It's hard to even know where to start to describe just how bad this stream has become since Ryan Feldman departed and co-set up Hustler Casino Live, taking with him some of the LATB production team, most notably Patrick Curran, who I think is the graphics and other tech stuff whizz.

I suppose it could be summed up by saying that watching LATB nowadays is like watching paint dry, but that would be unfair on paint.

The list of things that are horrible about it is long:

* Corny opening sequence. Whoever is responsible for devising and producing that garbage should be banished from Hollywood and sent to Cricklewood.
* Ultra boring commentators.
* Short handed games often.
* Almost zero players with any personality in the line ups.
* No atmosphere whatsoever.
* Terrible mainly black colour scheme. I am guessing a man chose this colour scheme, seen this error before in poker clubs, on poker sites
and in some other businesses. Unless your business is a nightclub or a strip joint, steer clear of black as a colour scheme, it is terrible.
* The annoying wrap around large screen TVs that are very distracting, they are like a form of gradual torture for viewers, maybe for players too.

I've tried watching the show, but even when the games are the bigger ones, I find it impossible to enjoy.

I guess you reap what you sow, (albeit the owners sold it to Bally's so maybe got a decent exit from it), but those previous owners first fired/sidelined the genius personality that is Limon because he had a bad 30 minutes in a Doug Polk interview, and then they fired/he left/or by mutual consent, Ryan Feldman, who has quickly shown (along with Nick Vertucci) how brilliant he is at creating a poker show, to the point where Hustler Casino Live has become almost addictive viewing.

I agree with basically everything you wrote.

LATB design was much better before the revamp I'd even say. Not that I think changing it would save it.

I agree with everything but the commentators who I think are decent but not as good as Hustler. The worst thing about it is the black theme and general dark cave-like lighting which is laughably bad. It’s such an eyesore.

Seen this with a lot of other venues that have tried to do streaming unsuccessfully. They think their casino being recognizable or even using recognizable players will be enough to create a good product but in reality theres a lot of effort that goes into the production of a stream that only hustler does well.

Main issue is people who are in charge of operations are typically in charge of production and running a casino is a lot different then creating entertaining poker content/knowing what players want.

Even if not as good as hustler,the more high stakes content the better.
I enjoyed the bigger games with jacky,G-man,Berkey and hicks

Has anyone been watching the last 2 nights?

Lineups and action has been pretty great, but sadly the production is rough... Audio isn't in sync, which is hilarious. So you hear the audio, then see the person say it 10 seconds later.
It's shot in like 144p still, all you hear is chip clanking, the darkness still, the distracting moving screens behind them

You have to think it's like a troll to the audience

I have only watched the first of the edited shows and found it very hard to watch.
Loved the poker hands but not the rest of show as let's watch and listen to the players. They are the ones I tune in for, not the flashing lights, boring comments etc.
I would hate to watch the unedited version.

Last 2 nights of "super duper high stakes" were sick poker to watch. Loved it. Andy running like the sun and mopping it up. Must be nice. I think Eric Person gave him like a million bucks total over the two sessions

I watched some of it and I agree that the play and some of the hands were very good.

However, I had to stop watching after 20 minutes, returned about an hour later and watched a little more, then stopped again, because the wrap around screens with the constant flashing graphics ruined the viewing experience for me.

Multiple people in the chat, and frequently, made the same point that the flashing screens were horrible and very distracting. A few also said that the whole colour scheme was too dark, which it clearly is.

To make things even harder to watch, the sound was about a second or so out of sync with the pictures all the way through the stream. People in the chat pointed this out and the producer/commentator said it was impossible to fix while live and can only be fixed after the stream is over.

The fact that the line up was pretty sick and the stakes were very high, yet still it wasn't a totally pleasurable viewing experience for a lot of poker fans, underlines the importance of having good production values. LATB's are currently very poor and if they don't realise this or do but are too stubborn to improve things, then they are shooting themselves in the foot, because their venue is actually superior to Hustler and they can clearly attract high stakes players the same as Hustler can, so LATB's stream should be at least as good as Hustler's, if not better, given that they have the backing of Bally's too.

