Community Cards: TV Shows and Poker

Plot, Character, and Theme

Topics: Epic Poker League, Community Cards, Poker in Popular Culture

I had to chuckle earlier this week when reading a late-night tweet from BLUFF Magazine Managing Editor, World Poker Tour reporter, and Epic Poker blogger Jessica Welman.  After another long day of poker-related writing and reporting, Jessica had chosen to give herself a couple of hours off to relax with an old movie.

“I decided to take an evening break from work and watch Destry Rides Again,” Jessica told us.  “What does the movie start with? A damn poker game. #sigh.”

By choosing a 1939 Western, Jessica’s chance of encountering more poker was perhaps higher than if she’d picked something else to watch.  Then again, maybe not, especially if she’d chosen another American-made film or TV show.

I’ve just concluded another semester teaching my class “Poker in American Film and Culture,” an American Studies course in which we examine poker’s prominent place in American history and culture.  Early on I invited students to keep an eye out for references to poker in movies, television, music, and the news.  I suggested to them that once they began to look more closely for such references, they’d likely start finding them more often than they’d expect.

Such turned out to be the case, as evidenced by a lengthy discussion thread in the online forum we used to discuss topics between classes.  It was remarkable, really, how often the students kept seeing references to poker and poker games in various movies, TV shows, their other classes, and elsewhere.  One student even mentioned going Christmas shopping and seeing at the mall an inflatable Santa and reindeer playing cards that could be placed on one’s lawn!

As the teacher, I, too, kept an eye out for such references to share with the class, and ended up collecting several myself.  In fact, during one short sequence of channel surfing a few weeks ago I encountered no less than three different television programs in which I saw “a damn poker game” (to quote Jessica).

The three poker games I saw reinforced one idea I’ve already had about poker -- the idea that inspired the course I teach -- namely, that the game continues to be especially prominent in American popular culture.  Another idea occurred to me, however, as I paused from punching buttons on the remote control and lingered over each of the shows, an idea having to do with how poker relates to storytelling. 

Because of poker’s prominence in the culture and the fact that most viewers, including non-players, at least understand the way the game can involve deceit, risk-taking, aggression, and other personality-revealing behaviors, I realized how useful poker can be for script writers and show producers looking for storytelling short cuts.  Especially in the fast-paced nature of contemporary television, poker can really help speedily carry us from exposition to climax to resolution amid those many commercial breaks.

Some further thought about all three shows -- a “reality” show, a sitcom, and a crime drama -- revealed how the shows collectively demonstrated ways that poker can provide essential “building blocks” of storytelling, including plot, character, and theme. 

Rather than exhaustively discuss each of the shows, I’ll match one such storytelling building block with each program so as to explain what I mean, although each of the shows could be said to have “used” poker to help further plots, flesh out characters, and emphasize certain messages or themes.

Plot -- Basketball Wives LA

This reality show premiered on VH1 in late August of this year, a spinoff of another series that focuses on the wives, fiancées, and girlfriends of NBA players.  I happened to catch a repeat of the new series’ first episode in which we are introduced to the cast of more than a half-dozen women all of whom are connected in one way or another to NBA athletes.

As the women are introduced some initial bonding appears to take place as they share stories about the challenges of being “basketball wives,” especially in a place like Los Angeles where, as one of them puts it, “everything is smoke and mirrors.”  Indeed, there’s a lot of talk early on about “keeping it real” and disliking those who are overly pretentious or too “bougie.”  Another concern repeatedly brought up by the women are groupies -- both fending them off and avoiding the ignominy of being considered one themselves.

Early in the show a few of the women go out for a session of poker at the Commerce Casino.  The game turns out to be something of a bust.  While a few of them have experience playing, others are complete novices and are made to feel awkward by the game.  A conversation regarding one of the women’s mother’s fight with cancer -- and another one’s response, read as lacking appropriate sympathy -- only serves to make everyone sitting around the table less comfortable.

