How To Strengthen WPT Broadcasts

There are a lot of things that other poker shows are that the WPT is not, and to be clear, I don't think the WPT has anything to gain by copying other shows. The greatest strength of WPT has always been its commentary; I don't think any other show has come close to matching the banter between Mike and Vince.

And yet, for being the one thing it still does so much better than all others, it commentary has been getting weaker over time. By far the biggest problem is that Mike and Vince just don't have anything new to say to each other; quite frequently I can be watching an episode I've never seen before, and yet find myself thinking I've heard this conversation before. Its made far worse by the fact that both of them, though especially Vince, have developed a large repetoir of phrases which they feel obligated to work into every episode. (when was the last time Vince didn't say "he's laying the twigs, setting the trap")

Last night I watched the season five episode of WPT where there had father-son teams playing against each other. As Vince was playing in the episode, Matt Corboy - who does Vince's job on the PPT - filled in. Now to be clear, I don't like Matt Corboy on the PPT, opposite Mark Seif his commentary can be grinding, but next to Mike Sexton, Matt was great. Not only did Mike make Matt better, but Matt made Mike better; Matt came across as competent enough to actually be on the WPT, and Mike had an energy I've not heard in years.

Obviously the chances of them ditching Vince are small, and even if they decided to, Season 6 is already mostly recorded. But still, after seeing that episode I am convinced that the show could be much stronger without Vince. That, and they need to get a new hostess of Shana Hiatt's calaber, and give her all the resposibilites that Shana Hiatt had.

(heck if they hadn't been idiots and tried to sue Shana when she left then ditching Vince could mean asking her back)