Harrah's Bringing World Series of Poker To Radio

[MJMANDALAY]

The World Series of Poker is already very well known nationally. Now, Harrah's entertainment is taking another step to increase the game of poker's popularity.

Harrah's announced today the launch of something new to the game of poker. A radio show. World Series of Poker Radio will be the official show of the WSOP. It will air weekly and will be available on over 200 stations.

Callers can call into the show and talk about the game. Many people will also be guests on the show including, professional players, WSOP champions, and tournament officials.

"World Series of Poker Radio is the latest addition to our broadcasting and new media portfolio and opens up a new way for us to connect with our fans and players," said Jeffrey Pollack, the WSOP Commissioner.

Nick Gerber will be the host of the show. He has been around the poker circuit for a while and is a regular on WSOP broadcasts. "I'm very excited to bring poker's 'Major League' to the airwaves," said Gerber.

The broadcasts of the radio show will air at 8:00 P.M. to 10:00 P.M. on Mondays.

[Simby19]

But I can't look at Phil Ivey through my raaaaaadio!

[Voss's Tumor]

But I can't look at Phil Ivey through my raaaaaadio!

N lover!




Ok, I am too, that guy's a fucking monster

[MJMANDALAY]

But I can't look at Phil Ivey through my raaaaaadio!

http://www.pokeruniversity.org/images/poker_phil_ivey.jpg

[MJMANDALAY]

But I can't look at Phil Ivey through my raaaaaadio!

http://www.imaconlinepoker.com/bios/phil-ivey/img/phil-ivey-avatar.png
Pookie????

[Redding]

Poker is perfect for the radio...im surprised xm or sirius dont have a network...alot of personalities that would make good radio....could do shows on strategy, the lifestyle and tournament and player news

[Simby19]

Holy crap he looks creepy in the first one.

[Voss's Tumor]

Mike Matusow for third mic.

[Simby19]

Ugh I hate Matusow. BUT I suppose he's better than Hellmuth.

[Voss's Tumor]

Think about it, if you only got randomly clipped sound bites from Jimmy you'd probably hate him too. Matusow's actually a pretty nice guy, he's just fucking insane

[Simby19]

He seems like an overly cocky douche. Again, not as bad as Hellmuth.

[Voss's Tumor]

Well, he's cocky, but he's also an extremely brilliant poker player.

Remember, when you watch poker on TV it's like watching Sportscenter and thinking you just watched a whole football game. Most of those tables have been playing pretty much non-stop for 10+ hours, and they boil the highlights down to an hour long show with commercials.

Most of the time Mike's had to endure someone's passive aggressive bullshit for hours, and the camera just catches his one blow up and makes it the story. Same thing happens to Hellmuth too, but Hellmuth actually is a prick for the most part.

Bottom line is that both guys know their game really well, and when they get knocked out by someone who they've witnessed playing shitty for hours and getting lucky over and over again (eg, repeatedly going in with the worst hand and drawing out), then they get sucked out on again, it's frustrating.

[Simby19]

Right but then you look at calm, cordial players like Doyle Brunson or Phil Ivey who don't let shit like that affect their game or their attitude towards other people. If they get beat badly, it certainly doesn't alter their game for longer than a hand or two but Matusow sits on that for a lot longer. He draws a lot of attention to himself for camera time.

We need more Chris Fergusons or Dan Harringtons, not Matusows or Laaks.

[Voss's Tumor]

You're also naming players that have been intelligent in their personal lives.

Matusow, even though he's a nice guy, is a complete moron when it comes to managing his personal affairs, and he NEEDS poker. When someone who's some construction mogul from Jersey gets lucky because he plays like he doesn't need the money, I'm all for him busting some donkeys' heads.

Also, I know from personal experience that Chris Ferguson is one of the nicest, most intelligent human beings I've ever known from ANY walk of life. ANY organization would benefit from having more guys like him.

[Simby19]

I know Matusow is a good player but he just is one of the players that rubs me the wrong way. I know he struggled to get where he is and blah blah blah but I'm just not rooting for the guy.

[Voss's Tumor]

haha, you can't knock the guy for being a character. If it weren't for guys like him a lot of people wouldn't even watch the game. I mean, poker players are seriously boring, mathematically minded, analytical sumbitches.

I'm a huge poker and math nerd, and the couple times I was in a social setting with some big named pros the conversation was so mind numbingly boring... I felt like I was in a game theory lecture in some PhD statistics class.

A little crazy's good for the game! Though I do prefer Humberto Brenes, Scotty Nguyen, or Marciel Luske's brand of crazy if we're talking personal preference, but their god awful accents wouldn't exactly lend to good radio, heh.

[Simby19]

Not all of them are personality-less douches, you can usually tell. Too many of them feel the need to have gimmicks in order to stand out and I guess they know what they are doing to some extent since we know who they are (ie: Phil "Unabomber" Laak or Dave "Devilfish" Elliot) Just fucking stick to playing poker, crunching the numbers, fucking with peoples heads, etc. Its entertaining enough for me. I like a little smack-talk here and there but Matusow takes it to a different level. Like Daniel Negreanu is someone I can tell I would never want to hang out with because of his personality, but he can play the game, not be a complete douchebag AND keep it interesting at the same time.

