NBC has scheduled the "Travel Channel World Poker Tour Battle of Champions" from 3 to 5 p.m. opposite the Super Bowl pre-game show on CBS.
I am going to be watching poker on Super Bowl Sunday.
NBC has scheduled the "Travel Channel World Poker Tour Battle of Champions" from 3 to 5 p.m. opposite the Super Bowl pre-game show on CBS.
I'm "all in."
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For those who haven't watched Texas Hold 'Em poker contests on ESPN, Fox, Bravo or the Travel Channel, "all in" is what players say when they're betting all their chips on a single hand.
During the World Series of Poker (which is the best of the genre), those chips could represent more than $1 million.
And you, the home viewer, would know that the guy making the bet is bluffing.
That's because of a new camera technology that allows the audience to peak at the player's hole cards.
I first stumbled on one of these poker tournaments a couple of months ago while flipping through the cable stations.
My wife came by at one point and said, "What the heck are you watching?"
"Poker," I replied.
She shook her head sadly from side-to-side and said something like, "You'll watch anything," and walked away.
About an hour later, she returned.
"You're still watching poker?" she said in disbelief.
"This stuff is great," I replied.
She sat down on the sofa next to me.
And when the show ended, without a champion being proclaimed, she said, "They can't do that! When are they going to show the championship."
The winner of the poker tournament (shown in a later episode) was a guy named Moneymaker (honest to gosh), a 20-something accountant who had originally gained admission to the big game by winning an Internet poker tournament with a $25 admission fee.
He walked away with $2 million in cash.
The Vegas casino plopped the money right down on the table.
"I can't believe it's over," my wife said.
A little sheepishly, I mentioned that the Bravo Channel had scheduled a celebrity poker championship featuring television and motion picture actors.
"When?" my wife said without hesitation. "I want to watch."
These new poker tournaments have two things going for them:
The video gimmick that lets you see the player's cards; and the type of game that's played, called Texas Hold 'Em.
Unlike seven-card stud or five-card draw poker, where each player is dealt his own set of cards, in this game each contestant only gets two cards of his own.
Five cards are then placed face down on the table, which everyone will eventually get to use if they remain in the hand.
Bets are made.
Obviously, the best hand anyone can have at this point is a pair, two aces.
Often, however, the best hand after the initial deal is a single ace or even a king.
Experienced players know this and, since the stakes are high, they realize that a large wager right off the bat is likely to make competitors fold.
So they will sometimes bet $10,000 or more on a hand that includes nothing but a 10 and a 2.
Will the other players drop out?
Do they have better cards then the guy who is bluffing?
The hand's just started and already you're on the edge of your seat.
It's sinful.
It's fun.
And it's so darn simple that just about anyone sitting in their living room figures they could make a killing if they only had the guts and the money to buy into the game.
The Travel Channel championship required players to put up $25,000.
Of course, since you can see everyone's cards and tell who is bluffing, you just know you could outsmart any of the people sitting at the table.
In addition, some of the expert commentary on these tournaments is better than the analysis you'll get during the Super Bowl.
On one occasion, when a card player was deliberating for a long time before calling a competitor's large bet, the bettor couldn't keep silent any longer.
"Hey, you called that other guy's $40,000 bet earlier and it turned out he was only bluffing," the player said. "Maybe I'm just bluffing."
The commentator immediately said, "I would call him because of that."
And the other player did.
"You know when a player says something like that he really doesn't want you to bet," said the expert. "He's not sure of his hand."
Sure enough, the big mouth lost.
NBC executives figure that after two weeks of Super Bowl hype, a lot of people don't want to sit through another two hours of pre-game analysis.
And poker has become one of the hottest reality shows on TV.
Men, women and even children are watching.
That's probably a bad thing.
Then again, if they're watching TV with you, at least you know they're not sneaking off to play Texas Hold 'Em on the Internet.
Source: Phil Kadner, Daily Southtown
