I’ve read other reviews of ESPN’s new poker show TILT and I have to disagree with them. I won’t even link them here because I’ve seen so many. I think they are all being a little to critical of the show. I mean, it’s a drama series on ESPN for Christ’s sake! Were you expecting a documentary filled with facts and figures and parts of poker that we don’t hear about?

I’ll start off with the preview show that aired on Wednesday night. When I read that Norman Chad was hosting I thought, “Great! Like I don’t get enough of him in the WSOP episodes.” Even though the preview was only a half hour long, I think they did an excellent job of setting up the show. Or maybe it was the fact that I only heard Chad’s voice for a couple of minutes. They gave a background of the story and talked with each of the main characters in the series. It was well done for the time allowed. Once the preview was overI remember thinking that I’d probably enjoy the series.

I was right. At least so far. Episode one starts off the action and sets up the rest of the series. We found out that Eddie, Miami, and Clark are teaming up to take down Don Everest, “The Matador.” The character of Lee Nickel will also be playing a large role in the show. He’s a sheriff on a mission to find out what happened to his brother and expose the Matador as a cheat.

ESPN created their own casino to film the show and as you watch it does look like a real casino. Other scenes such as a boxing club and the basement of a night club make you feel as if you’ve been introduced to the underground of poker. The poker hands that have been shown are more realistic than most movies, but there does seem to be a lot of bluffing so far. Reminds me of some of the hands I see online actually.

When I sat down to watch TILT, I was looking for entertainment, not a poker lesson. ESPN delivered. I’ll be tuning in each week to see what happens next and I suggest you do the same.