![]() ![]() Then, they played 60 hands of Texas Hold’em in which the deals were fixed, so that players could get consistently good, bad or neutral hands. In the experiment, 300 participants were divided into “expert” versus “non-expert” groups, depending on whether they had an interest in the game or not. In 2012, I wrote about a study in the Journal of Gambling Studies, which argued that poker isn’t the game of skill that many players make it out to be. But it’s an interesting issue – in many countries, games of chance are either illegal or regulated, whereas the rules are more relaxed for games of skill, and certainly in the case of online poker, it can be easy to abuse the system if left unchecked. This wasn’t a new issue, as the debate about the status of poker has been going on for as long as the game itself has been around. And in turn, legal issues came up about whether it should be classified as a game of chance, or a game of skill. With the rise in televised tournaments, there was an associated rise in popularity of poker websites. ![]() Networks were left with a fairly gaping hole in their schedules that they needed to fill quickly, and according to Marvyn Ryder, a professor specialising in sports marketing at McMaster University, tournament poker filled that vacant space. The cancellation of the season meant that 1,230 games weren’t played – and more critically, weren’t shown on television. Then, in 2004, the North American National Hockey League went into lockout over a pay dispute between the player’s association and league officials. With this simple addition, poker suddenly became a gripping drama, where you could see the inner workings of the poker players’ minds with each and every bluff. In 1999, Channel 4 broadcast a programme called Late Night Poker that revolutionised the way in which viewers could engage with the game – by introducing under-the-table cameras so that viewers could see the cards. Some people have argued that there are two reasons for this: table cameras, and ice hockey. Watching poker in real life is boring.ĭespite that, televised poker enjoyed a huge rise in popularity in the early 2000s. Nothing happens – you see lots of people insist on wearing sunglasses in a windowless room, some cards and chips moving around a table, and occasionally someone being banished with a sullen look on their face, because they no longer have any chips in front of them at that particular time. I was there for a couple of days with a friend, and being a fan of poker, thought it would be fun to check out a high stakes game there. I realised this when I found myself in the Bellagio hotel in Las Vegas a few years ago. ![]() A s a spectator sport, poker traditionally isn’t the most engaging thing to watch. ![]()
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