Tonite @ 7 and 10 pm Pacific on GSN: Snoop Dogg (Starsky and Hutch, rap artist) Kevin Nealon (Saturday Nite Live) Jason Alexander (Seinfeld) Camryn Manheim (the Practice) Shannon Elizabeth (American Pie 1 & 2, Scary Movie) Hosts are Matt Vasgersian (from WSoBJ), Alex Borstein (from 'the Family Guy'), and of course yours truly laying down the cards & the law. On another note, rumor has it GSN may be greenlighting 20 more episodes of the show already... so hopefully they get the ratings boom off this installment they're looking for!
What was up with the last hand? I caught the last five hands or so of the tournament. But, at the beginning of the final hand, I got a phone call that distracted me. I must have missed something in the rules or something that was said between the "players". Why were two of them hitting hard 19's trying to make 21? The dealer only had an 8 showing? Is this a desperation move I don't know about? Were they hoping both they AND the dealer would make 21, beating Shannon's hand and making them the winner? And why didn't Jason Alexander double for less on the final hand? If both he and Shannon beat the dealer, by my count, she still would have been $500 ahead of him. Anyone catch that airing or TiVO it?
Swing was needed Yep, if they didn't hit the 19s, they couldn't beat Shannon, however, if they got 21 and dealer got 21 to beat Shannon, I think at least one of them had enough to beat Jason. You are right, with Shannon having a 20, Jason should have at least tried to double for less to beat Shannon, although, he would have still lost.
After being somewhat distracted during the original broadcast, I watched this again last night on ReplayTV. I was entertained by the show, actually laughing out loud at a few comments. The blackjack was awful of course, but I think we all expected that. As a show, it might develop a following. I'd like to see more of Hollywood Dave actually! As for blackjack content, I wonder if Shannon Elizabeth saw Jason Alexander's "secret" bet before she chose her bet. It was interesting that her bet gave her the high by a mere $500. Although her math didn't always make sense, she was quite obviously the only player at the table that was even bothering to think about the sizing of her bets. And, as Dave pointed out, she had actually done some figuring on her secret bet paper to arrive at her final bet. So, what's the scoop? A precision bet from Shannon? Or, just a lucky bet?
Call your local cable provider & demand MORE HOLLYWOOD DAVE! Jason's hitting rather than doubling ---> he stood a better chance simply hitting to 20 or 21 and hoping for a push or a win to beat Shannon, than simply doubling. A position no one likes to be in, but as we've all seen, it DOES work on occasion -- notably, Ken Smith's psychotic hitting of a 19 at the final WSoBJ table, calling for the 2, and catching it -- as well as in one of the semifinal rounds at the MDII, somebody had an 18, was forced into a hit, and caught a 3 (don't recall his name, but at the time it was pretty damn exciting!) Shannon's luck vs. skill in betting decisions ---> well the story goes that she really studied for like 2 weeks in order to win this thing, but in watching her play i felt like overall she had primarily studied voodoo! what the cameras didn't show you were the long minutes she would agonize over almost every hit and bet, sometimes using math but usually just starting at the shoe and trying to 'feel' what card was coming next. as far as the final bet -- i think she primarily used Jeopardy-math on that one (which actually works just fine in this kind of tourney), betting it all save the 1000 in case everybody busted out. As far as the show itself ---> after i pushed through the initial waves of narcissism, vanity, and ego -- some pretty funny stuff! No one said these guys were gonna be advantage players, so the onus really is on how funny they can be. i was genuinely laughing at certain points, the waves of comedy from Snoop to Jason to Kevin were a welcome treat. I found myself not really focusing on the specific betting amounts/playing strategies because it wasn't really about that... this show's success will ultimately fall squarely on the shoulders of how funny the celebs are, and with that in mind i look forward to next week, where Andy Dick & Richard Belzer are two of the most polar opposites I've ever seen together, and should provide (barring heavy editing, of course...) for some ridiculous humor. -hollywood dave.
Hollywood Dave is edited The star of the night was, Hollywood Dave---and that's after erasing him from (his figures) 97% of the production. I think these guy are afraid that he'll get his own series. Maybe they wanted to keep the focus on the celebs-silly people. My hope is that the celebrities give bj tournaments a boost the way they did for poker. The celebs play would make any casino manager salivate. But,being a novice (charitable characterization) I still learned a few things from the show.
More Hollywood Dave Finally got to see the re broadcast Saturday and I agree that more Hollywood Dave would help punch up the show some. I will be a dedicated viewer but will be glad when they have professionals back on without the silly jokers in the deck. And congrats on the beer commercial Dave ..have you really dated a woman for her brain?
