Customer Reviews

World Poker Tour: The Best of Season 3

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Thank you for your interest.

Shout!Factory"

For the record, the episodes included are:
Legends of Poker
Borgata Poker Open
Grand Prix de Paris
World Poker Finals
World Poker Open
LA Poker Classic
Bay 101 Shooting Star
WPT Championship

Now, the Bay 101 Shooting Star event is terrible, featuring some horrible play by Danny Nguyen, which I actually find insulting to watch.

They've missed out the events won by Eli Elezra, Eric Brenes, Carlos Mortensen, [one of the wins by] Daniel Negreanu, John Gale, Alex Brenes, Maciek Gracz and Arnold Spee. (Perhaps it's worth noticing that in so doing, they've left out wins by 6 non-Americans. Surely it couldn't be that the WPT only want to show American winners in a ***WORLD*** Poker Tour?)

In the past, they've produced standalone DVD's such as Bad Boys of Poker, Ladies Night and Battle of the Champions. During season 3 they had several such events:

Ladies' Night II (with Isabelle Mercier, Cyndy Violette and Clonie Gowen)
Poker By The Book (with Mike Caro, TJ Cloutier, Doyle Brunson, Phil Hellmuth, Mike Sexton and David Sklansky)
Young Guns (with Scott Fischman, David Williams and John D'Agostino)

Still no news on these events either.

The WPT are, quite frankly, foolish for not wishing to release the full season, and until they do so, they won't be getting a purchase from me, particularly when rival TV shows such as Ultimate Poker Challenge and Poker Superstars Invitational have done.

I'm not sure who was in charge of putting this dvd set together but I think they definately dropped the ball in the production of this season release. You wouldn't ever see Law and Order or Seinfeld release a "Best of Season x" dvd leaving out certain less popular or less watched episodes. I would have been perfectly happy paying a little more to get the rest of this dvd set. On top of that, the Negreanu/Lindgren Esfandiari/Laak commentairies accompanying the season 2 dvd set were a highlight and I think they ought to have expanded that to all the episodes.
Overall, you get a dvd of 8 of the wpt episodes, half of the season, no commentary, no notable special features, and if you happened to be looking to replay your favorite episode you may be disappointed because the WPT didn't deem it on of the "Best" episodes.
I hope this is the first and final truly second class product issued form the WPT.

Like the other reviewers, I am disappointed that it only contains 8 of the episodes from the third season. Those of us who bought the first two seasons are poker junkies and will pay the extra cost of producing the entire season. I can only hope the producers of the World Poker Tour will rectify their short sightedness and complete the rest of Season Three. Plus, the player commentary is what separated this from watching it on cable. Not continuing that style of production is a step backward. The eight episodes are still quality shows, but I agree with Poker Guru that the Bay 101 Shooting Star was the one of the worst episodes to have included.

i pretty much buy any poker dvd's i can get my hands on, and season 2 was probably the best set i own. 14 episodes, 4 commentaries (2 with antonio esfandiari and phil laak, 2 with daniel negreanu and erick lindgren) which i thought would be nothing special, but in hindsight, i think they're great. i thought that as the prizemoney for the events increased, so too would the quality of the dvd box set, but lo and behold, they cut it down to 8 episodes and include a few paltry deleted hands as "extras". pretty pitiful. if they knew anything about the addictive nature of poker players, they would realise that we want to immerse ourselves with as much detail as possible. give us all 16 episodes with 16 commentaries as well as deleted hands. i want it all, and i'd gladly pay for it. what they did with season 3 was pretty limp.
i noticed that the w.s.o.p 2004 dvd set was a 3 disc set with a commentary from greg raymer, not mention tons of other footage on disc 3, which was a big improvement on the 2003 edition. i'm expecting their 2005 dvd to be even better. i hope the wpt learns something from them.i actually prefer watching the wpt events, i think their quality is superior to the w.s.o.p , but the dvd for season 3 was a big letdown. i know sometimes "less is more" , but with dvd box sets, and especially poker dvd's , "MORE IS MORE". i think if season 4 has 8 episodes out of 16, with no commentaries, i probably won't buy it, and stick with the w.s.op. 2005 dvd instead, and just watch the wpt events on fox here in australia.
my suggestion, put on every episode, get as many of the players (preferably the winner, or anyone with a bit of charisma and personality, to do a 2 man commentary), the deleted hands i could take or leave, maybe even show some key hands that were turning points from earlier in the tournament that enabled some of the final table players to make it there, and show who was unlucky to miss out. treat your fans with respect and love, and you won't lose them. another season 3 dvd imitation is NOT the way to go. it's pretty damning when something from 2004 was better quality and done better than something from 2005.

