Okay, I’m the worst blogger in the world. I just noticed that I haven’t written anything in this space for months.
So what’s going on with Poker Night in America?
Well, I’ve been on the road since the holidays trying to make deals and get the show on TV. Here’s what you can expect in the coming months:
- Poker Night in America will make it’s Television debut on or around April 1st 2014
- Poker Night in America will announce more events in the next few weeks
I spent last week in Las Vegas and had some interesting times. Last Tuesday Steve McLoughlin (co-owner of Poker Tracker aka @_tizzle) invited me to dinner at his condo/loft in downtown Vegas. I’ve only known Steve a short time but he’s an interesting guy with high energy and a passion for life’s finer things, especially cooking. Among the guests were Nolan Dalla, Tony Dunst (@Bond_18, WPT fame) and Lauren Billings (@tittiechips).
When it comes to cooking, Steve doesn’t do anything half ass. And he doesn’t do anything in the kitchen without the highest of high tech equipment. His kitchen looked more like a science lab then a place to fry eggs. He had every gadget you could possibly think of. Turns out Steve approaches cooking like he does poker, with finely detailed analysis. It was the first time I had a deep-fried steak (with oil temperature at precisely at xxxx degrees) but it worked out.
The next night I was again downtown Las Vegas checking out some of the new additions to the neighborhood. Big kudos to Zappos and their CEO for bringing some much needed flavor to old Vegas. The old Gold Spike ain’t what it used to be. Instead of a dingy, smoky casino, it’s now a super cool bar/chill zone with a campus type feel. We also checked out the new “Container Park” which is basically a outdoor mall/park that uses refurbished shipping containers instead of traditional buildings. There’s also a giant preying mantis that guards the park and spits fire into the night. Ms Billings said the mantis was bought at a recent Burning Man. Very cool.
Joining us on our exploration of everything new downtown (as well as every place to drink and eat “meat salad”) was Lauren Billings again and her friend Sara Grant from Pokernews (@AuntyChardonnay) as well as Sara’s fiancé Heath Herring (@heathherring, UFC fighter). I remembered Heath and Sara from January 2010 when Heath made an HPT final table and Sara drank many chardonnays from the rail. Here is some footage of Heath applying various beatdowns:
So turns out Sara really really likes chardonnay still and Heath is still a badass that looks like he could enter the ring right now. He’s in the process of creating a new TV show and MMA tour in South America. So naturally we had a lot to talk about.
Just when the night couldn’t get any more interesting (I’d already had drinks in the oldest bar in Nevada, Atomic Liquors, with a guy that fought Brock Lesnar, saw a preying mantis spit fire, and witnessed the making of a Meat Salad), we met up with Heath’s childhood friend who is a world class auctioneer and was in town to do the weekly auto auction. Obviously we insisted he give us a sample of his auctioning skills and he did not disappoint.
Several beers later I found myself at a blackjack table at the Nugget and couldn’t seem to lose. It was one of those random nights where nothing is planned but it all comes together and you get a chance to meet some new friends.
Things are happening fast with Poker Night in America. We are looking forward to getting back on the road and shooting some more great TV!
Heath Herring and Sara Grant