To the skeptics who say poker is too
boring for TV, Steve Lipscomb brings you the “Leg Cam.”
Imagine a tiny camera under a table of
nine players, all SI swimsuit models or Playboy bunnies. Now that’s the kind
of view that could draw huge TV ratings. Alas, we will have to settle for just
being able to see the hands the competitors will be playing. Still, that could
prove to be as interesting and dramatic as golf, if promoted right.
That’s where Lipscomb comes in.
“Nobody in the broadcast world has
taken the chance to make poker a happening sport,” he said when contacted at
his Los Angeles office. “Most people I know have regular poker games. It’s
more popular than bowling and billiards. Poker is the preferred card game played
in every 19th hole locker room in country clubs across the nation.”
Lipscomb is combining his TV expertise
with the financial backing of Lyle Berman at Lakes Gaming, who gave his thoughts
and financial blessing to this venture in a story that GamingToday
broke last week.
“We will be what Millionaire was to
game shows,” Lipscomb said. “Our plan is to provide people the opportunity
to watch the best in poker and compete against
them.
“You can’t walk on a golf course
and play with Tiger Woods, but it’s possible to sit
next to Doyle “Texas Dolly” Brunson and have a chance at winning,”
he continued. “We are going to spend double what anyone has
spent previously to shoot a poker tournament.”
Brunson is confident TV will take poker
to a new level, with the “Leg Cam” providing the means to both educate and
raise the interest surrounding each deal of the cards.
Neither the venues nor the TV contract
has been finalized, but Brunson figures a 13-week schedule the first year on
cable at sites both in the U.S. and abroad,
including Las Vegas.
