Poker players traveling home on Sunday night could finally catch the latest episode of the Fox Sports Net poker news show “Poker2Nite,” sponsored by UB.com. Poker News Daily fired up our DVR to watch last week’s installment.
Coverage of the World Poker Tour’s (WPT) Doyle Brunson Five Diamond World Poker Classic kicked off “Poker2Nite,” featuring interviews with Faraz “The-Toilet” Jaka, Scotty Nguyen, Josh Arieh, and eventual champion Daniel Alaei. The latter earned $1.4 million for his victory, but “Poker2Nite” focused on the allegedly inappropriate behavior of Nguyen.
In a hand where Chad “lilholdem954” Batista was eliminated after not hearing an all-in and a call before he acted because he had headphones on, Nguyen began to laugh. According to Jaka, Nguyen “laugh[ed] in his face,” but the former Expekt Poker pro defended himself: “He’s the one who made the mistake, not me. I laugh because he say all-in, but I didn’t know that he didn’t know.” “Poker2Nite” host Joe Sebok responded, “I’m not buying this from Scotty anymore. He’s out of line.” Nguyen famously berated Rio floor staff and fellow players on national television during the 2008 World Series of Poker’s (WSOP) $50,000 HORSE Championship.
Eric “basebaldy” Baldwin, the winner of the 2009 CardPlayer Player of the Year title, then joined the show. On whether luck or skill played a bigger part in his run during the calendar year, Baldwin told Sebok and “Poker2Nite” co-host Scott Huff, “Obviously, I ran above expectations, but you have to play well and have luck on your side.” Down the stretch, Baldwin admitted that he focused on the factors he could control: “I tried my best not to look at what the people behind me were doing because it’s not going to help me play my hand better.”
Baldwin inked a sponsorship agreement with UB.com last week and explained that his strengths include being a good judge of people, he takes a situation for what it is, and he is able to adapt with ease. On the importance of the latter trait, Baldwin remarked, “Adaptability is just huge in poker. The game has evolved so much and you have to stay on top of it and continue trying to learn.” Baldwin won a $1,500 buy-in No Limit Hold’em event during the 2009 WSOP for his first bracelet. A week later, he took third in the $10,000 buy-in World Championship of Pot Limit Hold’em. The two cashes were worth $780,000 combined.
A segment called “All-In Blind” pitted Sebok and Huff against each other in a debate over three unknown news topics. The first focused on Darvin Moon’s tournament series at the Wheeling Island Casino. The second dealt with the 2010 WSOP schedule, which was released in recent days. The final banter was whether Isildur1 or the XFL represented the bigger flash in the pan. After being taken for more than $4 million by Brian Hastings, Isildur1 has largely disappeared.
Dana Workman doled out the “Weekly Misdeal,” offering a satirical look at the biggest poker news headlines of the week. Then, attention turned to a variety of pros shaving their heads in support of Thuy Doan, who is in the midst of a health care crisis resulting from her battle with cancer. Those who went bald included Eli Elezra, Doyle Brunson, Tom “durrrr” Dwan, Sorel “Imper1um” Mizzi, and Doan’s boyfriend. Huff summed up the segment by saying, “We are all proud of you, Thuy.”
“Poker2Nite” airs on Wednesday nights at 11:00pm ET on Fox Sports Net. Because the show is often pre-empted for local sports and other programming, check your local listings for more information.