A Wonderful Time Was Had in Nawleans

Fred Savage (The Wonder Years) jumped off the stage in New Orleans to dispense high-fives among the audience members. Savage, you see, was playing heads-up poker on CPS (Celebrity Poker Showdown) on Bravo, and felt he needed an energy boost. After losing hand after hand and sporting a hangdog look, he needed a break, and decided to use the audience and its energy as an ally. And whereas a mere minute before he had looked like a beaten man, now he had the audience going bonkers. And he had a smile on his face. What a scene it was a bit later, Savage literally being lifted into the air by a fan, the audience celebrating raucously and screaming wildly, as he won a $20,000 pot against Ida Siconolfi (bravotv.com online tournament winner)!

That heat, the third of these shows on CPS, had begun with five players: Savage, Siconolfi, J-Till (Jennifer Tilly of Bound), Doug E. Doug (Cool Runnings and Cosby), and Brett Butler (Grace Under Fire) were all gunning to win this heat and go on to the five-player finale, where CPS would give away $900,000, with $500,000 going to the winner's New Orleans-based charity. The favorite to win this heat had to be semipro poker player and Oscar winner J-Till. So, I picked her to win, and my co-host, Dave Foley, picked Siconolfi to win (after all, she did beat 10,000 people in an online poker tournament to qualify).

In fact, J-Till stole the show early with her beguiling nonstop chatter and $20,000 stack (everyone had started with $10,000), and after playing the following hand flawlessly, it seemed that she had the tournament in the palm of her hand. With the blinds at $300-$600, Doug limped in with A-2, and J-Till, on the button, looked down at A-6. J-Till knew, first, that Doug had only $2,500 in chips; second, that she probably had him beat; and third, that there was $900 in blinds out there. So, she raised, making it $2,500 to go. If Doug folded, she would pick up $1,500 in chips (the $900 in blinds and Doug's $600 call). If Doug called, she probably had the best hand; but if she did not, she would lose only $2,500 in total to him.

What happened next was a surprise: Brett Butler called from the small blind with the K 2. (I hate Butler's call here. In fact, she had an easy fold, since the K 2 is too weak to play for a decent-sized raise.) Next, Doug called all in with his A-2, and the flop came down A 8 3. Butler checked, and J-Till bet Butler's last $1,800 in chips. Brett called, and I hate this call, as well. After all, she had flopped nothing! The next card was a king, and the last card was J-Till's dream card, a 6, to give her two pair. In fact, J-Till needed a 4, a 5, or a 6 to scoop the pot from Doug, who was looking squarely down the barrel of a split pot. After busting two players in one hand, she had almost 50 percent of the chips in play and was looking like she would win the heat. She then suffered a series of setbacks, culminating when she picked up A-K against Siconolfi's K-K. When J-Till lost that pot for all of her remaining chips, it was down to Siconolfi and Savage.

But before that, Savage had been hanging in there, and played one hand so well that it bears mentioning. The night before his heat, I ran into him at Nola's, and sent him some glasses of Dom Perignon. He asked me about strategy, and I recommended that he trap some of the players the next day. He already had made a couple of nice moves on J-Till, when the following hand came up. With the blinds at $100-$200, he called $200 with J-10 from the small blind, Doug raised $500 with Q-6, and Savage called. After a flop of 9-8-7, Savage, with the best possible hand (a jack-high straight), checked, and Doug bet $300. Savage now showed some great discipline and restraint, just calling the $300. The turn card was an ace, and Savage checked again. Doug bet another $300, and again Savage exercised restraint and just called, still with the best possible hand.

The river 5 was a disaster for Doug, and the worst card possible for him under the circumstances, since he had made a 9-high straight (the board was 9-8-7-A-5, and Doug had Q-6). Sometimes, you lose the most when you make a strong second-best hand, as Doug did here. Again, Savage checked, Doug bet $1,500, and Savage finally put the hammer down, raising it to $4,500 to go. Of course, Doug called, as he had an easy call in this spot. Savage had played the hand the way few of the celebrities seem to play: He trapped with his big hand and let his opponent do all of the betting for him!

The final hand came when Savage limped in with K-10 from the button with the blinds at $1,000-$2,000. Siconolfi had been raising quite a bit, and Savage used the tactic of limping in to let her bluff-raise. He then would move all in and pick up the bluff-raise money. Siconolfi had K-Q and raised it $4,000 more. The hand went according to script for Savage, except that she called him, and had him beat! Siconolfi's hand held up, and Foley, who is known for never picking a winner, picked a winner for the third week in a row! In our first and second shows, Jason Alexander (Seinfeld) and Michael Ian Black (The Pleasure of Your Company) punched their tickets to the finale, and Foley had picked them both.The fourth CPS show on Bravo starred Mario Cantone (Sex and the City), Jordan Peele (MAD TV), Keegan-Michael Key (MAD TV), Jenna Fischer (The Office), and Rocco DiSpirito (The Restaurant). Trust me, Cantone put on quite a show. I will discuss that heat in my next column.