This week, the ESPN.com poker program “Inside Deal” welcomed new Ultimate Bet pro and media consultant Joe Sebok. Regular host Bernard Lee was absent, as he was competing in the World Poker Tour’s (WPT) Borgata Poker Open.
The show kicked off with “The Soup” and “Community” star Joel McHale serving as a guest host from what appeared to be the E! studios for his “Soup” television franchise. ESPN.com “Inside Deal” host Laura Lane inquired, “Don’t you have two shows of your own and a movie coming out?” Once the opening credits rolled and McHale plugged his movie “The Informant,” ESPN Poker Editor Andrew Feldman took the reigns with Lane for the half-hour.
“Inside Deal” began with discussion of Tom “durrrr” Dwan scooping a $1.1 million pot during the Full Tilt Million Dollar Cash Game at the expense of World Series of Poker (WSOP) November Nine member Phil Ivey. Dwan also took down a $919,000 pot against Barry Greenstein during filming of the fifth season of GSN’s “High Stakes Poker.” Then, the ESPN show turned to two lawsuits surrounding Full Tilt. One involves the dismissal of former employee Jason Newitt, who alleges he was wrongfully dismissed and denied distributions. The other concerns “Face the Ace,” a Full Tilt-sponsored game show that airs on NBC.
Meanwhile, attention turned to the Borgata, where a man took down the ladies’ event during the casino’s Poker Open. Lee appeared via telephone and told “Inside Deal” hosts, “Federal and State laws mandate that they can’t discriminate against a player.” On the reaction of casino patrons, Lee revealed, “Let’s just say that most players aren’t running over to congratulate him.” Nicole Rowe offered a heads-up chop with Abraham Korotki, who refused. Rowe, the sentimental crowd favorite, was set to undergo breast cancer surgery and ultimately finished second. In response, the Borgata donated $5,000 to breast cancer research.
Sebok then joined “Inside Deal” and revealed the timing for joining Team UB: “I took some time to fly down to Costa Rica. We met with the management team to hash out a number of things. I like to think that me coming onto the team is a symbol that we’re moving on and things are getting better.” The list of screen names associated with the Ultimate Bet cheating scandal was recently released, as was a continued emphasis on Russ Hamilton as its mastermind. 11Management orchestrated Sebok’s signing.
Sebok heads PokerRoad, a multimedia company best known for its assortment of poker-related podcasts. He explained the origins of PokerRoad: “It rose out of various radio shows I had done. I wanted to do something else. Playing poker is a blast, but there’s so much more to get into.” On the source of PokerRoad’s content, Sebok candidly explained, “It comes out of our relationships with each other. We spend so much time together, [so] it inevitably comes from that.” Sebok revealed that Ali Nejad has a yet-to-be-completed prop bet that challenges him to eat $45 worth of food at Taco Bell.
On the November Nine, Sebok claimed the bottom three had the two best players in the field, Phil Ivey and James Akenhead. On Jeff Shulman, who sits in the middle of the pack in chips, Sebok noted, “Let’s hope that if he wins, he doesn’t throw the bracelet away.” In the top three, Sebok reiterated that Darvin Moon remains a “wild card.” Many of the industry’s questions about Moon may be answered next week when he joins the “Inside Deal” crew.
Finally, discussion on the ESPN.com poker franchise turned to whether seven celebrities had more or fewer followers on Twitter than Sebok, who has 830,000. Celebrities included McHale, Bill Simmons, Katy Perry, UFC President Dana White, MC Hammer, Justin Timberlake, and LeVar Burton. Sebok is on a “suggested friends” list when new users sign up for the popular social networking tool.
“Inside Deal” is released every Tuesday on ESPN.com.