We recently polled over a thousand poker players from across the USA to find out what, when, where and how you’re playing, as well as what you want to see more or less of in the poker world.
Last week we took a closer look at your favorite live and online poker operators. Now we turn our attention to poker content.
Whether you’re honing your strategy, looking for gossip, catching up on results or just watching the elite pros doing what they do best, what poker content do you enjoy the most?
What’s your favorite poker show?
Poker shows may now be predominantly online, rather than on traditional TV platforms, but they still pull in big audiences across YouTube and on specialist platforms like PokerGo.
I’m not surprised to see two of the OG all-time best poker shows dominating more than 50% of the vote here. I've probably watched more hours of Poker After Dark than all of the rest combined. What did surprise me was the absence of The Big Game! If I had to pick one, I’d say that’s my favorite poker show of all time... the format is unlike anything else in poker.
As we’ve seen elsewhere in our survey results, a powerful brand sticks in the mind and brings enduring popularity, and again the two most popular names in this category are also two of the oldest and most established.
High Stakes Poker has been around since early 2006, while Poker After Dark first aired a year later in January 2007. Both have made successful returns in recent years, in the process making the move from more traditional TV networks to the PokerGo platform. The shows bagged 31% and 23% of the vote in our survey, respectively.
They’re also two of the more professionally produced, condensed and edited shows on the list, compared with the longer, more warts-and-all live streams you’ll find with the likes of Hustler Casino Live or The Lodge.
It’s worth noting that Game of Gold - the poker/reality hybrid from GGPoker - broke too late for inclusion in our survey, and PokerStars’ The Big Game is making its return imminently. With these two names back in the mix, we’re keen to see how this category may change in next year’s survey.
What’s your favorite poker show? Do you agree or disagree with these results, or maybe there's an unmissable show that our survey missed? Be sure to let us know.
What is your favorite type of poker content?
When we asked, ‘If you could pick just one type of poker content’, we suspected it might be live streams.
We were there for the hole-cam revolution of 20 years ago, when poker became a spectator sport in a way it had never been before. Being able to see players’ cards while watching them make moves at the table brought a new level of entertainment to televised poker, and this has only deepened in the era of live online streams.
With so many live streams to choose from, poker fans are now spoilt for choice (can’t decide which to watch? Check our poker streams page for a collection of the very best). Almost a third of respondents, 32%, opted for live streams of live games, where you can study the strategies, table talk and poker faces of the best players in the world.
A further 14% chose live streams of online games - possibly because this type of content is so prevalent on Twitch, one of the biggest and most popular live-streaming platforms.
Following on from live streams, opinion is largely split between strategy articles, news and personalities, highlights shows, quizzes, tests and memes.
And when it came to which formats are most enjoyable to watch, live tournaments led the field. Live cash games, online cash games and online tournaments all polled around half the numbers for live tournaments.
What is your favorite live series to watch?
Last week we shared the news that the World Series of Poker (WSOP) is our respondents’ number one choice of live series to play, and it seems the same goes when it comes to one to watch.
Almost half (47%) our surveyed players would rather view the WSOP action on live stream than any other tournament series, with the World Poker Tour (WPT) running second with 21%.
The Triton and EPT/NAPT series round out the field, with 11% and 9% respectively. We wouldn’t have been surprised to see the latter score more highly, especially given it won the prize for Best Live Stream at this year’s Global Poker Awards, but the WSOP and WPT certainly remain the most visible within the USA, for now at least.
Next week we’ll bring you even more of our findings around the State of Poker in 2024, including a closer look at the biggest concerns around online poker security.
Image courtesy of PokerGo
