Celebrity Poker Showdown

Celebrity Poker Showdown - When the World Poker Tour started heating up the airwaves, Hollywood celebrities took note. Stars like Gabe Kaplan have been long-term poker players and even competed in the high pressure world of the World Series of Poker, but no one had found a way to combine the draw of celebrities and poker until Celebrity Poker Showdown came along. Their success is partial due to their selection of hosts; with poker expert, philanthropist and part-giant Phil Gordon giving the play by play and roundly criticizing the celebrities when they don’t follow his advice, they found the perfect straight man for comedian slash writer slash actor Dave Foley, who admittedly doesn’t know the first thing about poker.  While Dave has learned a thing or two, he still takes perverse delight in making Phil read the chip count after commercial breaks, and loves to poke fun at everyone on the show, including himself. Gordon’s expert commentary and explanation of the game is directly responsible for a lot of home players picking up a deck of cards, a rack of chips, and playing their own game of Texas Hold’em.

Bravo

The Bravo network scored big with Celebrity Poker Showdown, a uniquely different show that many of their other offerings. While the show is often criticized by “serious” poker players, mostly due to some pretty bad play that can happen by neophyte celebrities, most understand that the show is meant to be more about fun than exemplary play; and, in spirit with Gordon’s sense of charity, each season of the show means at least a quarter million dollars going to the charities of the celebrities choice.