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Poker on TV

Friday, July 25th, 2008 by Phil

I’m going to talk about what most poker players dream of, playing on TV. I knew for a fact that I really wanted to play on TV, so much that I actually went to events, simply because they were going to be on TV. The first time I made a final table in a televised event was in January of 2006 at Hooters in Las Vegas on the Heartland Poker Tour. Most of what I remember was that it was just a great time. So good of a time that I had to remind myself that we were still playing poker for some pretty serious money. The aspect of TV really changes things, I know it did for me, in a couple of different areas. Hope these will prepare you to play your best if you are every good enough to get to the TV final table.

First thing is that the blinds actually go backwards when you get to the TV table, allowing for more play. They had a schedule for the night before that they wanted to get done by midnight, to start setting up the stage for the next day.  We started at 10 am, and the blind structure was set to get down to six people at about midnight. When we finished up, the blinds were 6,000 – 12,000 with a 500 ante, when we came back the next day, it was 2,000 – 4,000 with no ante (they were even thinking about making them 1,000 – 2,000), talk about a change in play! I had 110,000 in chips and it went from 21,000 a round to 6,000 a round, making things much more comfortable for me.

Second thing was my mindset. When we got down to seven players I could just taste it. I’m sure if I have another chance to make a TV final table, I’d play differently.  I knew the blinds were going down, and there were three stacks below 50k, in my mind there was no way I was going broke before getting on TV. Which leads me to my next hand, I had A-K in middle position and raised the minimum. From the small blind, the chip leader (400k in chips or so) moved in on me. With the prize money going up only small amounts between 7th and 4th, in any other tournament I was going to call him. He was bullying people around, much like chip leaders do when you get to the money bubble in tournaments. I thought about it for about a minute and threw it away. I just knew I was going to be sick if I lost, especially if it was to a hand like J-10 suited.

Third thing, I actually had to consciously think of to avoid. I was having so much fun with the crowd there and taking it all in, I didn’t want to get knocked out, and I could have seen myself getting blinded of, just wanting to stay in. Luckily I was able to avoid that, but it didn’t work to my advantage, and I came in 4th place. I even moved all in on a draw with 9 high, which in turn caused all my friends to call me crazy, which leads me to my next point..

Fourth thing, I’ve never understood why poker players are worried about the hole card cameras exposing how they play. They only showed six of my hands over the course of two hours. If anyone saw my play on that show they’d think I was a maniac. I went all-in on a semi bluff, took a stab at a pot with no hand, and committed all my chips with A-8 off suit. If someone were to see me at the beginning of the tournament and think they had a read on me they’d be dead wrong. At a full table in a tournament, unless I’m going broke in 3-4 orbits without playing a hand, I play a really tight solid game and almost never bluff unless I have a really good read on the player.

Fifth thing, they want to talk to you the second you get knocked out. Talk about the moment you don’t want to talk to someone. You just missed out on the biggest payday you’ve had access to in a long time, and then you have someone with a microphone in your face saying “Hey, why did you do that”. Of course you have to suck it up and put your best face forward before you hit the bar.

All in all the experience was fantastic, not to mention the staff was great to work with and a lot of fun. Hope to see you on the tube sometime soon.