Dick Van Patten, a Poker Pop

Was sorry to hear the news yesterday of the passing of actor and poker enthusiast Dick Van Patten at age 86.

I have had several occasions to interact with his son Vince, both while covering him in World Series of Poker Main Events and when working with him a few times at World Poker Tour events. I have written here before about enjoying those conversations, which have pretty much all been about poker. Meanwhile I’ve always been curious to talk further with him about his tennis career (and once beating John McEnroe -- no shinola), all of those TV roles, Rock ’n’ Roll High School, and other stories from his teen idol days.

In truth, I was a little young to have followed either Vince’s tennis playing or to have noticed him on television during the ‘70s and early ‘80s (although I do remember seeing him back then in Hell Night when that slasher turned up on HBO). On the other hand, I was very familiar with his father, thanks primarily to Eight Is Enough. That show aired from 1977-1981, and I’ll bet I saw practically every episode once the repeats went into syndication in the years that followed.

I’d notice him again in the several Mel Brooks films, in particular High Anxiety (a fave), then also in some other ‘70s titles like the Firesign Theatre’s Zachariah, Soylent Green. Westworld, Gus, and Freaky Friday.

I wasn’t paying any attention at all to televised poker in the 1990s, so I missed Dick Van Patten having prefigured his son’s later career as a commentator when he teamed with Jim Albrecht from 1993-1995 for ESPN’s telecasts of the WSOP Main Event final table. You can hear him in this clip of the final hand of the 1995 WSOP ME won by Dan Harrington, when there were no hole cards and the scene was considerably more modest than is the case today:

The New York Times obituary mentions Van Patten’s poker playing in passing, noting how a People magazine profile “said that Mr. Van Patten’s only vices were twice-weekly poker games and regular visits to the racetrack.” However, according to the accounts of most -- including Vince -- both cards and the horses were pursuits to which he was especially dedicated.

Several of the stories circulating today repeat an anecdote both father and son would later laughingly tell, one from the days when the teenaged Vince would participate in his pop’s poker games. As the story goes, at a late hour the boy would ask if he could go to bed, and his father would tell him to “shut up and deal.”

He played the family patriarch in Eight Is Enough, and the obit describes him as having been a “father figure” on the set, too. While my memory of the show is now admittedly dim, it’s hard not to think of him similarly, an image enforced even further in the poker world where his son serves as our primary link to him.

Niagara Falls! Slowly I Turned, Step by Step, Inch by Inch...

I write today from the airport, awaiting the first of a couple of flights which will take me to Buffalo, from which I’ll travel to Niagara Falls to help cover the World Poker Tour Fallsview Classic stop. It’ll be a quick one, a three-day event that’ll begin tomorrow and end on Monday.

I’ve been to that part of the country several times, but never to Niagara Falls. Was telling my brother the other day about the trip, and he immediately responded in a way that might be familiar to many...

“Niagara Falls!” he said, interrupting me. Some of you might know instinctively what came next.

“Slo-o-o-wly I turned, step by step, inch by inch...”

I joined in before he finished and we both laughed. Do you recognize what he was saying?

There’s probably a cutoff age for folks to recognize the reference to what was originally a famous vaudeville sketch, much reprised by many performers during the first half of the 20th century and into the early era of television.

It’s kind of a goofy bit involving a couple of strangers (or in some variations more) meeting with one telling a sad story about an unfaithful lover. When he gets to the part of the story in which his beloved left him for another at Niagara Falls, the name of the place triggers a violent reaction with his innocent interlocutor the undeserving victim.

From there the skit continues, with every mention of “Niagara Falls” again igniting slapsticky violence. The bit is so famous there’s a Wikipedia page dedicated to it.

Both Abbott and Costello and the Three Stooges did it during the mid-1940s, and I think it was the Stooges’ version my brother and I saw multiple times as impressionable young’uns. Here it is as it turns up in the Stooges’ 1944 short film Gents Without Cents in which the trio plays a group of performers with the sketch comprising their triumphant stage show:

There was a variation in an I Love Lucy episode, the show which was featured in the latest episode of my infrequent podcast, The Hard-Boiled Poker Radio Show. I also seem to remember it coming up in a cartoon somewhere, which may well have been the version my brother and I remember, but I can’t put my finger on which one it might have been.

In any case, I know the two of us aren’t alone with this association deeply lodged in our brains. The WPT’s Vince Van Patten will be making the trip as well, and earlier this week he tweeted a reference to it (see left) which got lots of responses.

Good thing the memory of “Niagara Falls” makes us all grin and chuckle rather than start throwing punches at the nearest poor sap!

“May All of Your Cards Be Live...”

I mentioned how this most recent trip of mine culminated with that WPT final table at the Bellagio which was a “TV” one. Not all WPT events are shot for later broadcast (on Fox Sports), but quite a few are. Since this was the first time I’d actually been present at one of these, I thought I’d share a few quick impressions.

