By tomorrow-ish, I meant next week-ish

The Survivor stuff will be coming out in the next couple of days, I swear.

In the mean time, let's talk about King of Vegas, which premiered on Tuesday.  The premise of the show is that a group of 12 gamblers are competing in different gambling events to determine who is the King of Vegas.  Every week somebody is eliminated based on being the worst performer.

In the premiere episode, they divided the gamblers into 2 groups of 6.  The first group of 6 played hands of Blackjack, with the gamblers with the top 3 chip stacks were "Sitting Pretty" (aka exempt from getting eliminated), while the others were left to compete in the next event.  Then the next group of 6 played Caribbean Stud, again with the top 3 chip stacks being "Sitting Pretty".  Then, the remaining 6 players played Roulette, with the top 2 chip stacks "Sitting Pretty".  The final 4 then played No-Limit Texas Hold'Em against one another, with the first two to double their $10,000 chip stacks "Sitting Pretty", leaving the final 2 to play heads up NLHE and the loser to get eliminated.  I assume that next week the games played will be switched up (in the player profiles, they listed each player's strongest game and weakest game.  Among the games mentioned that weren't played were Baccarat and Horse Racing.)

Some points:

• I was actually impressed that I knew 3 of the 12 players.  Of course that's because they are all name poker players.  (Mike Matusow, Evelyn Ng and Dave Williams for those who care.)
• Along those lines, if they do not switch up the elimination rounds to not always be NLHE then the poker players are virtually guaranteed to be the final 3.  Because the other players seem to be very, very weak poker players.  In fact, Matusow seemed to basically say this week "I'll take super risks to get out of this earlier, because I'm pretty confident I will be able to win at NLHE".  And then he did.
• They should have made it a competition where they play a particular game each week, and then you earn points based on where you finished.  The person with the most points would end up the winner.  But since Reality TV is all about eliminations...
• The Blackjack game was fun to watch, because Matusow and another black jack player teamed up to try to knock out another player.  This had Matusow taking the hit for the team and losing (getting closer to his strong game of NLHE), while the other player won in their strong game (Blackjack).  It was fascinating to see this worked out by the second or third hand.
• Caribbean Stud was interesting to watch only because I got to learn how it was played.  Beyond that it's a pretty non-interactive game which is a nice switch.
• Roulette was pretty boring.  Other than the random hits and the "I'm going to choose the other colour so that somebody gets knocked out" stuff, it isn't that fun to watch at all.
• Since I didn't mention it before, the production values were okay, except for one obvious screw up that somebody should be fired over if this show ever returns for a second season.  There was a hand in the first part of the NLHE, where Hollywood - the blackjack player who got double-teamed by Matusow and the other blackjack player - held 53o and Joanna W was shown to hold ATc.  The flop came K-5-3.  Joanna W bet, Hollywood went all in, and Joanna called.  Hollywood showed his two pair, and Joanna flipped over A6o!  The worst part is that the graphics telling us what the hands are still listed Joanna W with having ATc.  That is the worst editing I have ever seen.
• Another thing that bothered me about the hold 'em stuff was the pacing.  The goal is to double up your chip stack to $20,000.  So in the first shown hand, Hollywood takes about $3,000 from Mike Matusow, leaving Matusow with $7,000.  The next shown hand, Matusow is able to go all in and get his $20,000 through Hollywood.  Where did he get the $3,000 from?  The next hand is the one that I discussed, with Joanna W and Hollywood, with Hollywood having enough to cover Joanna W and knock her out.  Where did he get his cash from?  I realize they only have a limited amount of time, but this is the sort of thing that needs to be explained.
• And finally, Max Kellerman and his co-host were pretty excitable, but they knew nothing about Hold 'Em.  If they are going to continue to use Hold 'Em to eliminate people, they should really get some sort of commentator who knows something about Hold 'Em.

All in all, I don't mind the show and will continue to watch it.  At the very least, I'll be exposed to more games that I haven't really played before and that will be enjoyable.  But I don't see a second season coming out of this.