Broadcast Assassin

2:52 am - Tue, Jul 20, 2010

5 notes

Webseries Poker: Playing Your Cards Right

“I had Kings…” - Neal Bannen

If you know how to play poker - Texas Hold ‘Em specifically - you’re gonna be ok for this post. If not, well, it might not make much sense. You’ve been warned.

The impetus of this idea, as is often the case with ideas, was the convergence of two disparate events; in this case, a long and excellent webseries discussion with the Maestro, Tom Konkle (Safety Geeks: SVI, Invention with Brian Forbes) followed by the train home during which, like all my train rides home, I occupied myself with my Blackberry’s poker app.

I went on a run of pocket 2’s and 3’s. Three hands in a row I was dealt either a pair of twos or a pair of threes. “I wish those were aces,” thinks I, and the part of my brain that does math (always the slowest and least exercised cavity of my mind) points out that statistically you’re just as likely to be dealt pocket aces as you are pocket 2’s (221:1 - I looked it up). Each is just as likely, and yet it’s a whole lot easier to win with aces than to win with deuces. That’s the game.

“Profound,” thinks I, automatically downplaying any dismay I might feel over having been playing poker for years and this is just now occurring to me. “There’s a lesson in that, but what?”

It’s not that you can’t win with twos, it’s just far far less likely. Winning with pocket twos, even for the masters, requires an overwhelming confluence of playing skill and luck.

What does this have to do with webseries? Well, this is what I came up with:

Your Show is Your Hand

We’ve all heard the old adage about playing the hand that you’re dealt. It’s a bad adage, really. Almost any poker player can tell you that you should only play the hands you think you can win with. In general, you fold 7-2 and you play Ace-King suited. The goal of playing the hand is to win it, so most good players choose not to make that any harder than it already is. Fold your bad ideas, know when you can get away with placing your bet on 10-J, and don’t be afraid to wait for a monster hand to come up before putting all your chips in. There are very few people in this world that can play any hand and still make money.

The Medium is the Deck

In this medium, all cards are identical until the hand is played. Online video gives you the basic tools of the game. It tells you that you have 2 through Ace of Hearts, Diamonds, Clubs, and Spades to work with. And yet, those basic tools lead to a staggering number of possible hands and play styles.

You Are the Player

Seems obvious, right? There are elements in this industry, however, that want to convince you otherwise. They’ll tell you that you are the hand and they will bet on you or fold you at their whim. They’ve set up an elaborate table and have convinced you that the only way to get on it is to be the hand. With the internet, this deception has never been more transparent. YOU were ALWAYS the Player, and the hand was always your SHOW. In the old model, creators were convinced that the only way to win (or even sit down) was to let someone else play their hands for them. The explosion of creativity that has led to the IAWTV, YouTube’s creator driven community, and the proliferation of online shows stems from a dawning realization that you, the creator, are the Player and you always have been. Many of us make shows and put them online for no (or almost no) money because it reminds us thet we’re in control of the hand, not the industry.

The Industry is the Board 

The Board, otherwise aptly known as the community cards, make up 3/5ths of your hand. If the flop, turn, and river are working in your favor, your two cards become unbeatable. If they’re working against you, even the best starting hand can lose.

The ideal job of the distributors, agents, management, unions, guilds, and organizations like the IAWTV, is to lay out the most beneficial community (cards) possible. If the board is four Aces and a King, every hand wins and splits the pot. That’s idealistic in webseries and poker, however. What we can work for in building this space is to do our best to ensure that none of community cards are actively busting our flushes.

Marketing is the Playing Skill

When two players face off with identical hands, it’s inevitably the player with the most skill who wins. Likewise, between two similar shows the one that does a better job of getting out there and garnering attention is the one that will come out on top. Good marketing can make a lesser hand a winner. You can win with pocket 2s, but you’re going to have to play your ass off. And you’re going to have to get some kind of luck on your side, because…

Luck is Still Luck

It was tempting when considering this analogy to equate the audience with luck. Afterall, like luck, the audience can seem fickle and difficult to keep on your side. However, in the end, even the best hand played perfectly will often still need some luck to really win big. Luck is still luck. And the audience?

The Audience Just Wants to be Entertained

No matter what goes into how you play the game; how many books you read, how much you practice, how how much work and sleepless nights you put into it… at the end of the day, most of the audience just wants to see a great hand played brilliantly. Sure, some of your fans are aspiring pros trying to learn from your example, and those will be the ones you probably talk to most often as they hunt you down to pick your brains for tips and the minutiae of your grand strategy, but that’s the minority. Most of them, they could care less why you’d play Q-10 on the button but not on the blind. If you want the audience on your side, don’t make showing them your process the most important thing, focus on giving them what they want. 

Give them a great hand played brilliantly, and they’ll be entertained. They’ll want to see you win.

Now then, who’s up for an East Coast New Media poker night?