Celebrity Poker Showdown was a celebrity game show on the cable network Bravo. It was a limited-run series of five celebrities playing poker. The series ran eight tournaments in five seasons.
The first series was hosted by actor/comic Kevin Pollak, and each episode (except for the Championship Game) was an hour. The Championship telecast was two hours in length. Each succeeding series has been hosted by Dave Foley, and all episodes were two hours in length. Professional poker player Phil Gordon provides the color commentary throughout each series. The series is produced by Joshua Malina.
Steven Culp won the series’ seventh tournement final, aired on November 17, 2005.
In an interview with TV Guide, host Dave Foley said that a ninth tournament is not being produced, as Bravo did not order any new episodes.Some of the celebs on this series have parlayed this into visits onto the World Poker Tour and/or the World Series of Poker. In 2005, Brad Garrett, Shannon Elizabeth and James Woods all participated in the WSOP’s $10,000 Texas Hold-Em Main Event.
Tournament winnings
The first six tournaments were played for a total of $250,000 in prize money as follows:
- The four players eliminated in each of the first 5 games: $5,000 each
- Fifth Place in the Championship: $7,500
- Fourth Place in the Championship: $10,000
- Third Place in the Championship: $12,500
- Second Place in the Championship: $20,000
- First Place in the Championship: $100,000
Starting with the Seventh Tournament, the “prize pool” was increased to $1,000,000 and divided thusly:
- The four players eliminated in each of the first 5 games: $5,000 each
- Fifth Place in the Championship: $25,000
- Fourth Place in the Championship: $75,000
- Third Place in the Championship: $100,000
- Second Place in the Championship: $200,000
- First Place in the Championship: $500,000
Post-show poker
Some of the celebrities on this series have parlayed their game play into visits onto the World Poker Tour and the World Series of Poker. In 2005, Brad Garrett, Shannon Elizabeth, Nicholas Gonzalez, and James Woods all participated in the WSOP’s $10,000 Texas Hold-Em Main Event. In 2007, Shannon Elizabeth advanced to the semifinals of the NBC National Heads-Up Poker Championship.
In 2005, prior to appearing on the show, Jennifer Tilly won a WSOP Gold Bracelet for coming in first in the Ladies’ No-Limit Texas Hold ‘Em event, and won the third annual WPT Ladies Invitational Tournament.
Parodies
For the December 10, 2005 episode of Saturday Night Live, Foley and Gordon lent their voices (playing themselves) to a Robert Smigel animated TV Funhouse parody called “Celebrity Mugshot Poker,” where, as the title suggests, various celebrities (like Nick Nolte and James Brown) are represented by animated versions of their infamous mugshots.
Saturday Night Live also did a parody of this show on the season 29 episode hosted by Will and Grace star Megan Mullally, with Phil Gordon played by Chris Parnell and comedian Kevin Pollak played by Jimmy Fallon.
MADtv did a parody of this show as a ninth and tenth season recurring sketch called “Celebrity Quarters” (based on the drinking game “quarters”) with Ron Pederson as Dave Foley and, replacing Phil Gordon, was Nick Nolte (played by Ike Barinholtz).
For the November 3, 2005 episode of the Friends TV series spin-off, Joey, Foley and Gordon played themselves in a fictitious tournament in which the character of Joey (played by Matt LeBlanc) participates based on bad advice and incorrect rules from his neighbor, Alex, who is trying to sabotage his efforts. This includes a so-called Texas Earthquake that occurs when one card of each suit is present in the face-up community cards, during which Joey believes that players jump onto the table and attempt to steal chips from their opponents.
Links
- Official site
- Celebrity Poker Showdown at the Internet Movie Database
This guide is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia.