[Voss's Tumor]

Haha, Negraneau is actually very hated in the poker community for being a douche bag. Annie Duke, also hated for being a completely entitled, spoiled bitch. If you get into old Google archives there's a message board where poker players used to do basically what we do here, just all about poker, and there's quite a few instances of Annie and Daniel going at it like spoiled little children until Big Brother Lederer steps in and tells them both to quit being babies. (This is before there really was any poker on TV other than a 30 minute WSoP final table on ESPN 2 at 3 am)

Phil Laak was given that name by Antonio Esfandiari (also one of his best friends in and out of poker) because of the fact that he's always wearing that sweat shirt... And I do mean always. I've seen him 5 or 6 times in social settings and maybe once he wasn't in that sweat shirt, and it's because it was Chris Ferguson's girlfriend's birthday party. He's actually a really quiet guy... Antonio does most of his talking for him from what I've seen of them socially.

I guess my point is that the one sided politics of what you see on TV in poker are almost always wrong just because they're trying to manipulate it like some reality show, and some people like Annie and Daniel know how to come across as the "good guys" by sucking up to producers and smiling for cameras. Mike just plays the game and says fuck the cameras.

[Voss's Tumor]

And please don't take this as an argument, all I'm trying to say is the producers control what part of the personalities you see. You say you want someone who'll just play the game and be who he really is, that's Mike Matusow to a T. You want fake douche bags, you're a Duke/Negraneau fan.

[Simby19]

Oh no I can fully appreciate Matusow being himself and I know that Negreanu plays it up for the cameras. It's also why he whores himself out and does anything people ask him to do but the underlying personality there, to ME, isn't as douchey as Mike's. Maybe he fucking subconsciously reminds me of someone I can't stand. One of the reasons I stopped watching as much IS because I know the producers are just trying to shove certain angles down my throat and it wasn't as fun to watch anymore. Every blink is sponsored by someone and it just became too much for me, so who knows if it has gotten any better over the past few years since I haven't tuned in enough to see.

[Voss's Tumor]

Yeah, it's sad really. Once you truly get poker you lose interest in watching it on TV. I used to play all the time in big money games, I had a (albeit small) business role in FullTiltPoker.net (which is why I know the guys psonsored through them), and all this has taught me to be disgusted by almost everything I see on TV poker related.

Unless it's player run, like the show Howard Lederer does with Chris ... (shit, Best Damn Sports Show anchor...), but even that show has to pander to guys like Daniel and Phil Hellmuth because they're so well known as TV poker players.

But all that being said, one of the reasons I'm so defensive of Mike Matusow is that he is a true "Opie and Anthony" type of guy who "gets the show", so he just throws his middle finger up at the producers and plays to win, and if he goes on a tirade because someone's being a douche bag and he can't handle it, he does it the same way whether or not there's a camera pointed at him.

[Simby19]

Ah I go on FullTilt. Gotta love when the pros are forced to play (if it's even them). I heard the late-night stuff is good but I really just had to tap out once it got to be everywhere. I didn't even watch any of the WSOP this year.

[Voss's Tumor]

One thing I can tell you from extensive personal experience is that when you're playing on-line and you see a pro, it really is them playing. Granted, I have been known to have a laptop handed to me and play a few hands while someone runs to the store to grab cigarettes or something, but it is the pro behind the keyboard.

Granted, they're usually just punching a clock to make the site that sponsors them happy, and they usually have 3-999 IM windows going to pass the time, but it is the actual pro sitting there. (At least on Full Tilt and Ultimatebet, I can't speak for the others but I have no reason to think otherwise)

[Simby19]

I figured IF it was them, that would be exactly the case. I'm mildly impressed that I can play with such fancy people.

[Voss's Tumor]

In fact, to take it one step further, most of those pros will have a second, "anonymous" account that they play on with their own money as part of them making money for themselves by playing, rather than just getting paycheck from the site.

The identities of these accounts, however, are closely guarded secrets even from their friends who are also pros. I figured one out once... It was Paul Phillips playing on Full Tilt with an old black woman as an avatar, but he was just sitting low limit shit and screwing around for the most part.

[Simby19]

haha holy fuck that would rule to play with Phil Ivey and not know it. Then again, I'd never know. I'd do the same thing if I was them, though. You can go through hands at a ridiculous rate online.

[Voss's Tumor]

I hate to break into your massive crush here, but Phil is an EXTREMELY boring and quiet guy. He was one of my heroes when I first got into poker, and when I was working with Full Tilt I was so pumped I would probably get to meet him at one point.

He's never around. And I mean, never. He plays, he goes home.

I asked Clonie about him one day and she goes, "You know, I've known Phil for years and I don't think I've ever heard any phrase from him other than a head nod and a 'Hey Clonie'"

I hope you like the strong, silent, ethnic penis type!

[Simby19]

Yeah I can see him being really shy. I'd have to break him out of that because that would get old real fast. I have no plan B!

[Voss's Tumor]

Haha, if you can deal with us ass holes as a woman, I would think you could accomplish no less.

I'll pass your Myspace to him if I ever have the chance to meet him, I promise! Then again... I might not want the competition.

[Simby19]

Haha, if you can deal with us ass holes as a woman, I would think you could accomplish no less.

I'll pass your Myspace to him if I ever have the chance to meet him, I promise! Then again... I might not want the competition.


Oh please I've handled a lot worse. Share Phil Ivey with meeee! Then again he's married. Go with it.

[Voss's Tumor]

Oh please I've handled a lot worse. Share Phil Ivey with meeee! Then again he's married. Go with it.

I think you can turn him. You know how them brothas like the white meat!