You have to give ESPN credit: The cable sports giant doesn't give up easily.

Its first dramatic series, "Playmakers," was a moderate success in 2003-04, but rather than jeopardize a profitable partnership with the NFL by continuing the program's unflattering portrayal of professional football players, ESPN bit the bullet and pulled the plug after one season.

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Now the network's second dramatic series, "Tilt," presents an equally uncomplimentary view of two things we can't seem to get enough of on television: poker and Las Vegas.

"Tilt" (8 p.m. Thursday, Cable 32) isn't exactly about poker. It's more about cheating at poker, and the show gives the clear impression that nothing about this world is on the up-and-up. The best players are smart, steely-eyed strategists who double-cross and switch allegiances like senators in the late Roman Empire.

Of course, there is no National League of Poker to wield its marketing and advertising clout to deter such depictions. And it remains to be seen how it will affect the ratings of ESPN's annual serialized coverage of the World Series of Poker to characterize it as one big con.

Dark and tense with a touch of faded glitz, "Tilt" is a distinctly old-school view of Sin City, featuring three good-looking young guns -- Eddie (Eddie Cibrian), Clark (Todd Williams) and Miami (Kristin Lehman) --who each have their own reason for wanting to take down the reigning king of Vegas poker, the Matador, Don Everest (Michael Madsen).

Madsen is well cast as the been-there, done-that old warrior who's not about to let anyone onto his turf. The Matador might still be the guy to beat in Vegas, but it's been a decade since he's won a world championship, and he's not above exerting a little violence to find out who might be watching him. The gravel-voiced actor provides an added layer of menace.

Source: Kevin Crust, Los Angeles Times