Poker Playing Youtube Channel

T

TNichs

Rising Star
Silver Level
Joined
May 27, 2013
Total posts
24
Chips
0
Hey Guys.

I know I posted this before in another section but I thought this would be a better place to put it. Me and my Buddies are going to start a Youtube channel of us playing poker and euchre and other games (kind of like poker after dark) and I was wondering what kind of broadcasting software does like the wsop and WPT use to show hands, pot amount, and current chip stacks. Also, if anyone knows where I can find some poker trophies/bracelets online that would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers
 
moots

moots

Min-cash specialist
Loyaler
Joined
Jul 29, 2008
Total posts
9,380
Awards
8
CA
Chips
93
You're probably not getting any answers because this isn't really a poker question, it has to do with video editing. I'm pretty sure you're not going to get the same software the WSOP uses because they probably have a commercial editing studio, like most TV Shows, that uses hardware and software to overlay text, graphics, and animation.

If you're using a PC, you can try using Windows Movie Maker, it's free.
 
T

TNichs

Rising Star
Silver Level
Joined
May 27, 2013
Total posts
24
Chips
0
Alright. Thanks for the help. Do you know where we could get some trophies/bracelets?
 
T

TNichs

Rising Star
Silver Level
Joined
May 27, 2013
Total posts
24
Chips
0
Thanks for the replies everyone. I guess that Home Games are Illegal here in Wisconsin so I contacted a Representative and we're trying to change that first. It's ridiculous that consenting adults can't get together and play a friendly game of poker :mad:
 
naruto_miu

naruto_miu

Legend
Silver Level
Joined
Jul 31, 2007
Total posts
12,123
Awards
5
Chips
1
Thanks for the replies everyone. I guess that Home Games are Illegal here in Wisconsin so I contacted a Representative and we're trying to change that first. It's ridiculous that consenting adults can't get together and play a friendly game of poker :mad:


Well think about it, if your having a home game, than there has to be money involved correct? If money is involved than uncle Sam needs his cut, only makes sense, that's why home games are not public, and not played with ppl with-in that circle
 
T

TNichs

Rising Star
Silver Level
Joined
May 27, 2013
Total posts
24
Chips
0
That's a good point but I contacted the department of gaming and asked about it and even if we gave Uncle Sam a cut it's illegal. I talked to a rep of mine and we're trying to loosen the gaming laws.
 
Michael Paler

Michael Paler

Legend
Silver Level
Joined
Apr 27, 2013
Total posts
1,203
Chips
0
Do not get mad at me, but were I to say "Yes, me and my buddies want to go into space, kind of like what NASA does, and I was wondering what kind of equipment Northrop-Grumman uses....." would you take me seriously?

So, It's going to be hard to get an honest answer, as you sound like you perhaps think "hey, that looks easy, I can do that, just need some specialized cameras like they have!", but in reality, it is not easy and you cannot do it simply. They have money, time, money, special equipment, money, skilled people, money, etc;

Do not let this stop you. If this is your dream, go for it. But it will take intense dedication, time, money, and a way to do it without Uncle Sam getting upset concerning gambling laws that you might violate.

While you can get all the equipment you need to do it from just about anyplace (with enough money) who is going to use it and put it all together? You? If you think you're just going to whip out a video on your ipad or desktop computer even close in approximation to what poker after dark offers, guess again. So, I would not run out and by those trophies and bracelets just yet.

What you see on TV looks simple enough, but it is not. It's deeply complicated to coordinate sound, sight, and later add in graphics. So, the equipment is actually (somewhat) the easy part. It's using it and pulling it all together that is the hard part. This is just the tip of the iceberg. So, just to get something worth watching on youtube, you would need to go so far into a real TV show as to not make it worth it. Nobody wants to watch a bunch of unknowns play poker taped like it's a home video, either. Maybe 9 wild and crazy characters that can draw attention or a great commentator. You got nine of those or one of them?

Matter of fact, Poker After Dark is filmed on a legit sound stage, it only looks like a regular poker room. What looks like a window with a great view of the Vegas strip is just a fake window with a printed picture on it. It is not just a few cameras in a regular room.

But as far as hobbies go, this could eventually lead to something cool and perhaps even profitable. Just not quickly, cheaply, or easy.:argh:
 
skrsh76

skrsh76

Visionary
Silver Level
Joined
Jul 13, 2013
Total posts
993
Chips
0
Even if you pull this off. do you think you can make enough money with Google Ads?
 
