also sponsors Poker After Dark), Million Dollar Cash Game broke records and put itself on the Poker TV map in 2009 when it had a pot of over 1.1 million dollars– the largest in television history at the time.

High Stakes Poker

Like Poker After Dark, High Stakes Poker is designed to follow a single game, rather than a tournament. Cash games followed by High Stakes Poker have buy-ins that range from $100,000 to $500,000 dollars, with some players opting to buy-in for a hefty million dollars. Like in other cash games, the players play for real money, and if they lose the amount that they’ve bought in for (or bought back in for), their cash is gone, making for some very intense action.

See Full List On Cardplayer.com

Poker TV has seen the creation of a great many other excellent poker shows, such as Poker Royale, Celebrity Poker Showdown, and Ultimate Poker Challenge, all of which air in the United States, La Notte del Poker and Pokermania, both native to Italy, and Poker Million, and Celebrity Poker Club, both created by United Kindom poker aficionados.