Don’t forget, if you’ve been to the The Cube US pilot this evening, I’ve set aside your own little post beneath this one for your comments.
This is what THE WORLD is after: The Bother Series of Poker 2010 trophy, awarded only to the best of the very best of the Bother’s Bar community’s poker playing players. This Sunday, the journey begins with the very first game in the series, The BotherSOP Game 1. It will cost you $11 to play (that’s about £7, although if you’re depositing for the first time you will need to put more in), and I’ve added $25 to the prizepool to spice it up a little bit. Already, already, enough people have signed up that I can almost make my money back on the weekend if I win. And as one of the top 72,000 players (out of about half a million) ranked this year, I HAVE to fancy my chances.
All the details (including the password you need to join in) are on the BotherSOP page. Don’t forget that 8pm UK time means you want to be looking for 1500 server time in the private tab when you join.
I really really really will be ‘doing’ Secondhand 3-2-1 very soon. You will possibly enjoy it.
Meanwhile, thanks to Chris for pointing out that there’s a sort of Internet version of Wanted going down in the States. which you’d have to think wouldn’t work particularly well without the mass television exposure. Still, Universal Pictures are sponsoring it, so you never know.
In other news, looking through the search referral results, I love the fact that someone has come here through “second hand kebab bar.co.uk”. Bother’s Bar is 35th on that particular list on Google.
How many people have signed up so far, because if I’m recalling correctly when I last checked, earlier this week, there were three of us including yourself.
Not changed. If more than ten turn up on Sunday night I’ll be fairly content.
The first match last year had 16 or so, didn’t it?
No, 12 according to my records.
Apparently ability to play duel is a useful psychological measure.
Though the link to what I’m refering to stopped working while I was grabbing the url. Hm.
Still, just in case it works for anyone else, here’s the link I followed: http://projectionpoint.com/
And now it’s working for me. Hm.
I did that test yesterday, having got the link from a blog on an entirely different subject. Apparently I’m awesome (93%) but hey, I knew that already. However, having now seen the link on two completely unrelated blogs within 20 and a bit hours, I’m beginning to suspect that this is one of those faddy viral meme things and consequently I feel used and filthy. Also, I suspect that my high score may come down to the fact that I actually bothered to read the instructions before starting.
…I found the link off of the official GURPS forum, so…
I’ll be registering for the poker soon, looking forward to it! I’ve managed to link up my Ipod Touch with the main computer, which means I can log on wherever there’s an internet connection which is pretty cool (well, provided the computer is on in the first place but still…)
Looking at the site, I notice they also do ‘Knockout Bounty’ tournaments which might be an intriguing idea for the future, although of course they do drain the placing prize money somewhat.
Yes if this series is a success, I may well mix things up in the future. Actually I’m not entirely certain you can set up your own bounty tournament, although I suspect with most other things being fairly customisable they might be able to arrange it if you ask nicely.
Will you be playing via your iPod then? Blimey, I didn’t think that was possible!
Yes, I was surprised too, but it is possible for a small fee, if anyone wants any details I can email some info.
I think you can arrange KO bounties as they are shown in the ‘private’ tab with the K symbol, but as you say that’s for another year!
Hi, I went last night.
The format and set are identical for the UK version. As are all the games and even ‘The Body’ VTs.
The cash ladder had slight tweaks. $1000, $2000, $10,000, $25,000, $75,000, $250,000, $500,000
‘Friends and Family’ were there – but it never exceeded 3 people and it was mostly friends.
The only other difference was that certain games are used at different stages than in the UK version – but apart from with Barrier (see below) it’s hard to tell whether the ‘harder’ games are just set easier at earlier stages and vice-versa
The cash doesn’t seem a lot for a US primetime series. The top amount is healthy (although I’m surprised it isn’t $1M) – but $10,000 for 3 games? This may have been ‘pilot prizes’ in which case it was very healthy indeed. I wondered at times if the contestants were actually playing for those amounts or a percentage.
The show was so similar to the UK version that I had to wonder why CBS would be paying out for a pricey pilot when they could just watch the UK version. The only variable was the host – who I guess they wanted to try out. This considered; I still wonder if it was worth making – but I’ll come to the host later.
I’m not going to go into the ins and outs of each contestants games (I suspect someone else that was present will do that – I think he was taking notes) – but I’ll give a brief overview from memory.
Andy: Shatter (used simplify) – Quantity – Contact. Crashed out on Contact
Michelle: Time Freeze – Multisphere – Barrier (with one barrier) – Quickfire (used simplify) – Construction (with 12 rods). Crashed out on Construction
Mike: Reaction – Direction – Gradient – Cylinder (used simplify). Crashed out on Cylinder
Abigail: Stop Zone – Balance – Contact – Descent (used trial run) . Took $10,000
As you can see, the first four players all went with nothing. This isn’t good for a pilot. It was nearly 11pm and you could tell the production desperately wanted a winner. Descent is an incredibly hard game and after using a trial run Abigail knew there was no way she would win the game, so sensibly took the $10,000. Filming finished around 11.40pm and byt that time under a third of the audience were left.
Neil was amiable enough. He isn’t a whooping and a hollering kind of US host – which is a good thing, but at the same time he didn’t seem to have the enthusiasm or ability to create drama that Phil has. There was no booming, melodramatic ‘WHO’S NEXT TO TAKE ON THE CUBE’ with Neil. It was more laid-back, cool and kinda sarcastic at times.
Yeah i was there – i wondered if the contestants for the pilot were actors actually. The guy crying, the friends clever “soundbytes”, and the first girl didn’t even seem bothered when she lost so much cash. I thought NPH was very nervous, but did ok. About the games – it seems like the production people were giving them easy/hard games according to how far they wanted them to go to fit the time of the pilot. Once the first girl (Michelle) had come so far (and probably taken up 3/4 the length of the pilot) they gave the next guy up much harder games than anyone else so he was a quick contestant .. and then when it looked like they were desperately needing someone to come away from it with money the final contestant did. Maybe this wasn’t one for broadcast.
Sorry, it was $200k, not $250k.
Thanks RN, I’ll link to this.
God, I really should read stuff before I post. The first *THREE* contestants left with nothing.
Personally, I think Neil Patrick Harris isn’t a good pick for a game show host, just by his mannerisms and the way he presents himself. You need someone exciting and energetic to host the show, like Philip Schofield. Of course, worst case scenario, they could bring Regis back into it. God, there are so few good game show hosts these days that it makes you wonder.