Noted Film Critic Richard Roeper Among Star-Studded Poker Night in America Lineup
This weekend, Poker Night in America returns to Turning Stone Casino in Verona, New York for a high-stakes cash game that has attracted not only some of the best poker professionals in the world, but also one of America’s most-respected film critics in Richard Roeper.
Roeper, a widely-read newspaper columnist and television personality, is best known as the film critic of the Chicago Sun-Times that replaced the late Gene Siskel on At the Movies alongside legendary co-host Roger Ebert.
“I’m looking forward to going up against some of the best players in the world,” Roeper said about his TV debut on the felt. “I don’t have any illusions I can hang with these folks for any extended period of time, but who knows, maybe the cards will be in my favor for a couple of hours and I’ll get lucky. I’m also looking forward to bantering with some of the better talkers in the game. Should be a lot of fun between hands as well as during the action.”
The stiff competition Roeper refers to include Phil Hellmuth, Shaun Deeb, Cherish Andrews, Cindy Kerslake, Jesse Sylvia, Liv Boeree, Phil Laak, David Patent, Antonio Esfandiari, Jake Balsiger, Igor Kurganov, Travell Thomas, Layne Flack, Gina Fiore, Dan Weinman and Jennifer Tilly.
“What I like about ‘Poker Night in America’ is it’s about the personalities as much as poker,” Roeper said. “This is what poker night is like in a million basements and man caves across the country. It’s as much about the socializing and the ribbing as the poker.”
Roeper, a lifelong poker player who will be making his first televised poker appearance, is no stranger to the gaming world. One of the seven books he has written in the gambling-themed Bet the House, released in 2010, which tells how he gambled “over a grand a day for 30 days on sports, poker, and games of chance.”
The Poker Night in America cash game will be filmed for a future television broadcast in early 2015 on the CBS Sports Network.
For more information, visit the blog of Poker Night in America Media Director Nolan Dalla by clicking here.
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