Remember the early World Poker Tour broadcasts on Travel Channel? Each of them opened with an explanation of how to play poker and WPT host Last week, preceding the American Poker Awards, a full-day conference was held in Los Angeles featuring some of the brightest minds in the game. One of the themes throughout it was the importance of dumbing down poker broadcasts a bit in an attempt to continue bringing in new players, the life-blood of our ecosystem. We’re not talking about eliminating every aspect of a broadcast that the PocketFives readership would care about; instead, let’s tone down the acronyms and pie charts.
In one of the final panels of the day, “Run it Up” front man 
One of my favorite quotes from the LA event was “Open up the fun aspect of poker again.” People from PokerNews’ Matt Parvis to DeepStacks’ Chris Torina agreed. The latter reminded the room that poker isn’t close to becoming mainstream and so shouldn’t act like it is: “When poker realizes it’s not mainstream is when we can build the blocks to become mainstream.”
Somerville’s “Run it Up” is an example of a broadcast that appeals to the masses. Phrases like “the longer he takes, the longer we think we have the best hand” and “you don’t want to mess around with hands like K-J in early position against raisers” are examples of someone toning down his commentary rather that spouting off HUD stats and making the broadcast more confusing than a Rubik’s cube. It should come as no surprise that during the conference, Daniel Negreanu called Somerville “an integral part of poker’s future.” I agree.
Dan Goldman, who formerly worked for PokerStars, said that in the early days, PokerStars used to hold classes for WSOP qualifiers because, otherwise, they’d have no clue how betting and etiquette worked in live games. WPT President Adam Pliska (pictured) added that we, as a community, should be focusing on all demographics and not just 20-somethings: “There’s still an audience who loves poker and is over 30. Let’s not forget about them.”
Bernard Lee, speaking during the Q&A portion of one LA panel, said that a casual viewer being bombarded with stats makes it seem as if poker is too complicated to be able to play. Remember Sexton’s catchphrase? Now you see my point: let’s tone down poker TV before it’s too late.
It’s important to cater to poker enthusiasts too, don’t get me wrong. Having quality analysis is worthwhile, but it needs to be delivered using lingo that a casual viewer can understand. There have been a few commentators like Negreanu and Somerville who have been able to walk that line, constantly reminding us that poker is a game of skill. However, the analysis needs to be relatable to the masses.
Olivier Busquet was quoted in a Salon article as saying about his WSOP live commentary in 2011, “I didn’t want to dumb down the strategy and analysis for anyone. The hardcore poker fans certainly appreciated it, but even the amateurs could get some value. They either enjoyed it from an entertainment perspective or for the first time ever, they realized just how complex this game could be. This isn’t some random luck-based game played by degenerates and we shouldn’t be afraid to show that to the public.”
While there’s a place for showing that the game is complex, I question how effective that approach will be, on poker’s biggest stage, to bringing in new players.
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