New Poker Show
Introduction
Despite the virtual flop of NBC’s “Face the Ace” poker TV show earlier this year another new poker show will be hitting our screens in the New Year. Provisionally titled “Shuffle up and deal” the new poker TV show will be airing in 2010 through MyNetworkTV, which is part of the Fox Entertainment Group, which in turn is controlled by the media mogul Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation.
Mike Sexton
Hey - looking good Mike, have you been working out?
Despite the millions of people who play online poker and at regular poker tables, TV poker shows have failed to capture the imagination of the viewing public and so it can only be hoped that this new poker show can find the magic formula to keep the viewers tuned in and wanting to follow it week by week. With Mike Sexton lined up to host the show it will certainly be led by someone with the gravitas to quickly establish that ‘Shuffle up and deal’ is a serious contender for being a long running poker show. Mike is, after all, not only a respected journeyman poker pro but one of the great promoters of the game and is universally accepted as being an ambassador for poker internationally.
The show’s format
The format for ‘Shuffle up and deal’ is that amateur poker players select poker cards from a display to make up the best five card poker hand possible. The winners of each round then get to play for a jackpot, which is reportedly starting at $250,000. The intention is to try and pick up casual viewers by using such a quick and easy to follow format, which for the general viewer and non-poker playing public will virtually amount to a sort of ‘pick-a-card’ format. At first glance this seems reasonable enough given that the satellite channel is available to around 50 million homes. However, it will remain to be seen if poker enthusiasts find there is enough of a sense of strategy about it, to keep them away from their own favorite internet poker games.