So little gets me excited about poker these days … unless, of course, it includes Pot-Limit Omaha or somebody getting sued/arrested. (C’mon HSP, can we just get one episode of PLO? Just to hear Gabe Kaplan talking about it. Promise not to sue you if you use this idea.)
But I stumbled across this last night — a game I read about on the internet back when it was being recorded (I believe in September). It’s just a regular-ole episode (Season 4 Ep. 3). But still much more exciting on video than anything I read about online, and way better than the Poker Stars Million-Dollar Challenge, not to mention Face the Ace:
Starring:
Patrik Antonius
Tom Dwan
Mike Matusow
Chris Ferguson
Gus Hansen
Allen Cunningham
Andrew Feldman Isildur1
On the Left Coast, TMZ.com reports that Poker PROductions, the makers of the NBC show Face The Ace, is being sued for $85,000,000 by Brandon McSmith, who said the company “stole” his idea called “The All-Star Poker Challenge”. McSmith’s idea consisted of a player having to defeat five pros in a series of heads-up matches to win prize money and a $10,000 WSOP Main Event seat, with the contestant having the option to risk their winnings after conquering their opponent. This lawsuit appears to top Gambling Times’ lawsuit against Scott Lazar for $1,000,000 for lack of product placement in the poker movie “Deal”, which grossed under $100,000 in lawsuits that will go nowhere.
Apparently undeterred by the ratings flop that was the first two weeks of Full Tilt Poker’s “Face the Ace”, PokerStars.net is running their own promotion on Fox, where someone will play Daniel Negreanu for $1,000,000.
The PokerStars.net Million Dollar Challenge doesn’t have a ring to it like Face the Ace did, but it has a similar format: Finish in the top 10 in one of several freerolls held over the next few months on PokerStars.net, then submit a two-minute audition tape with two of your buddies (who also will travel with the winner to the taping to offer support), and PokerStars.net will select 21 winning entries to appear on one of 4 programs on Fox which are also non-NFL doubleheader days: October 11 and 18, November 22, December 13 with the grand final being shown on December 27 at 4pm.
Speaking of bankroll management … an @Ali_Nejad tweet reminds me of the power of network television, and provides a glimpse of what serving as tournament director on the lowest-rated show on prime-time TV can get you:
@Ali_Nejad At BMW dealer finally gettin break-in service on M5. Sure it only gets 10mpg, but I only drove it 900mi in 3 months! “Green?” What say u?
No blood for oil, dude. Props for going green to show your support for Iran!
Since less than 1,500,000 people watched the original run of the episode last Saturday – which featured someone playing for $1,000,000 – here’s another opportunity. Now the show will air monthly on Saturdays starting September 12.
Since Dan mentioned Thursday on The Poker Beat he hadn’t watched the show yet, I figured it’s better to take the show to him, and for others who haven’t had a chance to watch the opportunity.
Mark my words, or at least check back in about 15 years … G4 is the next coming of MTV. And the Gen-Y and younger TV station (focussed mostly on the video-game geek culture, and re-runs of Tron) has a new poker show debuting in mid-August — 2M2MM:
Featuring Ansky and some other young online pros, in the show’s words:
Premieres Sunday, August 16 at 9pm on G4. This summer, geeks are wild as G4 takes viewers inside the world of competitive high stakes online poker in a new series that follows four young high IQ friends who join forces and set up shop in Las Vegas. Their challenge for themselves? To collectively earn $2 million dollars in only two months using their own money.
With this show, Face the Ace (on NBC), and even Sam’s Game (on Playboy.TV) … and all of them looking at least semi-good, frankly … anyone get the sense that the future of poker on TV continues to evolve? Mix in live coverage like you have with the Washington State Poker Championship below … and really, you gotta wonder what ESPN, the WSOP, and High Stakes Poker are going to have to deliver to keep up with (or ignore) the theoretically non-crappy televised poker we can expect in coming seasons.
Though admittedly, 2M2MM may well be a semi-successful one-hit reality wonder, while Face the Ace could go the way of Win, Lose or Draw … and Sam’s Game may end up in the archives somewhere next to Naughty Nurses Go To Europe #9.
We’ll see … or not. That’s kinda the question.
Click below for even more on what to expect from this new show:
NBC is expanding their poker inventory with a brand new reality show, with the help of Poker PROductions and Full Tilt Poker called “Face the Ace” starting Saturday Aug. 1, according to Variety. The show debuts at 9pm Saturday for two weeks, then moves to Saturday afternoons for the rest of its seven episode run. The show will be hosted by Steven Schirripa of “The Sopranos” fame.
Qualifiers are now running at Full Tilt Poker, with 30 winners getting a trip to the Golden Nugget in Las Vegas to audition to be on the show. Those who pass the auditions will then have the opportunity to beat 3 Team Full Tilt Pros heads-up and win $1,000,000. If they beat one pro, they win a certain amount of money with the option to move forward. If they beat a second pro, they win a higher amount of money. If they beat the third pro, they win the grand prize, but if they lose at any time, they go home with nothing.
The bottom of the article notes that the other Poker PROductions program on NBC, Poker After Dark, is up 4% in the ratings, averaging over 800,000 viewers in its very late night time slot.
