CasinoGaming.com


	Sundays: Inside Gaming Tuesdays: Video Poker Wednesdays: Off the Shelf Fridays: Richard Eng, Player's Edge Saturdays: Pocket Aces

POCKET ACES

Columns

• Back to Maryann's index

• Back to columnists' index

Maryann Guberman has been a writer and editor with many gaming publications, including Sports Form, Card Player, Poker World, Player's Panorama and Systems and Methods. She also has written and edited numerous books on gambling.

Sept. 25, 2004

Sex Sells; Sensation Stinks

The very first law in advertising is to avoid the concrete promise and cultivate the delightfully vague. -- Bill Cosby

I see that poker is taking two roads today, both of which have the aim of attracting an audience, drawing players or ferreting players away from competitors. The tactics, both as old as public communication, might injure some sensibilities but the shouldn't. At least one, after all, represents action that get results.

Take a look at the various print media and you'll see the online poker rooms and probably even a land-based room or two, featuring a gorgeously sexy woman, arms and legs alluringly akimbo, in living-flesh color, occupying anywhere from a quarter to half the advertisement. She's not a poker player. You won't be next to her at the table. Her appearance has nothing to do with the ad, but she certainly does catch the eye -- the male and female attention -- by virtue of the perfect beauty.

The other feature, one that might require a little more tolerance, is the televising of outrageous behavior on the part of the players. Granted, in the tournaments being broadcast, the financial reward is staggering to the mainstream public and therefore something to get excited about. However, poker has never been an extreme sport; players have never acted like children on an amusement park thrill ride -- until now.

I don't care if it sells, some of the antics of today's poker stars are downright disconcerting. The game is looks to be heading to a point where it should be held in an arena, perhaps Madison Square Garden. The aura is one you might expect at a wrestling match. In fact, many people with whom I'm in contact have complained to me about the path of poker. I have a stock answer -- register your opinion with the people who are bothering you.

Maybe having players jump up and down after winning is a good idea. Maybe the high-fives and the railbird hugging and the blatant display of pride isn't bad. It could be the actions will remain at the tournament table but I suspect we'll soon see newbies in live action imitating their favorite stars. When that happens in any card game I'm at, I'll be gone in a flash. This is, after all, my money at risk and I expect to lose once in a while. Call me thin-skinned but I don't expect the person who wins my money to taunt me about my misfortune.

Hot dogging is little more than poor sportsmanship. The only people it pleases are the hot doggers and those who prefer to rub defeat in the face of a loser rather than shake hands and say "Thanks for a good match."

I'm certain this opinion will meet with a good amount of negative reaction, especially from the younger crowd -- the segment of the population who is growing up with competitive spirit laced with smugness -- and from those who think TV ratings will drop if players aren't "bad boys."

Poker is so hot that every cable network seems to be scrambling for some kind card game, so why the sudden plunge into traditional territory? Why not keep the mystique of the game?

Oh, well, perhaps I'm thinking like a dinosaur about this whole thing. If I am, then excuse me and come back next week for a totally different topic, or in two weeks when I tackle underage gambling! Now there's something that's selling.