Anyone who has attended a WPT final table that was scheduled to be televised probably will be familiar with everything I’m sharing here. That is to say, it isn’t as though anything I noticed as someone there reporting on the event is that different from what anyone else in attendance gets to see, too.

In fact, for poker fans who happen to be where a WPT televised final table is taking place, I recommend checking it out. The entire day I was thinking of a good friend of mine who loves to watch poker on TV -- still (!) -- and who is always asking me about players he sees. I realized how much of a kick he’d get out of seeing one of these shows being created.

I knew before that Mike Sexton and Vince Van Patten were present at these final tables, but I hadn’t necessarily realized how they actually are commentating quite a bit as the hands go by. I know they’ll go back and do more in post-production, but I hadn’t necessarily appreciated from watching the WPT on television that some or even most of what we hear from those two comes during the actual playing of the final table.

The desk at which they sat was far enough away from the table -- and from the crowd and those of us reporting -- that you couldn’t hear every word they said. But you could definitely pick up on the excited responses as Sexton and Van Patten both reacted to a big river card or other crucial moments at the final table (of which there were several), which added an extra bit of fun to the proceedings.

Meanwhile, Lynn Gilmartin is now doing the anchoring for the WPT shows, and she, too, was shooting a lot of her segments as the final table was being played.

I’ve known Lynn for a while now thanks to her long association with PokerNews and PokerStars, and so am well familiar with how great she is in front of the camera. In fact, I’ve joined her a few times for brief vids from the LAPT -- here’s one from last year -- on which the contrast between our relative levels of ease only further underscores her skills.

Lynn was positioned at an elevated table over to the side where she could be heard introducing returns to action or taking us to commercial breaks, interspersing questions of Mike and Vince. Then we also saw WPT Executive Tour Director Matt Savage interviewing players to the side of the stage, too, both before play began and after bustouts.

Watching both reminded me of sitting in the press box at the WSOP while Kara Scott would shoot segments and marveling at how cool they all are, often able to move through the segments in one take and sound great doing it.

As someone who has spent a lot of time standing in front of classrooms full of students, I’m not necessarily shy about talking to groups. But the challenges faced and conquered by these folks whose jobs put them in front of the camera still impresses me, and I can’t imagine how much work it would take to get to the point they seem to be.

The play moved rather quickly without a lot of delays for setting up for certain shots or for other production-related reasons. I suppose that defied my expectations a little, too, after having worked a lot of events on other tours where there would be frequent stoppages of play related to the broadcasts being shot or streamed. By contrast, they kept things moving pretty quickly throughout yesterday, no doubt in part because of a desire not to keep the extensive crew working longer than necessary.

All of the other elements of the TV show were there, too -- the Royal Flush girls and their “bar,” the trophy presentation, and so on. There were nice recognitions of Jack McClelland made both before and after the final table as well, as this was the last event for the Bellagio’s retiring tournament director.

All of it kind of took me back to the days of being a big “poker fan” -- i.e., a decade ago when I was right there with everyone else discovering the WPT on television for the first time and becoming instantly fascinated with the show, the game, and the people who were part of it.

I know the WPT doesn’t quite occupy the central place in poker’s subculture today as it did back then. But it is still an important part of the overall scene and I think still brings a lot that’s good for the game as a whole when it comes to promoting the game to a wider audience. And they continue to put on a good show that ultimately seems more than anything to underscore that sense that poker really can be a fun time.

2010 WSOP, Day 44: The Return of the World Poker Tour

Yesterday I enjoyed another day off and so ended up staying away from the Rio for Day 2b of the 2010 World Series of Poker Main Event. Today (Sunday) is another day of rest for all of the WSOP, then the entire remaining field -- something like 2,600 or so, I believe -- comes back tomorrow for Day 3. (I’ll be back helping with the coverage over at PokerNews every day this week as the tourney plays down to 27 on Friday.)

Knowing I was going to be off yesterday, I had made plans earlier in the week with my friend and colleague Jen Newell to have lunch. She was going to this World Poker Tour press conference scheduled over at the Bellagio yesterday morning. So I met her there and went to the presser, too, and we then went afterwards for a delicious meal and enjoyable conversation over at the Cafe Bellagio. (Maryland Crab Cakes Benedict FTW!)

I ended up being very glad I went to the press conference, as it became a chance for me to meet a lot of different folks in the poker world whom I hadn’t spoken to face-to-face before.

As far as the conference itself goes, the WPT was announcing its Season 9 yesterday, although it sounds like they aren’t quite ready to list all of the stops and schedule. Mike Sexton did open things up, however, by saying there would be “six, seven, [or] eight” events in the U.S. and Europe this year.

