Face The Ace

[Robbie Robb]

Don't forget - Face The Ace starts tonight! 9:00pm Eastern on NBC

[Talking Poker]

I have no idea what you are talking about.

Googled.

Looks interesting. Was it any good?

[Robbie Robb]

Was kinda neat. Steve Schirripa (Sopranos, Secret Life of an American Teenager) is the host and Ali Nejad is the "TD". Some other voice is play-by-play. Ali steps in for big hands. The player picks one of four doors marked with the four suits. Behind each "door" is a pro. You beat the first one you win $40K. You can walk or risk it to play a second pro. Beat that pro and $200K is your prize. At that point you can risk it all and go for pro #3. Beat that pro and you walk with $1M. You lose at any point and away you go with nada. It appears that all the pros are going to be FT pros. So don't expect to see Clonie on there anytime soon.

Nikki didn't like Steve hosting but it could be that he was just nervous and finding his place. This is his first hosting-type gig after all. Remember how much Ali Nejad sucked the first season of PAD?

See below for Show recap if you have no intention of downloading it or watching it online.

The first guy had all the personality of a turnip. I don't think he strung together a full sentence more than 3 times. Most of the time is was short "yup" type answers. He chose the spades door and out walks Phil Ivey. They sit down to play and first hand the guy is dealt aces. They avoid getting it all in on that hand but it was over in about 5-6 hands with the guy beating Ivey. When presented with his choice he chose the $40K and walked.

Bring on player #2 for the night. This guy is pretty calm in front of the camera. He's joking around with Steve and actually chatting. I believe he started with the Ace of Spades as well and out walks E-Dog. They chatted back and forth and the chips moved around but "The Basement Dweller" as Steve nicknamed him went on for a victory. Next choice was hearts and none other than Howard Lederer strolls out on stage. Lederer took an early lead but soon became VERY short. After doubling up once with AQ against KK they ended up all-in again with players nines holding against Howard's A3 I think it was. When given the choice of walking with $200K or playing for a million the guy barely thought about before deciding to play on. He chose the Ace of Clubs and out walked...well - no one. We have to wait until next week to find out.

Not a bad show. I think it would be fun to be lucky enough to get on there. I'll definitely keep checking it out. After all, what else is there to watch on a Sat night in the summer?

[de-coder]

It was interesting, but I think it's got a fairly short shelf life - I'll watch this guy play for the million and then I'm likely done. I don't think the pro's are really giving their best game here...

I've heard they only plan to air the first 2 episodes in that time slot and then it's moving to the afternoon.

[Robbie Robb]

I said the same think to Nikki - that they've probably been "encouraged" to not bring their A-game to the table.

We were also talking about taking the money vs. going on. I don't think there are many decent players out there that are more than a 5:1 underdog against any given pro in a one game situation. The edge is cut even more for someone who has watched the players and has an idea of how they play.

[de-coder]

When I was an active pool player (semi-pro) you'd always want the longest race against a worse opponent and shortest against a better one - in one game anything can happen. It looks to me like they're really trying to give away a million bucks.

Any idea how many hands we're actually seeing?

[Robbie Robb]

Not too sure but I'm pretty sure that the chip stacks were consistent with seeing all the hands played. I think they've just edited out the shuffling part mostly.

[Kurn]

FWIW, Steve S has done semi-hosting gigs on Spike before. He's a pro and should be comfortable whatever the gig.

[Robbie Robb]

OOh that's right. I forgot that he hosted some shows on there. It was some reality show or something wasn't it? Or where they had crooks break into your house or something? Plus, taking a look at IMDB I see that he's been on Hollywood Squares and such before so he should be good at improvisation.

Ah well, I still like the guy!