Battle of the Online Poker Documentaries?
I’m off to the premiere of Bet Raise Fold: The Story of Online Poker, at the Palms. Supposedly there’s gonna be a bitchin’ after-party, too. Supposedly I’m in it … but we never got around to a second interview, so who knows who makes it past the cutting room floor.
But assuming I did make the cut, maybe I’ll finally get a listing in the IMDB?
Bet Raise Fold is the second recent online poker documentary. I was in the other one, too. All In: the Poker Movie was abuzz at last year’s WSOP, and just last week made its small-screen debut, beginning a run on Showtime.
It’s not a surprise that All In made it first in the race to tell the post-Black Friday poker story, even though Bet Raise Fold was more than halfway done before Black Friday. All In was made by experienced filmmakers, after all, who simply jumped on the opportunity to put Leonardo DiCaprio Matt Damon in a YouTube freeze-frame, imho. But BRF was made by the minds behind the Micros — real poker players who know firsthand the impact of Black Friday — so I’ll be very curious to see if their deep connection to the storyline makes their movie better or worse.
Short-Stacked Shamus says:
June 14th, 2013 at 11:33am
Production of All In: The Poker Movie began well before Black Friday, too. In fact, an early version was screened at a festival way back in 2009. Not at all accurate to say it was made by folks seizing an “opportunity” provided by BF; rather, it seems obvious BF forced All In’s makers to delay release even further as they conducted more interviews and revised the film’s narrative to highlight BF.
Also, I wouldn’t describe All In as an “online poker documentary.” Rather All In attempts to present and argue for poker’s important place in American culture, with extra attention given to the last decade in which online poker plays an important role.
Dan Michalski says:
June 14th, 2013 at 11:57am
Hmm, you make some good points … I recall the ’09 premiere, too. Still, I think BRF was > AITPM, and AI suffered from cheesiness while BRF “suffered” from sincerity.
I may go back and watch AI again … As I think they mighta done a better job with certain components, such as Full Tilt’s annakin skywalker-like transformation from good to great to evil.
Incidentally, both movies got the same response from my non-pokery focus group: about 20 minutes too long.
shortfilms in says:
July 23rd, 2013 at 1:36am
Good
I really liked this,Many Skills used as well. I Love it.
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