I was not a big fan of the way that Poker was portrayed. The focus on Mush made it seem like there were a lot more degenerates in need of action than what I have actually found in these New York Underground games. The scenes where he borrowed money and also bought scratch offs were indicative of a lot smaller proportion of the community then the % of time given to it. The underground games have a lot more business people looking for a game and a lot of ok players who like to play more than degenerates.

I feel like it was similarly done to the NatGeo stuff about drug addicts and how their lives are ruined in pursuit of drugs. They hardly spoke to Breezy, who makes his living from playing as much as Mush's life is destroyed. They also focused hard on winning and losing a ton based on the turn of a card, and had hardly anything to do with the skill of the game. It might have made for ok tv to people who know nothing of this world, but it was pretty inaccurate and unfair as a portrayal to those who are in the know.

They didn't really explicitly say that there was no rake or time charge collected. The Banker even said that he didn't mind that Mikey made money off of him, as he does provide a service.

Holy crap, chili, thanks for the PM.

Wish I'd known about this earlier. Looks like I missed it.

I'd love to see if I recognize anyone.

Next showing is Sunday; DVR set.

Breezy got a decent amount of face time and a hefty number of mentions during the show. He was one of the 4 or 5 people prominently featured.

There would be nothing sexy or intriguing to the telecast for Nat Geo to pitch if a standard underground card room were shown. Like it or not, the casual viewer of this program who knows nothing of the underground scene is going to want to see lunatic degenerates shoveling thousands into the middle and having the river determine the result. Showing preflop raises to $8 in $1/$2 by college kids with a total of $1637 on the table will be interesting to no one.

Remember, those who are "in the know" and spend significant time on a site like this make up a very small percentage of the poker population.

[edit so I don't get suspended: it's around if you know where to find it]
y'ar! Yo ho ho...

watched a couple of clips on Nat Geo website, looks like it might be fun to watch.

It's not. Painful, really.

Don't recognize any of these guys, but I don't play on Staten Island, so whatever.

At 24:27 the caption reads: "Mike makes all his money on tips."

First off: LOL.

Second: Wonder why they had to lie about rake if they already said earlier that "cops are looking to bust him?"

One thing that is true is that the players in these games are horrible, and games "on the sheet," where guys are allowed to play on credit, usually do have the best action.

Ive never played in NYC, nor have i played in a 5-10 game that seems to play like a 10-20 or 25-50, but that looked like the easiest, loosest "big" game ive ever seen. Im sure Breezy is good but he has definetly found a goldmine in this game to take advantage of

Thx, Twingooo

The issue in these games is the rake. Sometimes they're dragging $50 out of the pot in a 5/10NL game. There are some pro and semi-pro players who think that this is unbeatable, despite the insanely soft play.

To put this in perspective for 2012 from PokerJournalPro:
84 sessions for 300 hours in casinos: $115.15 / hour
70 sessions for 388 hours in private: -$36.18 / hour

I've seen similar graphs from others, sometimes more severe. You can attribute some of this to variance, but that only goes so far. . . .

I know what you mean with "over raking" as i play in many different games in chicago where they do just that. I try to avoid it if possible but if i have to pay an extra 10$,20$, or even more if im winning a lot of pots an hour, its worth it to walk away from a 2-5 session with 1k. I might pay 10x as much rake as i would in a casino but i also wouldnt be playing with a bunch of lunatics who dont even know that casinos have poker because they r just local gamblers. Again, i dont approve of over raking but if thats what it takes to have an extremly soft game so be it

The Situation is pretty much the 40 year old version of The Situation.

Nek Minnit - Huricane and Mush is missing!

you just knew when the put up mush +$7800, he was going to find a way to blow it all. jesus, walk away up that much.

That was a 5/10 game wasn't it - 8 buyins lol in a live game.

Then he thought all his Christmases came at once when he was up a K at the end.

Remember after they said he only owed Tats 7K now but apparently Tats left him off a K for going to another game and trying to recruit players!

So that's 6K he owes by my reckoning. I'd say most of it was staged anyway, Mush was far too happy looking throughout. That fight with his nephew too was bordering on ridic.

It was in the script.

is this one episode and done?

Do you guys really think anyone in their right mind would let him keep playing after he made 8 gs in a session when he never wins? If that was real the guy mike would take those chips off the table himself to make sure he got his money

It's considered bad etiquette for players to pick up after winning a few big hands.

This isn't like a casino where you can leave anytime.

The promoter would have to weigh the feelings of the other players.

Couldnt agree more. Yes, he prob WANTED to pik him up but wouldnt b worth it in the long run

Well done doc. You get explained the mechanics of running games as well as the obstacles faced, you get to know the players up close and personal and you even get to wet your poker chops by seeing the highlights of a few hands. So yeah, I definitely enjoyed it. Obviously The Mush guy was a cliche and his line about having the stone cold nuts was hilarious but what can you do, he played an important part in the whole fish vs. shark dynamic.

As a longtime player of private card games and rooms in NYC, I want to give you guys a heads up about about Nat Geo's filming of poker scenes. There is a high chance they aren't playing for real money and/or the deck is set up in most of the footage. A Nat Geo episode was filmed in one of the clubs I frequent and the club's chips were not used, but the generic kind as shown in this doc as well. There was a lot of script and the actors were told on how to behave. Most of you might already be aware, I'm just letting those who don't know, know.

Just caught this by chance. Seemed like a bad parody. And if Mush thinks that the second seven that paired the board is a blank card, and that getting the flush on the river gives you the nuts, then I think we know the source of his problems. I don't know if this was very bad scripting, or very good subtle scripting.

Wouldn't surprise me at all. In my life I've been in some situations that were filmed, way in the background, and invariably it's all heavily scripted and choreographed. The filming crew never actually tries to capture things as they unfold, they always recruit regular Joes as unpaid and untrained actors for some (usually ******ed) plot they thought out ahead of time.