Poker in the Media: Celebrity Poker Showdown

by Bodog Poker | Dec 28 2010

We take a look at a poker television show that lasted for only five seasons but may have helped the game get more new players than any other!

Bravo's Celebrity Poker Showdown ran only five seasons on the network now known best for shows like Real Housewives Of Some Place You'll Never Visit If They Have People Like That There, but it may have gotten more people to pay attention to poker for the first time than any other program simply because of the famous players and fun format.  Where else could people see the cast of The West Wing, Ben Affleck, Rosario Dawson, Tony Hawk, Colin Quinn, Don Cheadle, Ricki Lake, Michael Ian Black and Christopher Meloni (among many others) enjoy a fun, fast game of poker, all for a good cause?

Premiering in 2003, each episode of the series featured five celebrities playing a no limit Texas Hold ‘Em tournament for charity, with the winner of each qualifier advancing to a championship game and earning a silver commemorative poker chip. The championship winner earned their share of a big prize pool and a special gold commemorative chip. Each "block" of the show featured five qualifiers and a championship game.  The original host, actor Kevin Pollak, was replaced by Dave Foley, who was then joined by Phil Gordon (and later Phil Hellmuth,) who also provided color commentary for the game itself.

Unlike a normal Texas Hold 'Em tournament, everyone who participated in Celebrity Poker Showdown earned money for their charities.  The first six blocks of the show paid out thusly:  four players eliminated in qualifiers each got $5,000 for their tournament and during the first six blocks, fifth place in the championship earned $7,500; fourth got $10,000; third earned $12,500; second received $20,000 and the first-place winner got a tidy $100,000 for their charity.  Starting with the seventh season, the prize pool went up to a cool $1,000,000 and while the players eliminated in the games got the same $5,000 for their charity of choice, the money the championship players earned went up dramatically: 5th place got $25,000; 4th earned $75,000; 3rd got $100,000; 2nd received $200,000 and the champion earned $500,000 for their charity.

While the celebrity factor was no doubt a large part of the show's appeal, it also managed to provide valuable insight into the game. Tournament director Robert Thompson ran a fair series of games, and the color commentary (particularly by Phil Gordon, who left in 2005 and went on to provide commentary on the pay-per-view broadcast for the WSOP) actually informed viewers quite a bit about the game, discussing options and decisions with an unusual amount of depth for a show centered around famous people playing a game.

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