Live at the Bike
Back in October I posted about how I want to see ring games on TV. The gist of it is that I watch the WPT just like everybody else, but for me, it's not really poker unless you're betting with real money rather than tournament chips.

So I was happy today to see this article in the Poker Gazette, discussing the Bicycle Casino's plans to stream video of their high-stakes ring games live via the Internet:

According to the Bike's Managing Partner, Haig Kelegian, "What makes this exciting and different is the fact that it's real ..... real money, really high stakes. Tournament poker is great, but doesn't translate dollar for dollar. We are focusing on real players who have their money on the table ... and its unscripted, unedited and uncensored. That's exciting!" . . .

Fourteen cameras will pick up all of the action and drama of the game, including players' cards and their faces, while skilled commentators call the action play by play. Poker enthusiasts world wide will have their chance to experience the Bike, thanks to universal web availability and cutting edge technology.

I just checked out the link for the live feed, but it says they will only be streaming Wednesday through Saturday, 6-10pm. I will have to check it out again tonight!

Friday Night Update

Okay, I registered with the site and watched some of the "show." It's pretty interesting to a casino trying out one of the ideas I had back in October -- of course, it's a somewhat obvious idea. And so far they are not implementing it all that well, but they did say this is only their third night broadcasting and they are still working out glitches. I have to agree with ToddCommish's comment that it would be much better if you could hear the dealer call the action, and if you could hear the players' conversations. As it is the two commentators are sort of mumbling over everything, and they're rarely talking about the current hand -- instead it's stuff like "Friday night is clam chowder night at the Bike . . . " Still, this is pretty cool. I played about a half hour of online poker, and kept the Live at the Bike feed going in the background -- the sounds of a real poker room lent a certain ambiance to online play that is nice :-)
posted by James at 2:54 PM