Yeah, they’re calling it the Best Damn Poker Show and it’s on Monday nights on FSN. I caught the second episode tonight. This is hardly a poker show. This is a venting booth for two of the biggest promotional sluts in poker to air their loins.
I mean really, I trudged through more than half of this episode and I definitely saw more talk between Hellmuth and Duke than I did card playing. The premise of the show is that there is a pool of 36 players. Duke and Hellmuth watch them play from another room. When they decide someone sucks, they come out and eliminate them. Eventually there will be two teams, one with Phil and one with Annie, and they’ll get trained some more and then battle it out.
So it’s not about good poker, it’s about who’s cooler: Annie or Phil. And god, they think they are special. They act like they are deciding which state should be deleted from the U.S. map.
I think a whole 6 minute segment of the show I saw consisted of Phil Hellmuth saying how Annie and Howard Lederer both like to get all their money in with hands like pockets 8s. Annie freaks out, crying, saying it’s okay for him to insult her, but not her brother, because her brother’s not here to defend himself. They go back and forth over this for quite some time repeating one another, as if it’s the most important thing in the world.
This show is meant for you to think: Hey, these two are totally awesome and, wow, so interesting and crazy!!! It is not a show to watch good poker.
If all that weren’t enough, they talk about cards as if there is only one way to play. A girl calls a raise with QJ suited (sure, not the best hand to call with when there a bunch of people after you and your play is being rated, but whatever) and Annie and Phil just go on and on about how dumb that was. One way to play poker. One way to play poker.
I’d rather chew on the butt end of a cordless drill than watch this ridiculous crap again.