They also mentioned in commentary that not even the producer can see hole cards live and the first time any of the production team can see hole cards is when they are revealed on delay on the stream itself. This great security feature is achieved by using the GTX (I think they said) system, which I am pretty sure is the same system that Matt Berkey advocated that Hustler should use.

So yet another advantage LATB have over HCL, but are wasting to some extent by having an inferior production.

I don't mind some different announcers than the same 2 guys that seem to do every TV broadcast.

The setup is horrible though. Considering they play for many hours, I'd have a headache from all those screens by the end.

supposedly they are going to do an entire revamp of the set and the lighting and the sound next year...OP correct...it is hard to watch...but JJ and Yale are both really good commentators ...unfortunately they are only on a small percentage ....

They are in LA, surely there are experts close by in set design and cinematography that could be hired to help out the production.

Its clear Person isn't as good as he thinks he is.

The tilt shoves are really bad.

Beating Helmuth heads up is one thing but deep stack poker against some of these guys is a bad idea. Especially if you are prone to tilt.

Eric has been lolbad. I'm sure the pros would say he's always be welcome to have a seat at the table.

Those high stakes streams are built around him...

Didn't Lab just have a new set & show revamp done this year and stopped streaming while this was carried out???
The live show is way better than the edited version imo. Either way just lose the lights as surely someone has complained. Maybe sold as part of advertising packages.
Hope they get it worked out as seems enough players for both streams

LATB is pretty on par with the other streams except hustler. Hustler just took it to another level

I think The Lodge is way better to watch currently, despite the fact that most of the games are only ~$5K to $10K stacks.
The Lodge commentators are very good and the production values are pretty good.

Another thing LATB have made a hash of is that the suits in the corners of the cards are so small in the graphics that it is often hard to distinguish clubs from spades.

Which camera shots are selected by the director and some of the angles used etc are well below par too. Also noticeable is a mobile cameraman walking in shot fairly often.

I do get the concept of why they opted to have the big screens, because they are a very useful tool to add extra information about players, to promote the next game,
and for other promotions and special effects, or for any general added content.

However, they are engulfing the whole set. I think they could still have screens and use them in a very similar way, but they need to be away from the playing area, or if in it, then not so dominant.

The director can still show them, or any one of them, either by having a permanent camera trained on it, or by showing the screen in vision, overlaying the shot of the game,
or just by switching to it as the full shot that the viewer sees.

An obvious and fairly simple change/solution would be to have just one big overhead screen, similar to in a hockey arena, and so that the screen is not visible at all in most shots,
but can be panned in on from certain angles.

JJ4dpoker is just so boring his analysis is so cringe

Question is, are the likes of David Tuchman, Bart Hanson, DGAF and Raver Poker tied in with an exclusivity deal with Hustler? (a deal that bars them from commentating on LATB).

If not then LATB should be looking to hire them for some commentary for some of the streams.

As people have already mentioned, there is definitely room in the market for two high stakes streams to operate successfully. I think what will happen ultimately is that the two streams (the two companies) will start talking to each other in a friendly business way and agree to schedules where the two streams' game schedules are clashing with each other as little as possible.

LATB already know that HCL are a tough (business) opponent, and if LATB improve their production, they will become a tough opponent for HCL, at which point it would be foolish for both companies to not to talk to each other and come to an arrangement.

It would open up additional game line up possibilities too, as there are some players who you only see on one of the streams, but not on both.

They did...and the previous set was way better...they just made it worse with all the black and bad lighting and flashing tv screens...

the Lodge is very well done...and the main commentator is really good ..makes the stream exciting and funny...

....... "under the lights"......

Houston Curtis is the executive producer of LATB. A self admitted poker cheat and card mechanic.

Claiming "the good guy" role now.
https://www.spreaker.com/user/7418966/houstoncurtis2

Curtis and the random guy with the blonde fauxhawak are rough on the Bally's best of cut-up show.

Garrett has a gutshot, we'll be right back to see if Eric has the guts to call
Eric moves all in, we'll see if he moves all out of the hand