Then World Poker Tour CEO Steve Heller said a few things, including noting the WPT’s intention “to put more show in the show” by incorporating “more information, more context, [and] more entertainment.” Part of that effort will include hosts Mike Sexton and Vince Van Patten being at the events from Day 1, and having some segments from prior to the final table included in the broadcast, so as to give viewers a better feel for how those who made the final table got there.

Adam Pliska, President of WPT, then spoke briefly, introducing Matt Savage as the WPT’s new “Executive Tour Director,” a position in which Savage will act as a liaison with the various casinos and their tournament directors to help “harmonize” the events on the tour. (Savage will also continue to be the TD for a couple of WPT stops, too, e.g., at the Commerce and Bay 101.)

Savage noted how there was a kind of excitement surrounding the WPT at the moment, so much so that he said it “feels like Season 1.” Seemed to me like others in the room -- including the media -- were picking up on this excitement a bit, too. There is a lot of competition out there among the various pro circuits, but I believe most probably agree that it would be good for poker, generally speaking, for the WPT to start thriving once again.

Pliska then introduced Kimberly Lansing -- a hostess for the show back on Season 6 of the WPT -- as the new “anchor” for the show. The position, explained Pliska, would be sort of like Bob Costas at the Olympics, and would help the show in its efforts to incorporate more context and commentary, as well as to “change the look and feel” so as to make it even more like a sporting event.

Lansing said just a few words, then Van Patten was given the task of introducing one other new aspect of the WPT show, the Royal Flush Girls. Sort of seems like they are continuing the same hostess-type role originated by Shana Hiatt and later filled by Lansing and others, only now they’ll be rotating six different women to do the occasional on-camera stuff, including interviewing players.

The conference proper then concluded with photos and one-on-one interviews while Marcel Luske and Carlos Mortensen played a heads-up match as part of a prop bet.

Luske is from Amsterdam, and so will be supporting the Netherlands today in the World Cup final. Mortensen, meanwhile, is from Madrid, and so naturally is going to be pulling for Spain. Each wore his country’s jersey to the match, and the loser has to wear the other team’s jersey today during the final.

That match was still going on when Jen and I left, but before we did I got the chance to chat with several people there. Ended up talking with both Sexton and Van Patten. As it happened, both were in my section on Saturday playing Day 2a of the Main Event, and so I spoke with each about reporting on them and their days.

Sexton was eliminated on Saturday. I reported the hand in which he was short-stacked and all in with pocket kings versus two players. His opponents both had pocket pairs, too -- queens and nines -- but unfortunately for Sexton a nine flopped and he couldn’t catch up. “That’s poker,” Sexton said to me yesterday as he talked about the hand. We also chatted some about his time in North Carolina (my home state), where he lived for 15 years playing underground games before going to Vegas.

Van Patten fared better on Day 2a. I reported on a couple of his hands early on, too, when he was mainly holding steady with about 75,000 chips. But near the end of the day he picked up a couple of big pots and bumped way up to 174,200, which I believe is a bit more than twice the average heading into Day 3. We talked a bit about his day and he asked me some questions about the reporting.

I’ll admit to being a little fascinated by Van Patten. I remember him first for his acting career. That horror movie Hell Night in which he co-starred in the early 1980s was one of those late night cable flicks I recall seeing as a kid. He was in Rock ‘n’ Roll High School, too, which I’m making a mental note to see again soon. Van Patten was also an accomplished tennis player, once ranked as high as 25th in the world and beating the likes of Vitas Gerulaitis and John McEnroe. (No shinola.)

Anyhow, I found him a very friendly guy and will confess to have gotten a kick out of all of his questions of me about the reporting side of things.

I spoke with Matt Savage some, too, and he added a couple of other items about how the WPT events will go which I found interesting. He said that when they get to the final tables they will roll back the blinds if they are too high. He also said that at each WPT event they would be running bustout tourneys that would serve as satellites to the next WPT Main Event on the tour, which sounded like a cool idea to me.

I also had the pleasure yesterday to meet and chat with Jesse May, author of the great Shut Up and Deal, which I just happened to have brought with me this summer to reread during those rare moments when I’ve had the time. We chatted about a few things, including his entertaining poker podcast and our mutual friends Kevmath and Dr. Pauly.

Later in the day I met up with another friend, James, who has come to Vegas for what has now become an annual visit for him to see the WSOP and play some golf. He and I had dinner at the Hard Rock (the Pink Taco), and he then went over to watch some poker at the Rio. I passed on the latter -- have seen my share of poker lately, dontcha know -- instead making an early evening of it.

Today will be taken up with what should be more fun times. There’s the WSOP Media tournament at noon in which it looks like something like 130 folks will be playing (perhaps more). Then later in the day PokerNews is also having its annual freeroll, too, in which I also plan to play, barring some crazy deep run in the WSOP Media event.

Should be a fun day -- a good way to kick off my last week in Vegas. Hope you get a chance to relax and enjoy your Sunday, too.