HOLLYWOOD ISN’T BLUFFING The crowning of Jamie “$12,000,000 Man” Gold at this year’s World Series of Poker and his connections with the Hollywood Hold’em crowd has well and truly put the spotlight back on celebrity players. Yesterday I reeled off the names of the usual super star suspects (the Matt Damon-Ben Affleck crowd) but today we’ll take a look at the “others”. How would you like to be a fly on the wall when Robert Downey Jnr faces off with Vinnie Jones and Sharon Stone? The “chemistry” alone (especially in Downey’s case) would have to be intense. Personally, I wouldn’t want to be caught bluffing Vinnie “Two Smoking Barrels” Jones having seen his treatment of Gazza’s nether regions during their notorious mid-match ball game. All of the foregoing big names are serious players, along with Dennis Hopper, Alec Baldwin and Burt Reynolds (Now appropriately starring in the new poker movie “Deal”).
SO WHERE DO THE BIG BOYS PLAY? The biggest games in town tend to be held at the luxury home of “Titanic” producer Jon Landau where David “Friends” Schwimmer and the hysterical (especially if he’s losing) Chevvy Chase have a regular Monday night session. Another powerful poker host is Toby “Spiderman” Maguire where the buy-in is a minimum $2,000. However, the storyline for the real high rollers doesn’t even begin at this level.
THE BACKROOM BILLIONAIRES Poker professional Reagan Silber’s vast home in Bel Air is where the serious action takes place with the likes of Leonardo DiCaprio and Mathew Perry (alias Chandler Bing) making up the numbers for what’s become known as the “Billionaires’ Boys’ Club”. The buy-in of a minimum $10,000 ensures that only the fattest wallets get through the door.
A TINSELTOWN TRADITON The history of Hollywood and poker have long been entwined thanks to the icons of the movie capital’s Golden Age when John Wayne, John Huston and Gregory Peck battled across the felt for sums of money only dwarfed by their studio boss mentors. Sam Goldwyn and Jack Warner, heads of their own respective movie corporations, waged a frequent war with cards, often pitching hundreds of thousands of dollars against one another in a battle for supremacy.
A NEW ONLINE INTER-ACTIVE ERA Curious that we now find ourselves in a time where most films don’t make any money. By contrast billions of dollars are being made all over the world as inter-active online poker seeks to dominate the public’s imagination in a contest where movies have already lost out and are reduced to looking to card games for successful storylines. To cap it all, Jamie Gold, just moved into the DiCaprio salary bracket!
