Saturday 5 April 2014

Let's keep passion in fashion!

Nothing like a cheesy lame title to draw in readers eh?


A recent channel 4 EPT episode contained a hand between Timothy Adams and Eric Seidel in a super hiroller where they get it all in preflop with KK and AA respectively. A cooler in any situation, and especially nasty in a tournament with €100,000 buyin. The board bricks until the river which is a King. 
 


A hand that makes for great TV, or it should have done. Without the commentary, it would've been barely possible to notice who was involved in the hand, let alone who won and lost! 

Not a hint of a reaction from either player when the cards were revealed, nor as the board was dealt out. 

Whilst I admire their coolness and professionalism under the circumstances, and this is absolutely not a rant about how players should "entertain" on these TV shows - I want to see more emotion in the game! 

Bring back the fistpumps, the cries, the cheers! We all do it in our homes whilst playing online and everyone feels the highs and the lows inside, so why is everybody so concerned with bottling it all up now!?  

I understand why it's not the done thing to celebrate in front of people, and of course it's "cool" to not care about a suckout - but I'd much rather that people were allowed to ENJOY winning off me and didn't feel pressured by current etiquette guidelines. I genuinely enjoy seeing someone be made happy by winning at cards, even if it is at my expense. Because if people are made to feel bad for enjoying their good fortunes, they're not going to stick around too long. 




This is what I'm talking about! You have to at least crack a smile at this, even as the loser.

And believe it or not, I really don't mind if it makes my opponent happy to slowroll me on the river (unless the pot is really big!). I play so much live poker that I'm more or less immune now. I've been slow rolled countless times, and 95% of them have not been in the slightest bit malicious. Mainly in places like Spain France or Italy - they love it - it's just part of the game to them, they have fun revealing their cards how they want. They play the game with passion and emotion at every corner, and showdowns are no different. In most cases they aren't trying to piss you off at all. It's not even an issue there, just part of the game.  

So if you're happy that you've rivered me in a big hand, I really won't mind you showing that emotion however you wish. We want our opponents to enjoy playing the game don't we? So let's stop being so sensitive and self conscious and have a bit of fun ourselves.  

The TV shows are for the most part useless at attracting people into the game. They sure make poker look boring to someone channel flicking. Imagine if Adams and Seidel were replaced with Teddy KGB and Havad Khan? Or Rastafish and Phil Hellmuth? Then it would look fun! "Wow what a sick hand, look how happy that guy is and how pissed the other guy is! This looks fun".  

Instead it's like "who won? Oh the young guy, well he doesn't look very happy about it". That's what my mum would say!  

Joe Stapleton (who is a cut above the rest by a million miles in terms of appealing to the masses and making the best out of some pretty lame material) hit the nail on the head with his commentary. 

"Seidel, would it kill you to berate the guy?". Tongue in cheek, but got me and my good friend and first class DTD Dealer George thinking. 

The fro got me thinking

Hence this blog in fact.

Pros are never going to act differently towards each other, I understand that. But let the recreational players have their fun at the table. Get befuddled by an Ian Gascoigne check raise and enjoy his "boom shackalaka" celebration. Get rivered by Rastafish and enjoy the moment with him as he sings and shouts about it! 

Pokers a horrible game sometimes but can be made that little bit easier if you ease up, relax, enjoy your wins and even enjoy your opponents joy at your losses.