I watched the first episode of Poker After Dark a bit ago. It is on at 2 A.M. That meant going out and getting some kind of recorder. So, $100 and change later, I'm home from Best Buy with the recorder and a replacement TV for one that died. The DVD -RW system was a good move; there won't be a lot of the episodes that I'll want to keep.
The format is six players and 120K that plays out over 6-1 hour shows. The first show features Gus Hansen, Some guy in a UB hockey shirt named Phil Hellmuth, Annie Duke, Steve Z., Shawn Sheikhan, and Huck Seed.
The guy in the hockey shirt whined a lot and got picked on by the sand lot bully, Shawn ‘Sheik' Sheikhan. Shawn left the table to talk to Mommy Shana to tell her the guy was a bad winner as is Mike the Mouth. We are talking riveting TV here. He's letting out all the dirty little inside secrets. I hope he didn't use it all up and has something for when they come out with Access Las Vegas. The Sheik even got on The Duke about being a poor mother for playing too much poker - sort of a cross between Dr. Phil and Morry Povich.
The show revolves around table conversation. And, Folks, it ain't up to drunken blogger standards or 7th grade potty humor. Gus's big contributions were those head jerks used to indicate pique and disbelief. Annie stole a Steve Z. story to tell about him ending up in the slammer with a big pocket full of diamonds crossing back to the U.S. Guess he never heard of conflict diamonds. It is pretty lame when you steal your stories from the guy sitting next to you.
The voice over kept it simple like, "Gus is ahead on the hand." So we got table chat and nobody talking about 'wired pairs'; just typical table talk. It doesn't come across nearly as well sober or when it isn't a total fish you want to keep at the table.
The genre for the show is 'Reality TV' and there is a first week preview on the site of a session that hasn't aired yet. It is a horrid example of poker table passion run amok. It is the poker brat at his brattiest.
If you've read Linda at all, you have come to understand dealer responsibility and the horrors that a bad brush can add to a situation. Well, TV throws all that out; the brush is now the producer; and has no interest in grace and providing a responsible gaming situation. Not a biggy! You can't expect TV to care about anything but ratings.
As a poker show it is a farce. As reality TV, the only thing that could make it more interesting is to have Dolly (Doyle Brunson) on his crutches having to play from a stump in a crocodile invested swamp.