It needs to be probably the most original televised poker formats ever devised, and now it's moving to EPT Barcelona for the general round of heats.
If you have not already witnessed the Shark Cage, it is a sight to behold, and presumably only slightly less nerve wracking than the opposite kind of shark cage, dangling off the back of a ship surrounded by chum.
In each heat grown women and men are periodically confined to a big cage on the fringe of the feature table stage, determined by the result of a well-timed or ill thought out river bluff. An eager TV camera captures every second of this humiliation. But it's worth it, because at stake is an incredible winner-takes-all first prize of $1 million.
Some of the Shark Cage players from earlier heats, including Phil Laak, Lex Veldhuis, Tony Dunst, Jennifer Harman and Jason AlexanderThe line-up for every six-handed heat is made of five professionals or celebrity players from across the world, and one qualifier, quite literally thrown into the deep end. A SPOT on the Shark Cage final goes to the winner, filmed at EPT London later this year.
While four heats have already been filmed, this latest round will, for the primary time, feature two female qualifiers. They're Slovakian law graduate, and chess grand master, Zuzana "247ftw" Borosova, and Indian charity worker Muskan "musku89" Sethi.
They'll be joined by the opposite two qualifiers - karate champion and film weapons advisor David "safari saint" Harrison, from Australia, and previous insurance broker and father of 4 Gunter "colonian" Steinbach, from Germany.
Each needed to navigate a qualifying event and an audition process, submitting a two minutes video telling their life story in two minutes, before securing their seat in Spain -each acing this last bit with both humour and exuberance.
Waiting for them is a poker game filled with tension, trash talk, and the innovative Shark Cage format. How innovative you ask? Let us elaborate.
Players have just 30 seconds to behave on each street to maintain the action moving along. They'll be no deals either. Each player is contractually bound to not enter any deals for the $1 million first prize. That is knife edge poker at its best.
But crucially there's the Shark Cage itself, perched at the fringe of the stage like a giant, conspicuous naughty step. If a player pulls off a bluff at the river, the loser gets sent to the Shark Cage, missing a whole orbit of play. The bluffer in return gets bonus chips added to their stack should they reach the overall. However, if the bluff gets called it is the bluffer who departs to the cage to be stared at and jeered, while the bonus chips go the opposite direction.
It requires slightly nerve, some steel, and a touch of luck. Also, the temperament to be gawped at for some time should all of it get it wrong.
The identities in their opposition could be announced shortly before the competition resumes, with past players including celebrity players reminiscent of Seinfeld actor Jason Alexander, Jennifer Tilly and Shannon Elizabeth.
If you're in Barcelona on 21st and 22nd August you'll watch all of it from the rail. Otherwise, make room on your diary for some pretty amazing poker TV.
Stephen Bartley is a staff writer for the PokerStars Blog.
Read More... [Source: PokerStarsBlog.com :: PokerStars news]
No comments:
Post a Comment