#230: “Starbucks Frappuccino”

Remember when being a poker pro meant grinding 50 tourneys a day or showing up to a live event and hoping to be still there when the prize money was being handed out? Those were the days. It was simple. Find your way into a game with people who are worse than you. Rinse and repeat. These days, you have to tweet, tag, post, blog, review, interpret your HUD, watch coaching videos, make coaching videos, stake, twitch, boom, be nice to Dave Curtis and have your own podcast. It’s fucking exhausting and we only have ourselves to blame; our insatiable Promethean desire to consume until all that’s left is a Walmart, our need to spoil anything dignified until all that’s left is a Starbucks frappuccino.

The world demanded interactivity and technology paved the way. TV got the red button, porn got chaturbate and poker got twitch. It was sort of inevitable. A lot of people have told me recently that I should be on Twitch. I guess that’s sort of a compliment. I am fairly animated while I play 24 tables, swearing away at my opponents and such antics might make good TV. The problem is, and I think this is a broader issue for the platform, I think such antics might make good TV for about 25 minutes. In my experience, pulling back the curtain and revealing process is interesting at first but it quickly becomes repetitive and loses its appeal. Also, the vicarious experience of the life of an online poker pro might be engaging at first but it massively relies upon the subject being a talented player, an entertainer or ideally, both. Frankly, in what is likely to become a flooded market, there ain’t too many of those guys around.

Don’t get me wrong. There’s nothing wrong with Twitch per se. We are all on The Truman Show to some extent these days. The world is a better place when technology creates safe spaces for the voyeurs and exhibitionists, when it separates those who are looking for e-harmonious love from the grindrs and blendrs who are just DTF. Twitch is the future for poker, at least for a little while. Is it elegant? No. Is it progress? Probably not. Are we in danger of becoming a community of gimps, spread-eagled, anuses splayed for a Big Brother Reality TV Show? Maybe. But I still get it.

On the other hand, you have podcasts. Sure, there’s nothing inherently noble about them either. People who present them are like crickets (it has been observed that if you play the clicking sound that crickets make back to them, they become sexually aroused) and yes, there’s way too many of them now but that road would certainly be my preference. Podcasts are more controlled entities. They are produced, edited, polished and thereby (hopefully) quality-assured. They are also collaborative and that’s why I am more interested in going in that direction. I like the safety net and I like the company. It’s the nittier route. That is not to say that there aren’t pitfalls in making a podcast. There are loads. I just feel as though, like in poker, you have more control over the risk element.

People have been very complimentary about the first seven episodes of ‘The Chip Race’ and I am really grateful for those words of support. It turns out there aren’t too many chip racists out there. I am also grateful to the large number of people who took the time to critique the show, making great suggestions that I hope we implemented to some degree as the season went on. Unlike many unstructured podcasts that permit bad dinner-party chat levels of conversational flab, ‘The Chip Race’ is hopefully a return to a lively, fast-paced radio format. I am also aware that the pool of people with whom to speak is limited so, contrary to some people’s preferences, we have purposely conducted shorter interviews than we could have. Rather than exhaust a guest, I would prefer to leave the audience wanting more from them so when they do come back on at a later date, we still have plenty to talk about.

My hope for the show is that we find the financial backing that will reward the generosity of the team who have and hopefully will contribute to the making of every episode. I would love if we could make 15-20 episodes per year, mostly so I have an excuse to work with the show’s brilliant crew. Dara O’Kearney is a superstar and having someone with his ability to speak with authority on just about anything in poker makes it very easy for me. And who knew that a shy, scowly kid from Sligo had it in him to be lead news-anchor? Daragh Davey was a real find and I appreciate so much his enormous efforts on and off the mic. Fergal Nealon provides my favorite segments, oozing class and respectfulness as he interviews the characters of the local poker scenes in Ireland. This series of interviews was Fergal’s own idea and I think he has executed them brilliantly, proving what a natural communicator he is and what a bad decision Pokerstars made not getting him onto The Shark Cage. Willie Elliott might just be my favorite person in poker and not only is he generous with his limited time, providing top-class interviews but he is also the man responsible for the hilarious photoshopped movie-poster advertising campaign that accompanies every episode. Behind the scenes Colly O’Neill and Rob O’Connor are amazing as the backbone of our operation, providing industry quality tech and media support to a bunch of relative newbies.

It’s a joy to work with people like this and it reminds me in a somewhat solemn way of the life I might be living if it weren’t for the poisoned chalice that is poker. Then again, pursuing that life might well have lead me to serving actual Starbucks frappuccinos.