From Celebrity to Professional Poker

Lately I feel that the world is slowly adjusting to the poker scene. Although the legality issue seems to become a factor all over the globe, women, men and even children still worship the games they view on TV (lets face it, to watch someone else play Hold 'em, you have to really love the game).

The professional gambling industry realizes the limited crowd they have and handled this issue by constructing a program that won’t only appeal to those who simply enjoy watching a nice game of poker, but will attract the general audience as well. This new genre of television is known as "Celebrity Poker."

Bravo’s Celebrity Poker Showdown ran eight tournaments with celebrities such as Ben Affleck, Ricky Lake, Matthew Perry and Kevin Nealon. The winner of the recent tournaments wins the grand prize of $500,000 for his or her charity as well as a gold commemorative poker chip.

One of the most glorified moments on the show has been Jason Alexander’s comeback in the eighth tournament (the winnings of the episode were to be donated to charities benefitting the victims of Hurricane Katrina). Alexander won the tournament final from having been down to $11,000 in chips, with Michael Ian Black having had nearly 80% of the chips on the table.

With a variety of famous folk ranging from movie stars to TV actors to Talk Show hosts to politicians, the celebrity poker scene seems to be opening the eyes of many superstars, revealing a passion they wish to pursue.

Some celebrities have left the exclusive amateur table at Bravo and have participated in glorified tournaments such as the World Series of Poker and the World Poker Tour. In 2007, Shannon Elizabeth advanced to the semifinals of the NBC National Heads-Up Poker Championship. Elizabeth also participated in the 2005 WSOP’s $10,000 Texas Hold 'em Main Event along with Brad Garrett, Nicholas Gonzales and James Woods.

The professional poker games aired on stations such as ESPN may begin to present familiar faces from Hollywood. Will Celebrity Poker and Professional Poker intertwine into a combined game? If this happens, I believe that the industry will finally reach its goal.