Face the Ace

Mildly entertaining. Weird choice of a host, as Schirripa doesn't seem to know all that much about poker and seems kind of uncomfortable. I'm sure that goes away after a while as everyone settles into the show, but I doubt he'll get the chance for a season 2.

What bugged me the most was when Schirripa asks the pros "should he continue on?" it was painfully obvious that the pros were told to try to keep the contestants playing. Obviously the studio wants them to keep playing, as win or lose it adds more drama and more screen time to get to know the contestant better if he's personable. The chances of some random guy finishing off 3 pros in a row, even with the quick blinds has got to be pretty small. You could tell Ivy just wanted to say his lines and get the heck out of dodge. Maybe I'm just reading too much into it, as I don't know Lederer personally, but he looked like he had a struggle with trying to lie without lying by laying out the odds of the dude actually being able to pull it off vs the pot odds of winning.

The first dude got incredibly lucky and I think he knew that he was in waaaaay over his head. He made the right decision to get out while he could. No idea if the basement dude will pull it off, but even with the quick blind structure, I give him maybe 40%. He's pretty much playing his cards, and the pros are trying to bluff the unbluffable, but once they figure out that raise means strong check means weak, they'll have a field day.

The whole thing looks to me like deal or no deal, and plays pretty much the same. 

All in all, I give it a rating of "whatevah".