I was watching WPT tonight and I saw the previews for next week's show. They showed some stupid feature that would give players only 2 minutes to make a decison. It then shows a player having their hand declared dead with a buzzer and the lights dimming.

Is it me, or is this the dumbest idea I have heard of in along time. As if poker isn't difficult enough game to play, they are going to now give players a limited amount of time to think? Doesn't sound logical to me and will make for a rushed game.

Any Opinions?

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Well it makes a lot of sense from the producers point of view. Making a player decided in X amount of time will speed up the production of the show and allow for more hands to be shown in the final broadcast (even though they should be able to do this in editing). I don't see a problem with a player only have 2 minutes to decided what to do, that should be plenty of time. I know some situations need careful consideration but most of the time players just stall to make a bluff look like a real hand.

This is exactly what I was talking about, this may hurt a players ability to Hollywood another player. Also, as the amount of time spent thinking about a hand increases, they other player may get uncomfortable and give a tell which could lead to a big play.

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I think we are just increasing the skill needed to reach the top as it will benefit the better players that can calculate the odds faster in order to use more time to read their opponents than the weaker players. When they added clocks to chess tournaments the level of play improved. Plus, don't you want to watch poker on TV? It will certainly be more exciting with more hands. If you don't know what I'm talking about with chess, try watching a untimed chess game (you won't make it past the first 5 moves) and then try watching a 5 minute blitz game and tell me which one is more exciting and which one takes more skill. Just my 2 cents,
MinneJohnny