Wed, December 3, 2003

Hey, anybody heard of Texas Hold 'Em? It's "the Cadillac of Poker." The chosen game among professional poker players, and the game played at the annual World Series of Poker. Is it just me, or did we all first hear of this last spring when Internet player Chris Moneymaker upset the seasoned pros and won the World Series of Poker? Surely it isn't only me, because there's been an explosion of poker this year, and Texas Hold 'Em is leading the mania.

Newest to the pack, this week Bravo debuts Celebrity Poker Showdown, which pits five celebrities against each other each week in a game of No Limit Texas Hold 'Em, with each game's winner advancing to a final round and all the winnings going to charity. Hosted by Kevin Pollak, it's quite a fun ride. It's kind of a high-stakes update of Match Game – a goofy celebrity romp made up of equal parts competition and party.

This week, it's Ben Affleck and Don Cheadle, up against TV's David Schwimmer, plus Emily Procter of CSI: Miami and Willie Garson, late of Sex and the City, who I have to love because he was not only in Steven Spielberg's Taken, but also in Our Lips Are Sealed with everyone's favorite Olsen twins – the Olsen twins!

For some reason, I just expected Affleck and Cheadle to be champion-level poker players. But it turns out that the others hold their own as well. If the interview segments are to be believed, they all play regular poker nights with friends, and have been enjoying the game for years. For his part, Schwimmer is very suave at the table and handles his cards well. Procter plays like, well, a girl; but mostly she seems to suffer from the same Poker Achilles Heel that I do – she's too busy having fun with her friends to concentrate adequately on her strategy. Meanwhile, Willie Garson is a loose cannon, with a playing style that uncannily matches "Fabio," the lumbering latino who showed up to terrorize Arksie and myself at the Hollywood Park Casino over Thanksgiving weekend. (This guy was playing THE for the first time in his life, and liked to bet on every hand. Unfortunately, he also had miraculous luck with the cards, so this ordinarily inadvisable strategy paid off nicely.) Garson bets like Fabio, and in many cases wins like him, so it's maddeningly entertaining to watch.

Kevin Pollak is a fantastic host – how could he not be? – and his commentary, along with Poker pro Phil Gordon, is insightful and entertaining. The problem is, there's also a host in the gaming room with the players, who insists on narrating everything. Plus, there's a live audience, which is miked entirely too well, so it all makes it a little hard to focus on the poker and enjoy the celebrity banter which is the best part of the show. Mildly aggravating. But each eliminated player joins the hosts backstage to dish on the remaining competitors, which is plenty of fun. Between ads and chip counts and everything, there's not a lot of time for joking around, but everybody seems to have a good sense of humor, so they make it fun.

Since I'm hoping that you'll be able to catch a repeat of this episode during the week, I won't reveal who ultimately wins, but the action is all over the place, so it's quite a surprise. And very entertaining. Next week, it's the West Wing cast. Janney, Schiff, Spencer, and President Bartlet himself face off against Danny Concannon, a.k.a. Timothy Busfield. It's a tidy tie-in for Bravo, which is airing West Wing reruns these days, and it makes sense because it turns out Joshua Malina is one of the show's executive producers. (Who knew? Guess that explains Emily Procter's appearance, as well.) I hope this improves the chances of seeing Sabrina Lloyd and Felicity Huffman take on Robert Guillaume, Peter Krause, and Josh Charles. ("Rack 'em up, Casey." "That's pool, you mental patient!")

***

Other News: TiVo breathed a sigh of relief to rival that nationwide Thanksgiving pants-loosening groan tonight, as we deleted approximately twenty hours of Alias season two. (Plenty of room for HBO's upcoming AIDSy the AIDS Patient!) Don't need it any more – season two is out on DVD today! And while I didn't bother to swing by Best Buy to pick it up right away (I'm still working on my fake mustache so I can buy a copy of Pirates of the Caribbean undetected while I'm there), just knowing it's there in case of emergency means we can let our guard down a little. Someday soon... it'll be Rifkin Time, baby!

© onebee · all rights reserved