Having had a decent run yesterday at the Genting series, and helped Mad Marty run around the car park in the snow partly undressed. I would like to raise the subject of live streams.
The viewing of hole cards has transformed the world of poker since it"s inception on LNP. Obviously with so much money now being on offer week in and week out, everyone is looking to cash in on the boom, whether through playing, supplying equipment, etc, etc. My point is, the new equipment that is capable of detecting the chipped cards and broadcasting information on the internet, is in someway giving an unfair advantage to certain players. The 15 minute delay helps the player who has friends relaying information back to the participant. Yesterday during the live stream broadcast ( where the "studio" was approx 7 feet from the feature table, the players were enquiring and receiving information about the cards that the players were playing or mucking after the hand was played. Mobile phones were not allowed to be used at the tables, but you could stand up walk 6 paces and speak or receive text messages. This cannot be the way forward for poker.
Having been fortunate enough to play on the TV in the past, the security was airtight, searched before entering the studio, accompanied to the toilet, segregated from everyone apart from your fellow competitors at the break, basically a million miles from the green room.
I believe the way forward is to delay the broadcast longer than the 15 minutes,say an hour also the "studios" should be non accessable to anyone other that the commentators, certainly not the players still in the competition, and finally mobile phones taken from the players on the feature table. I realise that information can still be available from friends, but this info perhaps could only be passed at breaks.
I would be interested in your thoughts, and ways to make our beloved game cleaner and straighter
