NBC prime time poker game show
cardplayer story on it can be found here.
it's called Face the Ace. a player picks one of four "doors" to reveal a poker pro behind it. then they play heads up. if the pro wins, they win $10,000 towards a charity of their choice (all pros are from full tilt). if the contestant wins, they get $40,000 and the choice to go against a 2nd pro for $200,000. if they lose the 2nd match they get nothing. if they win the 2nd match they can choose to play a third pro for $1,000,000. again if they lose they get nothing.
maybe it's just me, but i would never think i could beat three pros in a row. i might get lucky and beat the first. there's no way in hell i'd accept a 2nd match. $40,000 or nothing to beat another pro heads up? i'll take $40,000 thank you very much.
still, i'll watch this show for sure. everyone should try to watch it (august 1st @ 9pm and august 9th @ 9pm). they are "testing the waters" for a couple episodes, so if it does well it will stay on the air.
it's called Face the Ace. a player picks one of four "doors" to reveal a poker pro behind it. then they play heads up. if the pro wins, they win $10,000 towards a charity of their choice (all pros are from full tilt). if the contestant wins, they get $40,000 and the choice to go against a 2nd pro for $200,000. if they lose the 2nd match they get nothing. if they win the 2nd match they can choose to play a third pro for $1,000,000. again if they lose they get nothing.
maybe it's just me, but i would never think i could beat three pros in a row. i might get lucky and beat the first. there's no way in hell i'd accept a 2nd match. $40,000 or nothing to beat another pro heads up? i'll take $40,000 thank you very much.
still, i'll watch this show for sure. everyone should try to watch it (august 1st @ 9pm and august 9th @ 9pm). they are "testing the waters" for a couple episodes, so if it does well it will stay on the air.
Comments
Without tipping what happens in episodes, trust me when I tell you it turned out pretty interesting...
And, as far as the odds go, because of the fast structure necessitated by the game show format time constraints, it takes a LOT of the post flop skill out of the equation. With that in mind, Andy Bloch figured the worst odds an amateur would have would be 2-1. They're paying 5-1 to press your luck. Not bad pot odds, no?
I was about to say that I would also go for the $1,000,000 with an $EV of at least $670,000, but I just asked my better half and she's insisting that I take the $200K for the sure thing of moving to a better house, so it's possible I may chicken out and cry all the way to the bank after giving up over $470,000 of equity.
I wished I knew about this contest at FTP or I would have actually deposited and play there. Hopefully, enough people will know about the weird TV scheduling and watch it, so please post if FTP restarts the satellites.
Awesome. I think I'd be saying "C'mon Gavin Smith". I'd at least have good odds that he'd show up completely trashed.
Watch the episodes. I absolutely guarantee that there is at least one person who would now disagree with you......
fyp.... :d
How deep are the stacks?
But the game may be solved....
Lets say you will be getting outplayed postflop....
If you're getting 5 to 1 can you shove every hand?
Each round starts at 200/400 with 20,000 starting stacks (not sure of the blind structure, but fairly quick). Immediately shoving from hand one is probably not a good idea - but it doesn't take too long to get to that point.
I only made it through the first three rounds last night (including a fair amount of fast-forwarding) before turning it off. Steve Schirripa was annoying as host - still playing a gangster and neither knowing nor caring one bit about the poker being played. Neither of the first two contestants particularly made me want to cheer for them (...and, poker or not, the first one showing up for a nationally-broadcast prime-time network television show wearing faded, ill-fitting jeans and a baseball cap pulled down over his face didn't help). Both Ivey and Lindgren effectively conceeded that they had absolutely nothing at all to say to the contestants by immediately resorting to the exact same super-stale tripe conversation ("who's your favourite baseball team" ... ugh ... might as well talk about the weather). And of course with the speedy blind structure and editing, there's not much of interest when it comes to the actual play. Overall - I just found it very disappointing.
Ivey look like he just wanted to get back to Bobby's room
Martin...
Interesting perspective. That is a good point.
Yeah no kidding. FTP does a HORRIBLE job of marketing their promos. 2500 FTP to buy into the final qualifier with 10 trips to Vegas for 5 days and a chance to get on TV. The last qualifier was tonight with only about 800 runners. Too bad I missed all the others.
nice hand sir
Watch Face The Ace Full Episode - Season 1 Episode 1 | Face The Ace Game Show
Season 1 Episode 2 | Face The Ace Game Show
There's a reason TV Shows have an application form to get on game shows, you need to show some personality. These guys got on from winning a tourney on FTP, no personality required.
Plus, the show is really making the game of poker look luck based, not really helping their cause with congress proving it's a skill game.
I agree... the 1st guy was pretty painful to watch. Fortunately the 2nd guy got a bit better, but him playing against Lederer was again pretty boring. Lederer doesn't talk much and seems like a huge dick. It seemed like he really wanted the guy to lose bad as it is probably money out of his pocket, while all the other pros were kinda helping the opponent out.
Howard has watched and played only a tiny bit of poker since the Moneymaker boom. He has never played online. He knows very little about the game (donk), but is receptive to it. During National Poker Week in July, he had personal friend, former NY State Senator and current Chairman of the PPA Alfonse D'Amato on his radio show. They talked for over 10 minutes about the legal issues regarding online poker in the US, and D'Amato signed him up as a high-profile celebrity PPA member shortly thereafter.
Howard Stern Joins Poker Players Alliance, Poker News Daily, July 20, 2009
Presumably Howard is the type of person Full Tilt would be looking to attract with this show - a receptive male with expendable income. A high percentage of his audience would also fit the bill - and trust me, his audience (and the weight of his opinion with them) is still huge. While his review was positive overall, some of the things he and his crew said didn't exactly paint such a great image of the game (righty or wrongly).
Some of the key quotes (skipping the less important stuff):
Howard Stern: The show looks very cable and low budget.
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Howard: I'm watching the show and I loved it.
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Robin Quivers: Poker's kinda seedy.
Howard: It seemed kind of creepy and the guys who play the poker seem creepy. The first guy they brought out looked like they dragged him out from under a rock.
Artie Lange: Oh yeah, they're creepy.
Robin: Most of those guys, yeah.
Howard: And even the professional poker players seemed really skuzzy.
Robin: That's why I like it 'cause, you know, they sit there with the hats on and glasses and they sike each other out. They're weird guys.
Howard: They have no personality.
Artie: Jennifer Tilly's either boyfriend or now husband - they call him the Unibomber 'cause he wears the hood and the glasses.
Howard: I've seen that guy play.
Artie: Yeah. I mean the pro players are just as creepy as the amateurs.
Robin and Howard: Yeah.
Howard: There's very little difference between...
Robin: They were in their mother's basement before they started winning. (referring to the first contestant)
Howard: And they're probably still in their mother's basement. I mean, that's not a real stable position.
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Howard: The professional guys seem to really know how to read the situation.
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Howard: It was a good show ... I recommend it to you.