We can attribute a lot of the poker boom of the last five years to television.  Chris Moneymaker came out of nowhere to win the World Series Of Poker Main Event in 2003 and the boom began.  This was the same year that the WPT began airing on the Travel Channel.  People who never even heard of Texas Hold'em could now watch it being played on ESPN and the Travel Channel.  Even if you knew nothing about the game, the fact that millions of dollars were at stake made it worth watching.

Now millions of people that had never played poker in a casino began to take up the game.  Poker players were coming out of the woodwork.  Home games popped up where they never were before, online poker rooms saw more players coming doors and internet sites had tons of new customers.  Many of these new players were armed with what they thought was poker knowledge they learned from seeing the WSOP and WPT.  But did they really learn how to play the game well from watching a few hours of poker on TV?

A common thing that you see when watching WSOP and WPT final tables is the all in bet pre-flop.  There are two reasons for this.  The first is that at these final tables the blinds and antes are usually pretty high which in turn forces a lot of action.  The second reason is that the networks want to appeal to viewers, especially those that don't know the game of Hold’em that well.  When you watch these events you are usually seeing large bets and huge pots.  This makes it more interesting to watch for some people.  This "TV final table” style of play is what many newcomers to the game adopted.  They didn't know anything else and would only learn with experience.

This phenomenon of new players playing "TV final table" style of poker made a lot of good internet and live casino players large sums of money in cash games.  The new players failed to realize the difference from what they saw on TV to what they were playing.  They tried to apply this TV game to the cash games they began playing and it obviously was not correct.  They played to many hands for lots of chips because they thought that was how to play.

The enormous increase of entrants in WSOP events also saw these players. How many times have you watched an episode of the WSOP and see a professional get angry when an amateur makes a terrible play and beats him out for the pot?  These players obviously don't know how to play with a deep stack because they have never seen it on TV.

Not all players who learned to play from watching poker on TV are bad players.  I'm sure many are now professional making good money.  I also think that players who learn from TV are better now on average.  If you can find these players who play the "TV final table" style be thankful.  If you play with them long enough they will throw you their entire chip when they overplay a marginal hand.