What you hear in the lobby:
Poker: bad beat stories
Spelling: bad puberty stories
Edge: poker, no one wants to hear about your awkward teen years.
TV coverage:
Poker: Hundreds of hours on cable
Spelling: Two hours on ABC
Edge: spelling, you can't beat network prime time
Winner gets:
Poker: millions of dollars and a bracelet
Spelling: thousands of dollars for college and braces
Edge: spelling, you can't put a price on a good education
You can't play along at home because of:
Poker: the pocket cam
Spelling: the banner with the word on it
Edge: poker, even though they hold off on the banner until the kid starts spelling, I'd still like the suspense of waiting for that bell
Announcer commentary:
Poker: "He never should have gone all in with ace-jack offsuit."
Spelling: "She should have known that was a W, it was from the German"
Edge: poker, no one wants to hear you kick a little kid when she's down
Impressive achievement:
Poker: Dan Harrington finishing 3rd and 4th in consecutive years
Spelling: Rajiv Tarigopula finishing 4th two years in a row
Edge: spelling, I hate Action Dan's green Red Sox hat
Annoying icon:
Poker: Phil Hellmuth
Spelling: Rebecca Sealfon (the fingers to the mouth girl)
edge: spelling, Hellmuth is so annoying he makes Sealfon look sane
Famous quote:
Poker: "You call it's gonna be all over, baby." - Scotty Nguyen, 1998
Spelling: "Do the chickens have large talons?" - Dominic Errazo, 2005
Edge: poker, I fuckin hate that movie
Best "Cheap Seats" episode (they've each had at least three):
Poker: 1994, Miyagi vs. the fat guy
Spelling: 1997, Christine Lombardo and Rebecca Sealfon
Edge: spelling, Jason and Randy at their best
Bad luck:
Poker: running into pocket aces
Spelling: running into words from the Swahili with Greek combining forms
Edge: spelling, nothing hurts more than when your opponent turns over the bullets
Hollywood's take:
Poker: "Rounders"
Spelling: "Spellbound" and "Akeelah and the Bee"
Edge: poker, quality not quantity
Rivalries:
Poker: old school pros vs. online schmoes
Spelling: 14 year olds vs. 9 year olds or the Indian kids vs. everybody else
Edge: push, a sport is only as good as it's most heated rivalry
Shocking moment:
Poker: Chris Moneymaker comes out of nowhere to win in 2003
Spelling: the Canadian girl says "zed"
Edge: poker, no one wins if we allow our cultural differences to divide us
Interested spectators:
Poker: girlfriends with too much makeup and angry poker players who've already been eliminated and have big money riding on the outcome
Spelling: overbearing parents
Edge: spelling, they do it out of love
How they spend their free time:
Poker: playing in cash games
Spelling: tae kwon do, violin and chess
Edge: spelling, being well-rounded is very important
Winner: Spelling, the youthful exuberance of the spellers triumphs over the beaten-down hard luck pessimism of the poker pros.
1 comment:
Fun with numbers: locally in Boston the spelling bee on ABC averaged an 7.9 rating (only Law and Order on NBC came close), spiking to an 11.5 for the final fifteen minutes. People dig spelling bees. An impressive performance considering its never been on anything bigger than the Deuce until now.
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