Vive Le Vince!

[Rushmore]

The poker was a bore. So let us now partake of our second-favorite pasttime. Let us analyze the color commentary.

OK. THIRD-favorite pasttime. Fine.

"He's out on the champs Elysses looking for some crepes." (That's right, Vince, crepes are French. Good one.)

"He's overheating like a cheap foreign car." (Foreign to whom, my Dutch-American friend? I was picturing a smoking, burping LeCar on the side of the road, Vince behind the wheel, Danny Bonaduce and Kato Kaelin in the back.)

George's last name "sounds like some sort of Hebrew board game." (Yep. And Scotty Nguyen sounds like he played the lead in My Big Fat Greek Wedding. Barry Greenstein in How Stella Got Her Groove Back? I dunno.)

Tony G is "the Osama bin Laden of the poker world. He is the Poker Terrorist." (OK. What? Let's see. Well...I, uh--never mind. It's just too baffling.)

And it rubbed off on Sexton this week, too: "He's on an uphill slide." (Apparently, gravity doesn't exist in France).

But on the good side...

They show a clip of Hellmuth, followed by T.J. saying, "I don't feel bad for the bad losers at all." (I love it.)

Daniel Negreanu, after leading the tournament, and cracking out quickly: "Oh. well. You have to look at the bright side, etc." (Classy. Well done.)

Now, was it my imagination, or did Sexton and Van Patten seem to be making more of an effort to appear as if they were actually there, live, for the event? Odd camera angle, new gestures, etc. made it seem so to me, at least.

And who dressed them? Regis Philbin?

[MaxPower]

The must have writers, there is no way VVP could think of all those stupid jokes by himself.

What did you think of Shana Hiatt's piece on Poker etiquitte? Pretty hard hitting huh?

[iash]

I like Shana Hiatt's piece of anything..

[benfranklin]

[ QUOTE ]
The poker was a bore.



Now, was it my imagination, or did Sexton and Van Patten seem to be making more of an effort to appear as if they were actually there, live, for the event? Odd camera angle, new gestures, etc. made it seem so to me, at least.

[/ QUOTE ]

Definitely boring. No real strategy. Flip them over and play showdown. I tape these shows, but this tape will be reused.

My understanding is that they are there, live for each event, but that much of their commentary is edited in later, including any discussion of the hands, which they can't see live. Every once in a while, you will see a player talking to them between hands. I believe George said something directly to them last night.

Vince Van Patten is to poker what Dennis Miller is to Monday Night Football.

[southerndog]

I'm glad you guys thought the poker was boring too.

I really thought Vince and Mike were there. They showed them all at the end. So, you think this was trick photography or something?

That Greek guy was a dweeb, but he seemed like a good guy.
I was happy to see him win a pile of money. I also thought the guy who won was pretty cool. Happy to see him win too.

DOG

[ohkanada]

They are there commentating.

After the fact they edit in the audio about the specific hands and then they need to merge the live commentary with the after the fact commentary.

Ken Poklitar

[Rushmore]

[ QUOTE ]
I really thought Vince and Mike were there. They showed them all at the end. So, you think this was trick photography or something?


[/ QUOTE ]

Just to clarify, yes, I know they are actually there. My point was that in the parts that must have been edited in after the fact, where they are talking about the actual play of the hands, and the hole cards involved, it appeared--at least in my addled recollection--that they were making more of an effort to "act."

Now, I suppose it is possible that the production is so good and so seamless that I simply overlooked the fact that they are never discussing hole cards/hands while actually on camera, but I don't think so.

Now y'all got me thinking.

[cferejohn]

I agree the poker was boring, but my *god* it was nice to see the WPT show without the insanely irritating lights and music. I get the feeling the aviation club told them to stuff it, and good for them...

Oh, there was something about that Greek fellow, name escaping me just now. He had a 'look' that I see in local tournament regualars, and it was a look that almost invariably means "overplays small pairs". I'm honestly not sure what it was about him, but when I first saw him I said to myself "I bet this guy will overplay small pairs", and sure enough, he limp re-raised all-in with 44.

Oh, and the "Osama Bin-laden" of poker comment...ugh, I'm surprised that wasn't taken out. Made me cringe.

What's next? "Here's Phil Helmuth, the Adolf Hitler of poker." Calling Phil Ivey the "Tiger Woods of Poker" just because he is a) good and b) black is pretty bad too. Frankly wish he'd just can the analogies unless someone really *is* known as the "so-and-so of poker"; they are reaching at best and boderline offensive at worst.

[jbslow]

I don't think the Aviation club room is big enough for all the lights. I really liked it without the lights also.

[rjc199]

How about that Greek guy getting all riled up and yelling "THE ISLAND OF CRETE" all the time. Then I thought he was going to get into a fight with the crowd when somebody said to him "diamonds are forever" when he was all-in against a 4 flush. He stood up and started yelling at the guy who said it. I actually thought he was going to go push through the crowd and get in the guy's face. That was comical. It almost sounded to me like VVP and Sexton were making fun of him.