It has been an eventful week for me – I have been in Vegas recording episodes for the new series of ‘The Big Game’ for Fox. I am not allowed to reveal any details about what happened but suffice to say they put me in a game with a group of Russians (where’s the French lol) and I reacquainted myself with a certain Mr Phil Hellmuth junior.
If I can say so myself I thought I was awesome and may have ended Hellmuth’s career for good this time. At the end he declared to the producers they have to choose between me or him and that he is never going to play with me again. I destroyed him yet again – bike time and full blown counseling sessions for ‘The Poker Brat’! Next…
I am wounded and it has nothing to do with close encounters with Steve Wynn’s dogs in the luxurious villas In Vegas. There is clearly something rotten in the state of Denmark as Shakespeare would say. I have not been invited to the NBC Heads-Up event for four years in a row.
The producer Mori Eskandani is a nice person and a good solid player from all accounts I have heard, he also has all the power and selects the field and its clear there are many mates and favourites that are in the club and need to be in no matter what. I know that winners of certain events get invited which is completely correct!
However, there is a guest list to fill the other spots. It’s like being outside a club in Vegas as Dave ‘The Devilfish’ Ulliott when Antonio Esfandiari is in the small queue in front of you – your names not down, you’re not coming in!
The selection process is a farce – Mori is from the old school and probably hates what I do on TV. I am pi**ed for missing out for four years in a row and pi**ed at having to beg him to be considered for the NBC heads up.
Televised poker needs a revolution anyway, most of the shows he produces are dull and flat and the politics are just too much for me now. This latest snub will give me the drive to start my own TV production company! Let’s see if I can do it any better.
I don’t have much of a choice if they will not invite me – I will make my own show and make the best poker show in the world. I have always played on every TV show for all sites and have always said that players should be allowed to play on any show if they choose to play but this selection process and the politics that his company is now involved in is just too much for me.
I cannot even get a clear indication from them if I am 65th or 70th, or whatever place I am on the list. Just tell me straight we don’t want you and that is clear enough for me to ride my bike. Mori needs to learn about mori communication.
I am going to go out in a limb here and say I think I am probably in the top six players for TV events. Do you think it is unfair that I have been snubbed for the NBC Heads-Up?
