all right, as long as you don't diss weez!

-Wayne Chiang

Just applied today, for April timeframe. LET ME PLAY PLO PLZ

Sent from my VS996 using Tapatalk

I played stones live one time. As a show, I think it's pretty awful to be honest. The card graphics are only correct about 50% of the time, the commentators aren't usually entertaining, and they rarely know what the action was in a hand. As a player, I loved it. Great action, free dinner, and the table talk was entertaining. It's too bad you can't hear the table talk on stream because it's a lot more interesting than the commentators.

LATB is actually worth watching, stones live not so much

Please have Simple Rick on the show. It will be amazing.
http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/17...geles-1672107/

+1

If you guys surf Quora fill in:

-Best Bluff on Live at the Bike

-Best Hero Call on Live at the Bike

-Most Interesting Line Up on Live at the Bike

-Best Value Bet on Live at the Bike

Not sure what was up with Nick on the last stream, but he turned into a total douche. "joking" about how he has so much character because he tipped the dealer $1 after winning a pot. Making a point about how he tipped the waiter $1 for bringing him "just a water". Countless other things. WTF got into this guy's head?

Ya, I must have missed the initial reasoning behind his whole tip jokes.
Maybe because the idiots in the chat constantly ask "Why aren't they tipping!?"
And chat getting up in arms over $5 tips on $30K pots, they want them to tip like $500 it seems.

So maybe he's just doing it as a chat-troll.
Or, maybe there's people that never tip the waitstaff etc? Nick seems to always tip extra on pots.

I'm a big Garrett fan boy, but it was awkward when he went off on Gary for asking/joking about instructional videos. I guess Garrett did a few a long time ago, and thought Gary brought it up to f*ck with him. But Gary was just making random conversation, or someone joked that Andy should do a video where he just sits there and never talks (Joke)

- Garrett hates instructional videos, thinks it's terrible for poker, etc. Like seems pissed to even have to state this [obvious] point...

Meanwhile LATB does training/instructional videos, has that thing where you can pay like $700 for a $5/5 session with "Coaches"

He also basically said he doesn't give a F*ck about people online not being able to find good games, doesn't care if poker as a profession dies, doesn't care if people can no longer live the "poker dream", build a bankroll, poker contributes nothing to society, tells people to never not play poker as primary income, etc.

And someone was like "If you feel that way, why would you care if training videos are hurting the game?
Seemed like a reasonable comment and was like "I don't see the correlation"

Show had some awkward moments.

(Some of these "Quotes" may be off, but that was my general takeaway and memory from having it on in the background days ago)

Seems like the Friday game has become a $10/$20?
I assume this means no more Garrett, Dan Zack, Art, Gal, Gary, etc

Kinda sucks.

I get that they were only drawing the same 6-10 players, but I enjoyed watching the best players play high stakes.

Feels like the Ante and 5/10 players are the ones in the 10/20 game now. So Francisco, Hicks, etc will be on 3x a week?
Meh

What's up with the HORRIBLE commentary lately?

It's as if the LatB productions don't care about who's in the booth...

Earlier this week Ryan Feldman was yelling "Gil the Plumber" every 20 seconds as if that makes the broadcast more interesting. And when Gil wasn't in the hand... nothing.

And this weekend Dan Zack spent more time talking about himself and whether he preferred waffles over pancakes - than he did talking about hands and the action.

BOTH commentators would drone on and on over the loud chatter from the game making it hard to understand what anybody was saying.

Is it too difficult to get a sound engineer/mixer involved in these productions?
Is it really that hard to STFU when players are talk if you've got nothing to add to the conversation about the hand at play??

The sound was so overwhelmingly bad - I had to mute the program altogether!

Is it too beneath these commentators to talk about the hands - how they're being played - optimal & alternative lines? Or even to keep up with the action?
Several times Zack would try to recap the action - and he'd get it WRONG!

If so, then why have them? To respond to people in the chat? Really?

I feel like the LATB commentary is more of just a hang/host.
But I do understand what you're saying. The only one who really does poker-centric commentary is Bart.

I like Dan Zack in the booth, answering questions and interacting with the chat.
I don't really need someone announcing "He flopped a flush draw and check, I think you can either lead here, check raise, or check call... I like both options"
That's all poker commentary is anyway, saying all options and saying "As long as you're balance, I don't mind a check here or a lead"
"I think it's fine, could go either way"

Thanks for the feedback. We’ve been working on improving sound quality for a while now. We got player mics recently and they’ve helped a lot. Commentary is on delay, so unfortunately we can’t adjust them live with the production. As for commentators, we aren’t perfect but we appreciate the feedback and will continue to do our best job to make most people happy. Some want commentary, some want analysis, some want it simple, some don’t want any commentary. It’s not an easy job but I like to think we’ve gotten way better over time.

