I watched it and would be willing to discuss it but I don’t have sufficient thoughts of interest to make up a whole OP of any real merit. Anyone else wanna jump in?
I missed it, who ended up winning?
I saw last weeks, and it certainly looked like the winner ended up just getting damn lucky. Afflack, Schwimmer, and Cheadle all played a ton better than the winner.
Was it the same way this week, or did somebody who deserved to win? Were there any good hands? Anybody who outbluffed somebody?
Also, was Phil Gordon really stiff, or has he loosened up a bit?
Thanks.
I am happy that John Spencer lost in the end. His style of staying in regardless of his hand is the type that drives me crazy to watch. He essentially forfeits any semblance of skill for more of a bulldozer approach. But, that’s just me.
Timothy Busfield struck me as clearly the best/most comfortable player at the table. But, after his peak of about $30,000 or so chips it seems like he got too cute with his attempts to outbet the others and force them fold from his sheer volume of chips. By playing the opposing chip stacks as opposed to what he had in his hand, he negated his advantage and gave them hope as he lost a couple in a row.
Martin Sheen had never played that version before and it showed.
Also, John Spencer had one spectacular hand. He had pocket sixes. First card up on the flop was also a 6. By this point, Schiff and Janney are still in, although both with weak pairs. On the turn, Schiff wisely drops out with Spencer doing some strong betting. Janney, still with a weak pair, calls. The river produces the 4th 6. Janney thought it was smart for her weak pair to call all in. That did not end well.
Also, John Spencer had one spectacular hand. He had pocket sixes. First card up on the flop was also a 6. By this point, Schiff and Janney are still in, although both with weak pairs. On the turn, Schiff wisely drops out with Spencer doing some strong betting. Janney, still with a weak pair, calls. The river produces the 4th 6. Janney thought it was smart for her weak pair to call all in. That did not end well.
Also, John Spencer had one spectacular hand. He had pocket sixes. First card up on the flop was also a 6. By this point, Schiff and Janney are still in, although both with weak pairs. On the turn, Schiff wisely drops out with Spencer doing some strong betting. Janney, still with a weak pair, calls. The river produces the 4th 6. Janney thought it was smart for her weak pair to call all in. That did not end well.
Dammit, I typed up a big-ass response and my goddamn interent connection at work decided to FUBAR on me as soon as I hit POST. Damn if I’m gonna retype all that. Too bad, too, it was really well-written and funny.
Highlights of my post:
I thought Spencer would win but he ended up looking like he’d never played before. The “comic” was a total bore. Phil Gordon looked trapped sitting next to him with a grin frozen on his face like death. Gordon’s comentary was a little better but the one time he had the chance to shine the “comic” cut him off. Gordon said something about how Busfield was the only player who was really working his chips and Janney asked how one works their chips. The “comic” jumps in with some lame ass “you throw them at the other players and hit them in the eye” remark and then there’s a cut to commercial.
And I’ll add something I didn’t mention previously, which is that I’m sure Timothy Busfield is a perfectly nice man in real life, but there’s something about him that bugs the piss out of me. I can’t stand him on a totally visceral level.
I thought this episode was awful. If they are going to get people to play at least TEACH them how to play beforehand. I do enjoy watching poker but these guys and gals had absolutely no idea what they were doing. The guy who had the four sixes had no idea how to play never mind raise. I wouldn’t mind so bad if they understood the rules and just didn’t know how to play their hands.
This will probably turn out to be the worst of the “poker shows” that have been made.
Stealing the thread a bit did you notice they said the grand prize is $250k, with 100k going to their favorite charity? So do they pocket the other 150? Interesting…
I agree - would it kill the producers to give an hour tutorial to Allison Janney and President Sheen? I volunteer to tutor Ms. Janney!
Anyone with some hold-em experience could have wiped up at that table. As the ‘poker expert’ said, its more about player the other players rather than just your cards (I learned that the hard way as I got my clock cleaned in my first Texas Hold-em tourney last week).
Each participant gets $5000 to his or her charity. The winners from each week compete at the final table and the last one standing takes $100,000 for his or her charity. The rest will presumably be paid out to the other finalists’ charities as they are eliminated. Unknown whether the $5000 pity prizes are out of the $250,000 but I would guess not based on the way the announcement of the prize pool was worded.
Yeah he struck me as the only one really trying to play poker. Especially when he reviewed the hand in his mind and realized that the other guy must have kept betting when he only had a flush draw(which he got). It’s not master level play, but at least he was trying to learn and play the players.
Ugh, terrible stuff. I know if I was a celebrity and was going to be playing poker on national tv, I’d at least try to get a decent grasp on how to do that, as to not embarass myself. Not these folks, apparently. I guess they just assume their celebrity superiority will carry them through.
Ben Affleck seems to be a decent poker player, actually, and it was dissapointing that he lost. That’s what happens when you have an accelerated tournament that you need to fit in an hour of tv - skill isn’t a huge deciding factor.
I stopped watching after the first 20 minutes. It’s only interesting if the people know how to play poker, and I don’t just mean the rules. The first episode was interesting because at least Affleck played good poker. I can deal with a table full of sheep as long as there’s one wolf.
I thought it was enjoyable enough. I agree that this isn’t the best venue for Kevin Pollack (who is normally very funny).
The quarter-mil is a “prize pool,” from which all prizes are drawn. 100 G’s of that go to the champions’s charity. There are 20 first-round losers (5 rounds x 5 players per round = 25 - 5 first-round winners = 20). Each gets 5,000, taking up another 100 grand (20 losers x $5,000 ea. = $100,000). That leaves 50,000 of the prize pool left to split between the four second-round losers. They could split it into four pieces of $12,500, but if I were running the tournament I would give $10,000 to the first three to go out and $20,000 to the runner-up.
–Cliffy