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A Key Hand in New Orleans
It’s a mad, mad world on Bourbon Street in New Orleans right now! But there’s no joking here; there’s still an unthinkable measure of destruction in New Orleans, with thousands of destroyed houses and cars still just sort of lying there, existing. So, when “Celebrity Poker Showdown” was set to shoot in New Orleans, the organizers decided to have all of the celebrities choose New Orleans-based charities, and the prize pool was increased to $1 million. In addition to donating all that cash to these charities, “Showdown” also posted each charity’s telephone number on the telecast during the show.
In the first three shows of “Showdown” (shown on Bravo every Wednesday night at 9, with the finale on July 5), my co-host Dave Foley correctly predicted the winner (though he’s famous for failing to pick them). He correctly picked Jason Alexander (“Seinfeld”), Michael Ian Black (“The Pleasure of Your Company”), and Ida Siconolfi (the bravotv.com winner) to win their heats and go on to the “Showdown” finals, and got it right all three shows. This past week’s show (June 21) featured Mario Cantone (“Sex and the City”), Jordan Peele (“MADtv”), Keegan-Michael Key (“MADtv”), Jenna Fischer (“The Office”), and Rocco DiSpirito (“The Restaurant”), and what a show it was! Foley picked Cantone and I picked Fischer.
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Ida’s New Orleans Experience
Fred “The Wonder Years” Savage jumped off the stage in New Orleans to dispense high-fives among the audience members. Savage was recently playing heads-up poker on “Celebrity Poker Showdown” on Bravo and felt he needed an energy boost. Losing hand after hand and sporting a hangdog look, he needed a break, and decided to use the audience and its energy as an ally. And where a minute before he looked like a beaten man, now he had the audience going bonkers. And a smile on his face. What a scene a bit later, Savage literally being lifted into the air by a fan, the audience celebrating raucously and screaming wildly, as he won a $20,000 pot against Ida Siconolfi (the Bravo online tournament winner)!
That heat, the third of these shows on “Showdown,” had begun with five players: Savage, Siconolfi, Jennifer “J-Till” Tilly (“Bound”), Doug E. Doug (“Cool Runnings” and “Cosby”), and Brett Butler (“Grace Under Fire”), who were all gunning to win this heat and go on to the five-player finale, where “Showdown” would give away $900,000; with $500,000 to the winner’s New Orleans-based charity. The favorite to win this heat had to be semi-pro poker player and Oscar-winner J-Till. So I picked her to win, and my co-host Dave Foley picked Siconolfi to win (after all, she did beat 10,000 people in an online poker tournament to qualify).
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A Black Day in New Orleans
Here are a few hands from the second heat of the June 7 “Celebrity Poker Showdown” on Bravo (which I co-host along with comedian Dave Foley). Shot in New Orleans, all of our celebrities donated their prize money ($1 million total) to charities dedicated to the New Orleans area. Show No. 1, which I wrote about last week, showed me that many of the celebrities have learned how to play a solid game of no-limit Hold ’em. Jason Alexander (“Seinfeld”) beat out Bryan Cranston (“Malcolm in the Middle”) for the first heat win. (Foley, famous for never picking a winner, actually picked the winner, Alexander! I had picked Cranston.)
Our five celebrity guests on show No. 2 were Greg Behrendt (“He’s Just Not That into You”), Andrea Martin (in soon to be released movies “Young Triffie’s Been Made Away with” and “Black Christmas”), Kim Coles (“Living Single’), Jorge Garcia (“Lost”) and Michael Ian Black (director of the upcoming movie “The Pleasure of your Company”). We both picked Black, but Foley made me pick someone else, so I chose Coles.
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‘Seinfeld’ vs. ‘Malcolm in the Middle’
While shooting “Celebrity Poker Showdown” in New Orleans (shameless plug: Wednesday at 9 p.m. on Bravo for the next five weeks) I found out that some of these celebrities can really play no-limit Hold ’em at a high level. In Week 1, Jason Alexander (George Costanza on “Seinfeld”) and Bryan Cranston (the dad on “Malcolm in the Middle”) really brought some game to their five-player heat, while playing along with Susie Essman (“Curb Your Enthusiasm”), Jamie Bamber (“Battlestar Galactica”), and Kevin Sorbo (“Hercules,” “Andromeda”).
Alexander and Cranston dominated. On air, I picked Cranston to win (Dave Foley, my co-host, picked Alexander), though I acknowledged that Alexander was a terrific player as well. I had given Alexander lessons, along with my books and DVDs, on the TV show “Extra” a few years back; and I picked him to finish high as well.
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What Spurs a Great Poker Time? Tony and Eva
I was attending Game 1 of the Dallas Mavericks/San Antonio Spurs series in San Antonio. Being there with one of the minority owners, Ken Kamp, allowed me access to the owners’ lounge for a snack at halftime. While Ken and I walked back to the lounge, Tim Duncan and Tony Parker of the Spurs came rushing out of the locker room, headed back to the court. As Parker whizzed by, he threw us a quick “Hi.” That was Sunday.
On Friday of that week, Maxim’s most beautiful woman in the world, Eva Longoria, called my agent to invite me to Game 6 in Dallas — and to emcee Parker’s (her longtime boyfriend) birthday party the day afterward. I accepted, and Longoria had my son and me sitting courtside for Game 6. Wow, what a game! (The Spurs won.)
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Seidel vs. Hennigan in the USPC
The Taj Mahal in Atlantic City sure knows how to run a poker tournament. The staff there is friendly and accommodating, and I love playing poker in Atlantic City. Back in November 2002, the $7,500 buy-in no-limit Hold ’em U.S. Poker Championship (USPC) was held there for the sixth time. For three days, the players slugged it out for the right to make the final six players, be on the Travel Channel and win the $212,000 first prize. Unfortunately for me, I was eliminated on Day 1.
However, three of the favorites on my list remained deep into the tournament: Howard Lederer, who finished 11th (Howard had just won the $10,000 buy-in Foxwood’s Championship event the month before); John Juanda, who finished seventh (John finished second in this very event in the last two consecutive years) and thus missed the final day and the TV coverage; and Erik Seidel, who made the final day with the chip lead. The other five finalists were John “World” Hennigan (a great player), Eric Buchman, “Charlie” Bae, Robert “Bo” Toft and Tony Popejoy.
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