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| Nicole Sullivan on Celebrity Poker Showdown finals. |
"My money's
on the girl"
- Ben Affleck (referring to Nicole Sullivan)
Nicole Sullivan appeared as a finalist in the Celebrity Poker Showdown finals for season one on January 13, 2004. In a grueling two-hour (minus commercials) marathon, she won the championship round, winning $100,000 for her charity, the Ally Cat Allies. Hopefully, this knowledge will save you the trouble of spending two hours watching this program, and risking the possibility of suffering severe brain atrophy in the process. At one point towards the beginning of the program, Kevin Pollack effusively asks "[w]hat could be more exciting than watching your favorite celebrities play poker?" In the spirit of Will Hunting, I would reply that that's a tough one, but I'll give it a shot:
Personally, I'm holding out for something better.
Nevertheless, the program was somewhat entertaining. Nicole Sullivan competed against the other four winners from the first round of Celebrity Poker Showdown: Willie Garson (Sex in the City), Richard Schiff (The West Wing), Paul Rudd (Friends), and David Cross (Mr. Show). A-list celebrities need not apply. I got slightly excited when I saw the name "Paul Rudd" because I thought he was the ex-drummer from AC/DC, but then I remembered that was Phil Rudd, not Paul Rudd. David Cross I remembered from his guest appearances on The Drew Carey Show and from his comedy album (Shut Up, You F***ing Baby!). He seems to be trying hard to carve out a role for himself as the next generation's Woody Allen, some sort of neurotic Jew who in his incessant rants seems to have an answer for everything yet obviously has issues of his own. In the final round, Mr. Cross distinguished himself from all the other contestants as the only one to fail to get dressed for the show; instead he sported a dark-colored robe. The other two contestants, Willie Garson and Richard Schiff, were both from shows I do not watch, and failed to make much of an impression on this viewer.
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| Another vidcap from Celebrity Poker Showdown. |
Paul Rudd built a commanding lead early in the game, knocking first Willie Garson and then Richard Schiff out of the game, and relegating Nicole Sullivan to third place. But just when Rudd's position seemed almost unassailable, he began to misplay his hands. The others began to understand his body language - he would lean forward when his hand was weak, and lean back when his hand was strong. He misplayed hands against Nicole Sullivan and David Cross, and soon Cross took the lead. David Cross's lead would be short-lived, however, and Nicole Sullivan took the lead for the first time on a well-played hand. But Paul Rudd mounted a comeback, and seemed to have an unbeatable hand on which he went all in - only to watch Nicole Sullivan win the hand by drawing a seemingly improbable straight. With Paul Rudd eliminated, only Cross and Sullivan remained. Cross went all in on the last hand, even though Nicole Sullivan had the better hand, but even so, the game came down to the last card when Cross almost drew a flush. He didn't, however, and Sullivan won the hand, and therefore the game.
There are very few programs on television worth watching, and on the whole, Celebrity Poker Showdown is not one of them. Keep in mind that your time is a non-renewable resource, and an hour - or two hours in this case - of time spent watching television is time that could have been devoted to more productive pursuits (like alphabetizing your baseball card collection). Even if you're a die-hard Nicole Sullivan fan, I'd recommend relying on this Reader's Digest-esque summary and the accompanying video clips. Of course this may be a moot point for those of you who already watched the program when it first aired or one of the many times it has aired in reruns on Bravo. What is most intriguing about this program for the Nicole Sullivan fan is that by winning the Celebrity Poker Showdown finals, Ms. Sullivan has garnered a considerable amount of publicity, if the traffic to this website is any indication. [This website saw an increase in traffic from about 33,000 hits on January 12 to 147,000 hits on January 13, and an increase from 530 visits on the 12th to 1,952 visits on the 13th.] Whether or not this will translate into a significant career move remains to be seen, but once again, it appears that Ms. Sullivan is on the rise.
Video clips (in Windows Media 8.0
format):