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Five Highlights From The World Poker Tour |
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The Travel Channel is known for...well, nothing. Viewers generally don't tune it to infomercials that involve a trip to the airport. Enter the "World Poker Tour," which provides decent escapist fare without requiring too much thought about actual travel. Here are five features of the WPT:
 Poker Lingo. To explain poker to novices (like, say, someone who tuned in expecting to see a travel show), the WPT features Pop-Up Video style text bubbles to translate the announcers. The "nuts" is the best possible hand. A hand of 9-5 is a "Dolly Parton." And when the best possible hand beats a 9-5, it's "puttin' the nuts to Dolly Parton." The odds may be long, but when that happens it's worth watching. |
Dumping The Cash. When the tournament whittles down to two players, an elaborate ceremony to bring out the prize money takes place. There are no oversized novelty checks on the World Poker Tour. Just a sackful of Ben Franklins and a bunch of salivating grifters. It's kind of like when Don King used to give Mike Tyson his allowance. |
Shilling For The Casino. The Travel Channel does make one minor attempt to stay true to its mission, and that's with a brief segment allowing the hosting casino to pimp itself. Oddly enough, each of the WPT's locales thus far has been a great place for "action" and "first-class customer treatment." The (fill in casino name) really "does it up right." |
The Lovely Shana Hiatt. That's actually how she's introduced, as "the lovely Shana Hiatt." Recognizing the vast majority of the audience is male, the WPT uses Shana as a sideline reporter. And if the sideline is on a beach and Shana needs to wearing a bikini to capture the essence of the tournament, so be it. The weird thing, other than the fact that this is a poker show on the Travel Channel, is that Shana isn't quite the dim bulb that the part calls for. She seems downright smart for a sideline reporter. Think Leslie Visser or Andrea Kremer. Only, you know, lovely. |
Vince Van Freakin' Patten. The men may get Shana, but ladies, Vince Valiant has you covered. The WPT needed a name to draw in the people. More importantly, it needed an affordable name. Vince is a modern-day almost Renaissance man. He was almost a big-time tennis player (briefly making it into the top 50); he was almost a big-time actor (briefly making it onto Baywatch); and he almost had big enough hair to be a member of Winger. On the WPT, Vince has finally found his calling. In fact, our decades' worth of demands for the sterilization of Dick Van Patten no longer seem necessary, at least until Vince acts again.
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