"Blair Rodman"
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blairr@cox.net
Sep 16, 2006, 5:01 PM
Post #3 of 3(119 views)
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They have a 2-year contract with CBS. Great show! Here's a repeat of my post
about it from a few days ago:
The first casino poker game I ever played was $1-5 Five-card stud at the
Mint, in 1976. When I moved to Vegas for good in 1980, five-stud was
extinct. Seven-stud (now, when you say 'stud', it's understood that you're
referring to seven-stud) was the main game. I'd played a lot of stud in home
games (actually street corner games) when I was a kid in upstate NY, and I
began my casino poker career as a stud specialist. I then noticed this
strange-looking game called hold'em and began to investigate. I quickly got
hooked. After a few years of playing hold'em almost every day, I started to
look at other games going on in the card room.
There was a lively Omaha-high game at the Golden Nugget, and I put in a lot
of hours in that action-packed game. It's still one of my favorites, and I'd
love to see it make a comeback. From there I went on to Stud
eight-or-better, Razz, Omaha 8-or-better and Pot-limit Omaha. No-limit
hold'em
as a side game was rare if not non-existent in Las Vegas, outside of the 3
weeks that the WSOP was running.
The reasons I wanted to learn as many games as possible were simple. I'd be
able to sit in whatever was the livest game at any particular time, and,
since I get bored easily, it kept my interest peaked. When we began playing
the HORSE format in the '90s, it was the best innovation in poker I'd seen
since I started playing. You couldn't play at the higher limits being just a
one-game specialist. You had to learn to be an all-round poker player. The
mixed game format had a great run, lasting until no-limit hold'em jumped up
and devoured the poker world in 2003. Prior to that, no-limit cash games
were very rare. Now no-limit is just about the only game in town, and I'm
getting bored with it. Luckily, there's a new game in town.
I started playing blackjack tournaments in the late '80s when I traveled the
world with Stanford Wong and a few others as he developed material for his
landmark book, Casino Tournament Strategy. I loved blackjack tournaments and
found them as stimulating as poker tournaments. Unfortunately, unlike poker
tournaments, many casinos decided to bar the best players from their
tournaments. Most events became invitation only, so I was forced to move on
to other things. I didn't play a BJ tournament for over 10 years.
In 2003 the Las Vegas Hilton brought back open blackjack tournaments in a
big way with their Million Dollar Blackjack Tournament. It was a year of
monthly qualifying tournaments culminating in a year-end playoff for the
million dollar first prize. I made the televised final table that year and
was one card away from making a serious run at the title. My appetite for BJ
tournaments was whetted again and I wanted more. 1994 WSOP champion Russ
Hamilton, with who I've been friends with since we met playing BJ
tournaments in the '80s, had the answer-The Ultimate Blackjack Tour (UBT).
The UBT uses a patented new format, Elimination Blackjack (EBJ). It's
old-style blackjack tournaments on steroids. In the old format, most players
would wait until after the countdown at hand 25 of a 30-hand tournament
round before making a move. In EBJ, the short stack after hands 8,16 and 25
is eliminated, so waiting is not a good strategy. I couldn't wait to try it
out when the first season's preliminary rounds were played at Lake Las Vegas
in Sep, 2005. It was all I envisioned and more-action packed from the very
first hand. The finals, of which I made one, were shot the next month on a
sound stage at CBS studios in Hollywood. I also get a brief stint in the
booth in one show.
The UBT debuts on CBS on Saturday, September 16 at 11am pacific, right
before the college football games. You can learn how to play for free
online. There will be tutorials, freerolls for TV shows and much more. Check
it out at:
http://www.playebj.net/
If anyone has any questions you can contact me at blairr@killphilpoker.com.
Thx,
Blair Rodman
"Mike Schroeder" <43086165@recpoker.com> wrote in message
news:1158436165$871322@recpoker.com...
> Just wanted to add that I'm super stoked about this show. Even the
> commercials
> are entertaining - pitting poker players against blackjack gurus. The
> elimination hand drama is fantastic and gets real personal. Then before I
> knew
> it the show was over. I hope this wasn't just a one-time thing....
>
> On Sep 16 2006 12:31 PM, Mike Schroeder wrote:
>
>> Finally! Blackjack against more than the House! I mean taking it to the
>> house
>> is fun every now and then - a few hands usually perk me up at any
>> casino - but
>> taking it to the guy sitting RIGHT next to you...SO intense.
>>
>> This show I just saw on CBS was elmination blackjack - yeah elimination
>> blackjack. IT combined blackjack with the in your face, strategizing (and
>> sometimes bluffing) aspects of poker. Super quick pace - but the
>> elmination
>> rounds are siiick. It's more than winning against your dealer - you gotta
>> bet
>> to bet out your oponent...or you get elminated (i think every 8 rounds or
>> so).
>>
>> This one I saw had Hollywood Dave squaring off against Michael Castelano,
>> Big
>> Chuck Carson, Ken Smith and others. He was really irritating at first
>> (which
>> i
>> guess is his thing) but after awhile you could tell there was a lot more
>> to
>> him
>> AND this game than meets the eye.
>>
>> But what really got my attention were the two girls explaining the game
>> in the
>> beginning and narrating throughout. Good lord - ... let's just say, they
>> don't
>> make 'em like that over at the World Series of Poker. Haha - i think at
>> one
>> point in the show one of the really scummy guys...I think it was Big
>> Chuck
>> asked one of the girls out on the air. Haha - her reaction was priceless!
>>
>> Anyway - freakin great program. Is this like a weekly thing? Anyone else
>> seen
>> it?
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________________________
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