The fall of the World Poker Tour

I know it's still on in Season 11, but it's been buried on the regional Fox Sports channels for the last five years or so and it's just too hard to find it consistently at the same time. It gets bumped when there are live games on, which during baseball and basketball seasons is way too often.

When it started on the Travel Channel in about 2003, it was groundbreaking and appointment TV thanks to the invention of the hole cam. It started the poker boom that saw the World Series of Poker Main Event (following suit and using the hole cam) going from a few hundred entrants to more than 10,000.

When it started on Travel Channel, the final table show was two hours that culminated with the winner. It was a hot property, and eventually Game Show Network won the rights. It didn't last long there, and is ow, on Fox Sports Network with the problems I previously mentioned. Also, an hour-long show ends and you have to wait another week to find out the winner. What was once a cable sensation is now an afterthought.

I suppose the poker boom was bound to level off, but I'm sure I'd still be watching religiously if it was still on one network on a specific night and time. The way things are now, I rarely ever see it. I have no idea what it's "regular" time and night is -- if it has one.

Anyone else have any thoughts?

 

Poker games ion general are dying off as well. A lot of the poker rooms in Vegas - which didn't make the house a lot of money to begin with, but were immensely popular with players - are now gone.

 

Black Monday a couple years ago killed the poker boom. But even with that, those shows are repetitive so it wouldn't be surprising for interest to drop off anyway.

 

I still like Phil Ivey and Doyle Brunson. If either of them makes a run in the WSOP (much less likely with Doyle these days), I'll pay attention. Other than that, I don't really give a shit.

 

Enforcement of anti-online-poker rules
The collapse of FullTilt
A lot of people realizing that raked poker is almost impossible to beat, no matter how much the male ego tries to deny it

 

The online poker rules limited the WSOP Main Event some because the number of satellite entries went down, but I don't think that really had an effect on WPT. And, again, raked poker wouldn't affect viewership of WPT. That would, I'm sure, eventually affect poker rooms in casinos.

I'm of the mind that WPT would still be a great product if I knew where and when I could find it. And, as I said, I get ticked off when I invest an hour and then have to wait till the next week (where and when, I'm not even sure) to see the conclusion.

 

WPT didn't start the poker boom. Moneymaker plus online sites did.

Like all fads, it has run it's course. And that's fine. I'd prefer to play with old codgers telling stories than frat bros imitating Phil Laak's table style.

 

People watch because they play or want to play. Nobody plays anymore.

 

You'd be stunned at home many still play. Often just in little $20 or $40 buy in home games. I still have a choice of about three bars a night to play in.

And Moneymaker's win only mattered because people were watching. If not for the hole cam started by the WPT, ESPN wouldn't have even been televising it. No one would know or care who Moneymaker is. If you doubt me on this, try to catch on ESPN Classic some of the WSOPs that they dusted off with no hole cam. Unwatchable except to the most avid poker historians.

 

I play about once a month and could play just about every weekend if I really wanted. All the games are at homes of people in my neighborhood.

Usually if you bring $40 you are covered all night, even on a bad night.

 

Home games have been around for ages. I don't think they were impacted that much by the boom. Online and B&M was where that was felt. And, as you mentioned, the bars doing freebie tournaments.

 

Made me giggle.