The scene is short and appears to function mainly as a “plot” device here -- that is, as an occasion to have the women interact not unlike the episode’s other scenes in which they go out for food and drinks, shop for shoes, and plan a bachelorette party.  We do get to learn more about a couple of the women’s personalities here, but larger themes introduced by the show regarding self-identity and seeing through others’ disguises aren’t really exploited in this particular poker scene.

Character -- 30 Rock

I also caught a repeat of 30 Rock, the successful NBC comedy now being syndicated on the Comedy Channel.  Like the episode of Basketball Wives LA, this was an early one in the series, just the third of the first season (from 2006).  And in order to introduce viewers swiftly to the ensemble cast, a story is told that involves a weekly poker night.

Jack Donaghy (Alec Baldwin), newly brought on as a network executive to oversee the production of the show produced by the rest of the cast, is intrigued to learn of the weekly game.  “I’d be interested in seeing my employees under that kind of pressure,” he tells Liz Lemon (Tina Fey).  When Liz asks him worriedly if he’s serious about joining the game he quickly replies. 

“No, I’m not,” he says.  “Good,” says a relieved Liz.  “I bluffed,” he fires back.  “Yes, I am coming.”

Later Jack joins the game and immediately increases the stakes, referring in exaggerated fashion to it being “a man’s game.”  He wins a big pot, then delivers a speech to his employees as he deals the next hand.

“You see in poker, as in business, the key to success is to determine your opponent's strength and, more importantly, his weaknesses,” Jack explains.  “Everyone has a tell, a weakness of character, that manifests itself physically.”

He then proceeds to identify the tells of each of those sitting around the table, which, in turn, becomes a handy way of introducing those characters' traits to the viewing audience.  Of course some of them are easier to read than others, such as the consistently-farcical Tracy (Tracy Morgan), veteran of games like Crazy Seven, Albuquerque Freak-Out, and One-Card Stud, whose “tell” involves holding some of his cards backwards.

The scene (and episode) thus rapidly sketches out each of the characters' personalities, including Jack as the over-the-top, controlling boss who thrives on power and the naïve, empty-headed page Kenneth (Jack McBrayer) whose thoughts Jack can’t read because -- as another character explains -- “he doesn’t have any.”

Theme -- Law & Order: Criminal Intent

It was late and I was about to turn the television off when I spotted yet another show starting off with a poker game, an episode of the long-running Law & Order franchise that has aired on NBC and USA over the last decade-plus.  This particular show was from the eighth season of Law & Order: Criminal Intent (from 2009), an episode titled “All In.”

Set in New York City, the crime drama opens on a high-stakes private game in which a tournament poker winner named Josh Snow (Aaron Stanford) loses a huge hand.  During the hand, Josh tries to act as though he's strong but takes it too far, inducing a raise from an opponent who correctly reads him as bluffing.

We soon learn Josh owes $80,000 to a bookie, Lou Cardinale (Boris McGiver).  Josh agrees to repay the debt by collecting others’ loans for Lou.  After Josh gets roughed up once trying to collect, Lou supplies him with a gun and blanks, instructing him to use it in order to give the impression of force to uncooperative clients.

A thematic link between bluffing at poker and firing guns with blanks is thus presented within the first couple of minutes.  The story soon turns into a murder mystery, however, when Josh fires the gun at one of Lou's clients, but instead of a blank a real bullet is fired, killing the man.

The detectives eventually hone in on Josh and the truth, with several characters bluffing and trying on “poker faces” throughout.  One of the detectives, Bobby Goren (Vincent D'Onofrio), is in fact a poker player and follower of tournament poker himself, and thus he and Josh trade numerous poker metaphors during their “heads-up” conversations.

At one point the detective asks Josh about his having gone to the District Attorney to strike a deal and plead to a lesser charge.  Goren suspects Josh is trying to set up Lou in some fashion, but is unsure why.

“If it’s the truth, what’s the play?” he asks Josh, who coolly refuses to give up his reasons.  Instead he responds ambiguously, again using a poker metaphor.

“Something’s always in play,” Josh says.  “The game is endless.”

When it comes to examples of poker being used in order to tell stories on television, one might say the same thing.