Michael Paler

Michael Paler

Legend
Silver Level
Joined
Apr 27, 2013
Total posts
1,203
Chips
0
Even if you pull this off. do you think you can make enough money with Google Ads?

Another good point; how can you compete with dancing cats and knumbskulls that go shopping cart skiing off of 3 story rooftops? It's hard to bring a Jerry Springer format to poker, just to gain viewers.

I hate to say it, but poker is not so big of a draw that people will tune in to youtube and watch unknown poker players playing the game every week.

Not enough to cover the costs, anyway.
 
T

TNichs

Rising Star
Silver Level
Joined
May 27, 2013
Total posts
24
Chips
0
Thanks guys for the feedback.

To answer your questions, I actually do not care if I made a dime off of this. I love the game of poker and I would do this solely for the love of the game. If I came out ahead, so be it. Another thing is we have a decently sized budget for this and I and several friends of mine have experience in video editing. I just thought this would be something really fun to do. I just didn't know where to start/how we would video edit something like this. I didn't know if there was a program/software that they use that someone knew something about.
 
spsb83

spsb83

Rock Star
Silver Level
Joined
Jun 1, 2011
Total posts
205
Chips
0
Its not as easy as you think to make it interesting and watchable you would need holecams so that would 6-9 cameras just for the hole cards. I run a production company and am looking to start creating poker content. I'm looking at using 6 sport cams for hole cards all running into a £4000 vision mixer so we can live stream to the internet if we want. Also two main cameras for the main filming, lights and sound equipment.

Also like someone mentioned about gambling and tax laws. Here in the UK I cannot host a tournament with prize money of £100 or £10 per person. I have to find some loop hole where it is a prize (ipad) to get around certain issues.

Editing software wise for what your trying to edit you will need something that can mulitcam edit. So Final cut pro, adobe premiere are what I recommend I use FCP not sure if the cheap or free edit software offer this tool. Without it you will manually be trying to match all the footage together (will take forever).

Hope I haven;t put you off give it a go and see how it looks. Drop me a pm if you want any other information.
 
Blobweird123

Blobweird123

CC's very own Dead Head
Silver Level
Joined
Oct 20, 2012
Total posts
2,468
Chips
0
honestly theres a retarded way you could do it with what you already have for the most part. Have everyone take pics of their every hand with their phones, then collect all the pics after the game and overlay them on the video of the recording. As for the pot sizes etc, youd have to write all that down or every bet so that you can watch the vid afterwards and tally it up. Or just leave that out and if the video is clear enough we can roughly count the pot ourselves.
 
spsb83

spsb83

Rock Star
Silver Level
Joined
Jun 1, 2011
Total posts
205
Chips
0
You could just include important hands, ask what the players had and then film the cards on a phone afterwards and edit them in. Similar to above comment but I think it will look better if the cards are video and being revealed rather a still image. Which will take ages for every player to take pictures of every hand they get.
 
Blobweird123

Blobweird123

CC's very own Dead Head
Silver Level
Joined
Oct 20, 2012
Total posts
2,468
Chips
0
You could just include important hands, ask what the players had and then film the cards on a phone afterwards and edit them in. Similar to above comment but I think it will look better if the cards are video and being revealed rather a still image. Which will take ages for every player to take pictures of every hand they get.

How would it take ages? Second I look at my cards, snap. Done lol
 
spsb83

spsb83

Rock Star
Silver Level
Joined
Jun 1, 2011
Total posts
205
Chips
0
Fair enough I still think its one of those things where people are talking and getting into the game and can easily miss a hand to photograph. If that happens even just one picture is missed it will be a nightmare when editing and working out which hands go with what, They will also need to photograph or film the community cards as well.

If you had the man power I would just have someone nip round the table filming everyones hand and saying out the hand number.Then just bring the cards up on the screen as a visual no need for 'holecam style'. Believe me doing this will make it easier you will have an audio reference on both cameras and so much easier to edit.

I edited a heads up match with no audio reference just hole card footage, the players faces and the community cards and a wide shot. Had to work everything out from the wide shot and piece it all back together.

I'm not trying to argue anything here I would love to see some good poker video content.

Its a bit long and boring this section but this a first draft of the poker footage I shot and edited a few years ago.

http://youtu.be/40x0RwokgrI
 
N

nkesi

Rising Star
Bronze Level
Joined
Nov 3, 2012
Total posts
5
Chips
0
did not understand, but I think it will be interesting
 
T

TNichs

Rising Star
Silver Level
Joined
May 27, 2013
Total posts
24
Chips
0
I guess this thread has gotten kind of popular!

