I thought it was going to be tough to top our event at Maryland Live! a few weeks ago. I’m not going to say we topped it, but we damn sure equaled it this weekend at Turning Stone, the place where it all began. A lot has changed in the past year. The show is on TV and gaining traction. Players love it, and our goal is to keep improving the quality week after week.
Improving the show is going to be pretty fun if we keep getting content like we did this past weekend. The highlight for me was the Poker Night at the Movies feature that we shot. Basically, it was Jennifer Tilly, Richard Roeper and Phil Laak discussing famous poker scenes in the movies (with Chris Hanson moderating). We’d show them a scene and they would discuss it based on its merits from both a poker standpoint and a cinematic one. I can’t think of three better people to be on that panel. As I watched all I could think was “this is pure gold.”
Both Phil Laak and Jennifer Tilly were a pleasure all weekend. They were gracious and fun and more then willing to pose for photos and sign autographs. Roeper was a blast too, and he and Tilly created a great dynamic at the cash game. The games were so good we decided to add a third day of filming.
Another highlight to the weekend was the party on Friday. Turning Stone gave us a private nightclub and free drinks and pizza. I think everyone had a great time. After Liv Boeree and I rocked the pool table (and schooled Gavin Smith), Liv got up and rocked with the Poker Night band, doing a killer version of “Fade to Black” by Metallica.
The morning after the party I was in need of a pick me up of some sort. Fortunately four buckets of ice were waiting at the hotel entrance that morning as Nolan, Chris, Turning Stone Poker Boss Jason DiBenedetto and I all took turns dousing ourselves for the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge. Later we got Phil Hellmuth to do it. Good times.
Our mantra has always been to Bring the Fun and Bring the Personality to poker. I think we are on the right track. We don’t have any more filming’s scheduled for a while. Time to hole up in the studio and get working on new episodes.