http://www.worldpokertour.com/

 
America has Poker mania. Everyone’s playing it, or at least it seems that way. With the success of the Travel Channel’s World Poker Tour and Bravo’s Celebrity Poker Showdown more and more American’s are heating up for Texas Hold’em. A year ago if you asked what hands beat a straight at an office water cooler; you’d get a lot of blank stares. Now, it’s a different story.
 
With reality television booming, Poker is just one more in a long list of things viewers are willing to watch. If you asked a studio exec if watching people play cards could be a successful show they’d laugh you out the door. Now, with the advent of pigeon hole cameras allowing audiences to see the players hole cards you get a whole new spectacle. Armchair quarterbacking is the name of the game while watching Texas Hold’em. Viewers finally get a chance to question how they would play a hand right along with their favorite poker champs.
 
The miniature cameras aren’t the only thing propelling the interest in these shows. Online poker rooms have been booming business for the last couple of years. An average joe can get online and be playing in a tournament for real money from the comforts of their own home. With more players come more interest and that has helped propel this rather strange fascination with cards on TV.
 
Even during our last camping trip my brother and I picked up some chips at a local store and started to learn Texas Hold’em. It’s a tough game to play with only two or three players but we wanted to get an idea how it goes before starting a weekly penny ante game.
 
Of course if watching people playing cards is good television now, the question begs asking. What will we be watching in a few years? In the future will we be watching people pushing a little white ball around with a small club, or rolling a ball down a lane and knocking down pins? Just wait, some day cribbage and backgammon tournaments will be Must See TV.  
  ¶ 12:24 AM