This is temporary experiment to make the Friday games more fun again. It might only be for a few weeks. We’ll see. Garrett, Dan, Art, etc. are still in the mix and will be playing.

You have fun games all week. Shouldn't there be one game a week where the focus is high stakes/high level play? I understand not all viewers are 2p2ers but I think most of us appreciate high level poker over limp/call spewfests...especially when thats what the show consists of every other day of the week

Not easy to build a high stakes poker game weekly for a bunch of reasons. Ryan works super hard to make it happen, and the players and viewers alike have been spoiled with games that play almost as big as 100/200 (if not bigger) for over a year now. More often than not, I suspect that trend will continue, but it was always going to be unrealistic to have a game of that size go EVERY week.

I’ll still often play when a bigger game goes and try to hop in a smaller game occasionally too to remind poker players of what not to do when playing poker hands

Yes, I cannot support training sites for the same 27 reasons that are discussed ad nauseum on 2+2. No I don’t have a problem with poker as a profession, I just often think most pros and aspiring pros would live more fulfilling lives with a different primary income source. This too is not an original thought and is discussed endlessly in more appropriate forums. Sorry for the derail.

No derail. Thanks for dropping in!

Do you think the training sites give false hope?

On broadcast, I try to communicate how much harder it is now and the stiffer competition. Many edges you can take come from good habits, but few people do them. Getting subsidized is very helpful.

-Wayne Chiang

Appreciate the feedback Hiro, honestly commentary can be quite a difficult balance to strike as pretty much every viewer has different expectations/preferences. I do my best to answer strategy questions that come up in chat as well as chime in on hands, but also seek to interact with the chat/viewers at large as they are an important part of the community & show. I encourage if you have questions about lines players may have taken or strategy adjustments within game to type them in chat.
As far as big friday games go, Garrett said it best. The games for the past year have been amazing for a stream but keep in mind the games aren't just put on for entertainment. You're watching real people putting up hundreds of thousands of their own dollars with no kick back or incentive from the show, which means the game can't simply run weekly because viewers would prefer it. Hopefully we are able to run it frequently in the future but its not as simple as putting it to a public vote. LATB will always spread and show the best game they can.

There are definitely educational benefits (and entertainment) that can be gained from watching the 10/20 games IMO.

honestly Dan - the last time I listened - I had to mute the sound.
It was like the Dan Zack Show where you answered every question about your life, your friends, your experience, your preferrences, etc.....
If I wanted to listen to the Dan Zack Show - I'd look for a Dan Zack podcast.

I watch LatB for the same reason I read 2+2: for poker content.

The best commentators understand that THEY ARE NOT THE HEROES... the players and hands are. Commentators are not supposed to be in the limelight. They are supposed to shed light on the players - how they play - their tendencies, the meta, and maybe even why they play a certain style.

Go back to the heyday of televised poker - High Stakes Poker - and you'll see why it was so successful. Gabe & friends knew when to shut up and when to elaborate on a hand. And they knew how to follow the action!
Or listen to how Nick Schulman handles a broadcast (with Ali)....

OMG... how many times have I heard you, Ryan or Bart say something - "he bets and takes it down. Wait, no... he 3-bet and got called! no wait, I think there was a 4-bet...."
several times per show... at least....
How freaking hard is it for you to follow what's going on?
(Obviously VERY hard when you're reading all the dumb comments on the chat)

for the 20-30 chatters who are looking for "shout out" because they've got nothing better to do than live in the chat... you've got HUNDREDS of viewers who are trying glean some insight into how successful poker players navigate the higher stakes.

The notion that poker has got to be "interactive" with your audience nuts.
You don't see that on golf broadcasts. Nor darts, or bowling, or tennis... or most other sports. Since when is poker playing so boring that we need constant chatter?

You don't have to fill every second of your broadcast with talk!
It's okay for there to be some "dead" space or quiet.

On another note:
You should ban eating during the broadcast.
your broadcast is what? like 2-4 hours long?
Can they really not eat before they come or do so afterwards?
Do we really have to watch them order food, stuff their mouths full of it and talk and play with their mouths full?
Players who eat slow down the game.
You're creating a broadcast for godsake!
Being on LatB should be a priviledge.
If you want to play, drinks are available - but otherwise you're there to play.


that's my 2¢
you want to retain me as a viewer... make your broadcasts about poker.
if you continue to treat poker as a secondary reason for your broadcasts, you'll lose me for good.

Some of the best content is LATB food related.
Watching Armenian Mike order and consume 5 full meals.
Kevin ordering lobsters for the table

HiroNakamara,

As Dan Zack and Ryan Feldman have stated, you cannot please everyone.