What we figured for whole cards was we'd build our own table and infront of each player would be a little thing of glass where they place their cards on top of and underneath the glass is a little camera (we found little cameras perfect for this for 15 bucks each) that would show hole cards. Thanks again everyone for your feedback.
 
J

jimmylytle2

Rock Star
Silver Level
Joined
Dec 6, 2012
Total posts
108
Chips
0
Thanks for the replies everyone. I guess that Home Games are Illegal here in Wisconsin so I contacted a Representative and we're trying to change that first. It's ridiculous that consenting adults can't get together and play a friendly game of poker :mad:
Everyones been working on it since Black Friday at least...
 
T

TNichs

Rising Star
Silver Level
Joined
May 27, 2013
Total posts
24
Chips
0
Everyones been working on it since Black Friday at least...

Yea I guess you're right. Hopefully we can make home games legal so we can get this project off the ground. It would be just something fun to do and I could use it as a resume for future things.
 
Michael Paler

Michael Paler

Legend
Silver Level
Joined
Apr 27, 2013
Total posts
1,203
Chips
0
"Use it for the future"; alright then. Since that actually sounds like a good idea and you clearly will not let others drag your dreams and ideas down (that is impressive), I'll pitch in here.

1. 9 hole card cameras (if you can focus a pinhole camera, that would be cheap and should work).
2. One computer and a (freeware?) program capable of displaying all 9 camera feeds at once on a monitor.
3. One legit poker table, modified for those cameras.
4. 4 (maybe 3, yet 5 would be better) stationary cameras around the table doing a constant recording of the action.
5. Another computer to capture all that and display the camera feeds/record it all.
6. Microphones for every player/recording ability.
7. Program capable of taking video and laying it out frame by frame for modification
8. Program capable of cutting sound tracks in the same way.

Now, while recording the action and the hands, have another guy making a sound only recording (same length of time as the game) while watching the hole cams and simply calling out what hand number it is and exactly each players hole cards they get. You can later listen to this guy to know who had what cards at what times (to later overlay graphics into the video); Note: this is a soundtrack you later dump; it's for coordination purposes only.

After it's all in and done, you go back and decide which video feeds to
splice and dice into a complete video; you will have to run the recordings from all the table cameras (not the hole cams, the table action cams) at once across one monitor (stacked atop each other) to decide what gets spliced and where. You overlay the soundtrack of the players during the game into that final video you cut and spliced together.

Once you have that, you go back and frame-by-frame, insert the graphics into every frame. Example; if recording at 30 frames per second, and you want to display the graphics with hand info for 20 seconds, you simply copy and paste it into 600 frames, starting where you want and ending where you want.

After you have the video of the players and the soundtrack of just their banter, you have a commentator review the video and audio and create a soundtrack of him commenting on the video he is watching. People will assume he is actually watching the real game and remarking on it at the same time, yet it need not be this way. The reason you do it like this is to make sure his voice is "over" that of the players, so you are (at this point) making a final soundtrack to overlay into the video.

You can use a freeware program such as "paint.net" to create the graphic jpegs to overlay into the video. You can use freeware for video and audio splicing.

Once you put it all together, it should pass as a reasonable facsimile of a "real" TV poker game. I'll tell you right now you biggest hurdle will be sound. Watch an episode of the Heartland Poker Tour and then the WPT to hear what I mean.
 
T

TNichs

Rising Star
Silver Level
Joined
May 27, 2013
Total posts
24
Chips
0
Thanks everyone for the help. When we get everything going I'll put the link to the video on this forum (not that anyone will watch it lol)
 
italiano

italiano

Rock Star
Silver Level
Joined
Jun 27, 2013
Total posts
293
Chips
0
The idea is great I like that of a poker channel on youtube, unfortunately I can not help, and recommend anything you ask, but just this channel I subscribe successes!
 
Michael Paler

Michael Paler

Legend
Silver Level
Joined
Apr 27, 2013
Total posts
1,203
Chips
0
Thanks everyone for the help. When we get everything going I'll put the link to the video on this forum (not that anyone will watch it lol)

What with all the verbiage I have already invested in here, I will certainly watch it.
 
T

TNichs

Rising Star
Silver Level
Joined
May 27, 2013
Total posts
24
Chips
0
Thanks again everyone. We are in the progress of building a table and after that will be getting the audio and video editing aspects. I am also building my own computer (for other reasons but we'll be using it for the channel) and I'll keep updates on here when I've got them.
 
Top