I think any poker tournament would be mostly boring if you didn’t edit it down to just the “interesting” hands. The show definitely quieted down after Hellmuth was eliminated. My favorite TV poker show is High Stakes Poker by a mile, but I actually liked this in that you got to see more of the run of the mill hands that make up most tournaments. I liked that you got to see all the hole cards, even the ones that were folded. I like to see what the pros are and aren’t playing in the different positions and situations. (The WSoP broadcasts don’t show a lot of the folded hands.) Most of the table talk wasn’t very interesting, but ther e were a few little tidbits here and there.

I’ve always liked Huck Seed (from what little I’ve seen and read about him), so it was good to see him get some TV time. He played a very straightforward game from what they showed. I was also surprised by how tight Gus played as opposed to his image. (At least from what was shown) Gus made a comment after folding a 4-2 suited heads up that he used to play that hand. He said a heads up match against someone (Daniel?) didn’t work out too well for him when he pretty much played every hand, so it sounded like he learned a little something from that. Now I don’t know if it was edited that way, but Hellmuth seemed to be the only one at the table trying to force something to happen, and that didn’t work out too well for him either. I didn’t get why they were playing with cash on the table.

I guessed that it was just to try and capture some of the excitement from the High Stakes show where players are throwing big stacks of cash into the pot. I didn’t think that was necessary. I liked it, but I don’t know if it will have the drama to keep most people interested so it may not be around long.

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