As for me, I am a participant as a player, commentator and in the chat. I know all the regular Live at the Bike commentators personally and converse with them regularly. When they drop their personal stories on the show, I don't even know a lot of them and quite enjoy them. For example, recently Dan Zack and I had a discussion on Live at the Bike on the difference between poker etiquette on Pot Limit Omaha and and Texas Holdem. Dan Zack had a tough etiquette call in the Bahamas and to the day we do not know the answer. I got texts after the show that they enjoyed that discussion. Bart Hansen's experience in Pot Limit Omaha 8 or better tournaments are also welcome stories. If Ryan Feldman recounts a story at the Bicycle Hotel and Casino both he and I experience, I enjoy the retelling of that too.

The fact that the chat is asking about Dan Zack and Ryan Feldman means other viewers aside from you are interested in what they had to say, so already those people disagree with your stance. Since the show is about poker, the LA poker scene, the Bicycle Hotel and Casino, the regulars on the show, then it is treated as such. The commentators choose to entertain those viewers with a personal experience as it is well received by the repeat viewers and thumbs up per show. It is exactly this reason that separates Live at the Bike from High Stakes Poker. Live at the Bike has never been a clone of any other show. It is a real show with real players where you can interact with the commentator versus High Stakes Poker where we cannot interact with Gabe Kaplan. Anyone who is a human being can be on the show. If you prefer other show styles, that is great. Go watch them as well or instead. All people involved with Live at the Bike watch other forms of poker content and we all have our preferences. Running an operation, we know how hard it is, so even if a piece of content may not be on the higher end of our preference, we recognize and acknowledge their contribution to poker.

As for someone who has commentated on over 50 episodes of Live at the Bike., I know sometimes the graphics, people handling the chips, announcements of the bets are off, so they are corrected real time. It happens even at a normal poker table and the commentator has the responsibility to finalize the correct action so the viewer has the correct information about the hand. It is unfortunate, but it is also real time just like a normal real time table there are mistakes on bet sizes, action and many other things.

The 20-30 chatters who are looking for and get "shout outs" are people who appreciate the show and Live at the Bike appreciate them. Live at the Bike has thousands of viewers who are trying to glean some insight into how successful poker players navigate the higher stakes, but you will not solely find the answer here nor should you be handed the answers. Part of being a successful poker player is interpreting information that is not explicitly told to you. Between the commentary and what's actually happening on camera there is an overload of information, just like when you're at the poker table and a player says 10 things, makes 10 motions in a hand. It's not up to the commentator to do a 2 hour analysis on a 10 second motion. The commentator is there for a terse statement with about a minute and a half until the next hand. Just like live at the poker table, no one can tell you what it means when someone groans then moves all in, yet you see it on every poker show.

The notion that poker has got to be "interactive" with your audience is not nuts. It is how the streaming format became popular versus a one-way show that many TV broadcasts do not have the opportunity to. In fact, many award shows and sports shows broadcast tweets and other responses real time.

Live at the Bike doesn't have to fill every second of your broadcast with talk, this is true. Ryan Feldman tells the commentators to be quiet in certain circumstances and Brian Arakaki make judgment calls when to tell us to be silent when something big is about to come up. Also, it is a concept that dead space or quiet on broadcast is very bad. Whether and how it applies here will constantly be adjusted.

Perhaps banning eating during the broadcast CAN be a thing? Have heard some negative feedback on it, but not much. Also many people seem to be entertained with the food.

About if they can they really not eat before they come or do so afterwards, people in Los Angeles are very busy, and actually the answer can easily be "no". Personally, I am busy working before and after the show and appreciate that I can eat on the show which saves me at least 30 minutes. I am 100% sure I am not alone on this.

Being on Live at the Bike is a privilege. Watching Live at the Bike is also a privilege. Viewers who demand things of people on the show are not necessarily going to get it because... the people on the show are people and do what they want to do in life not what the viewers want them to do in life.

Any given show is over 95% about poker with a sprinkle of talking about the players, commentators and chat -- which is a similar balance to other shows minus the chat if the chat is not available. If that's not good enough, then Live at the Bike is sorry to lose you as a viewer. Poker is absolutely not secondary in the broadcast.

-Wayne Chiang

Did you happen to catch the conversation that John Cynn, Marle, Cat and I had about the best fried chicken joints? Epic, imo. Howlin Ray's, Gus' and of course I had to bring up the fact that an old school California chain that is now almost defunct, Pioneer Chicken has better chicken fingers then Raising Canes.

Bart

Nothing screams 'I have a micropenis' like buying in for $100K in a 5/5 game.

So what you’re saying about $100 buyins at 2/5 is...