How not to give poker commentary

[jack]

How not to give poker commentary:

- "That is poker"
- "He's either got a big hand, or he's bluffing"
- "They both have pairs and they're both red"
- "He's trying to decide whether to call"

It seems to veer wildly between repeating what happens to be on the screen in a fake excited voice, and assuming a professional-level of poker experience. I know commentating is hard to do excellently, but I'd have thought a reasonable level of explanation would be to assume people know the basic rules, but might not know basic strategy, so saying things like "A has a better hand, but has to decide between X and Y" or "A has to guess whether B has X or Y" might actually help. Or maybe I'm just biased by my own level of experience.

Comments

[nanaya]

Surely poker commentary is one of the most pointless things ever invented?

[chess]

I can see it being fun if they get to see all the cards (and obv. the players don't get to hear them), and they can actually commentate with a bit of dramatic 'ooh, watch that, what he doesn't know is...')