I am a big fan of the World Poker Tour. I was disappointed at the product they have released here. The "best of" obviously indicates they have left episodes out, so you are not getting the complete season. They did not include player commentary like they did in Season 2, so that was a bummer. I was really looking forward to that. You get 7 episodes and the WPT championship.

The extras here are 1 minutes of Shana Hiatt bloopers. One single minute and it is listed as one of their main extras?? Some of the episodes have a couple of deleted hands you can view. Nothing to get too excited about.

The episodes included are great. Unlike most products, this one is worse than the previous seasons. I figured this season would be loaded even more than last season. I guess they saved a buck by leaving out episodes and not paying for the player commentaries.

I gave it 4 stars because the WPT is the best poker on television and you are getting 8 action packed shows on 4 DVDs. Not as good as the 8 DVD set last season, but it is still good. The downside is the season is not complete and the extra features are not that great.

I too was disappointed to find out that only 8 of the 16 episodes would be included on the so-called 'Best of Season 3 WPT' Dvd set.I then taped the other episodes not on the DVDs from Canadian Tv,which only starting airing them about a month before the DVD release anyway.I was curious to see the extra deleted hands not shown on tv so I gave in and bought it.

There are only 8 extra hands(a 9th one listed on the DVD case for the Bay 101 episode sadly isn't included unless it's only viewable somewhere within the episode).It's good that for each of the 8 extra (deleted from tv) hands,the dvd allows you to watch them separately before each episode(just by selecting them from a menu)or embedded within the actual episodes.

These 8 deleted hands included on the dvd are as follows:One from the Grand Prix de Paris(featuring Tony G.);Two from Foxwoods' World Poker Finals;Three from the World Poker Open(Tunica MS)and Two from the Borgata Poker Open(Atlantic City)episode.Also not listed anywhere on the box or cases is the fact that the final WPT World Championship episode(from Las Vegas)includes(embedded within the actual episode)about an extra 40 minutes of hands(including some from the heads-up action) not shown on the 2 hour(actually only about 90 minutes of show and 30 minutes of commercials)Canadian Tv version(if the Travel channel in the States only aired a 2 hour Tv version than Americans will also be seeing the extra 40 minutes for the first time).This greatly added to my enjoyment of this episode and it runs about 2 hours and 11 minutes in total.

As well,the box says there are 16 Poker Corners but actually there are 18 of them totalling about 32 minutes in length(you can watch them all separately or some are also embedded within the 8 episodes included on the Dvd).Strangely again,there were no subtitles for any of the DVD episodes even though the actual Canadian Tv broadcasts had closed captioning available(sometimes I'm just not sure what Scotty Nguyen is saying without them-though neither is the closed captioner sometimes).

I also enjoyed the brief but funny(about Fifty of them in total-most if not all, being different from the ones shown at the end of the Season 2 episodes)Shana Hiatt bloopers(1:49 in total length),with my favorite ones showcasing Scotty Nguyen flirting with Shana Hiatt(just priceless) and Shana swearing(even though they bleeped it all but the S*** word,we can still read lips).

If this Dvd set had all the episodes and at least one commentary I'd give this 5 stars,instead of the 3 I'm giving it now.If they do another 'Best Of' Dvd set I doubt even I will buy it!I'm not bluffing,or am I?

Great poker action but disappointed that only have the season is on the DVDs. The Mirage had a great event that year with Eli Elezra winning (not shown at ) Carlos Mortesenen winning the inaugural Doyle Brunson tournament (not shown) I guess Tony G talking more smack is good to see. Gus, Negreanu, Phil Ivey.
Coz there are 8 missing episodes does that mean they will release another DVD who knows.

Okay, I agree that it sucks they didn't produce the whole season. I just don't understand that. It is, however, worth buying the disc. After all, if you a serious collector of poker DVDs, you can't not have this in your collection.

I think the World Poker Finals from this season is one of the most dramatic and exciting WPT events. Tuan Le vs. Temp Hutter was a compelling matchup. Too bad Temp got unlucky in a few key moments. Nonetheless, you can't beat the drama.

Also, at least a few of the episodes have one or two deleted hands that were not shown on tv. I do like that feature, as it reminds you that you don't see every hand and you get something you did not see on tv.

Season three was okay, here's hoping they do a better job on season four.

why oh why would you put out only half a season of a show when just the year before you put out a whole season. i also will not buy this and will only buy it when the ENTIRE third season is put out!!!!!

I have Season 2 and Season 3 and liked Season 3 the best. Instead of the WSOP drifting from table to table, this DVD set follows each table to the end which makes it easier to become engaged in the action and there is plenty of action. I also find the 2 commentators in the WPT better than WSOP.

Great dvd set and worth the money.