For the past few weeks, Channel 4 has been busy raking up a new and cultish audience for its Late Night Poker programme on Saturday nights. With the heats all finished, the eight finalists battle it out tonight for the grand prize of £40,000. Drama, tension, bluff and deceit are only half of it as the cameras get up close and personal on the sweaty brows of the players, following each hand, each call and each raise.
Produced by the Cardiff-based independent company, Presentable Productions, the programme is presented by Jessie May, the US author of the acclaimed poker book Shut Up And Deal, and Nic Szeremeta of the European Poker Players' Association. Their commentating voices are crucial to the programme's success: not only do they tell viewers about the strategies and tactics (some more arcane than others) used by the players, but they also, painstakingly, explain the rules behind the game being played - a variation of traditional poker known as Texan Hold 'Em.
Until tonight's programme, the eight players played until there were only two people left at the table. The winning pairs from each heat go into the Grand Final - but tonight the winner takes it all. With the players having to stump up £1,500 of their own money to take part in the heats, there were a lot of professionals at the table, but also the odd computer designer, physiotherapist and actor. "We got the idea for the programme because the producer plays a bit of poker, and we thought it would go down well televised," says the show's director, Sian Williams. "We approached Channel 4 with the idea of having heats and then a grand final and they were very positive, so we filmed everything down in Cardiff over three days. There was a real tournament feel to the proceedings, and even those players who got knocked out in the heats stayed around to watch the final. What you see on television is edited down from an average of a three-hour-long bout."
Texas Hold 'Em is not the easiest game to describe but, briefly, each player gets dealt two cards down, they then bet on the strength of their hand. The dealer then deals three cards face up in the middle of the table (known as "the flop") and these cards are communal. The players then bet again before two more cards are flipped over. The player with the best poker hand out of the seven cards (two in their hand, five on the table) wins the game. "A lot of the tension of the show is produced by the use of under-the-table cameras," explains Williams. "The viewers at home can see what two cards each player is dealt down, so they know how strong or how weak their hand is. This is crucial for understanding how the players proceed tactically and it also means that the viewer is always one step ahead of the other players."
Such is the professionalism of the players, though, that many of them objected to the use of the under-the-table cameras, saying that it would give away their strategies, but most of them relented when it was explained to them that the cameras were all-important for the watching audience. The eight players competing for the £40,000 prize tonight include Ireland's Liam Flood (from Co Kildare) and the intriguingly-titled Dave "Devil Fish" Ulliott from Hull, England.
"I have a pawn-broking and jewellery business in Hull but I spend most of time playing poker," says "Devil Fish". "I started off playing a game called three card brag. I went on from playing that to Strip Deck Stud poker. Eventually I found it difficult to get a game of Strip Deck Stud in the area I lived, so I went to Leeds and from there I went to London, Birmingham, Northampton, a lot further south, and then started to play in Europe and then Vegas (the poker Mecca). I suppose I play the game pretty aggressive. If I'm on form I try to run off with the table." And the nickname? "A Devil Fish is a deadly poisonous fish, which if it's not prepared right for eating, can kill you. I suppose there's worse names out there though." Yeah. The only woman in tonight's final is Beryl Cook from Surrey. "At the moment I play poker all the time. But prior to this, I had an auction room, and I was a photographer. I've always been doing things that are probably more in a man's world than a woman's but I've always been happy, and happy to play poker," she says.
One of the players who didn't quite make it through the heats but will be watching tonight's final with interest is the inventor, Sir Clive Sinclair: "It's a social thing for me," he says. "I've been playing for about 10 years on and off so I'm not a professional player in the slightest. My job as an inventor is rather a distraction from the poker but the heats were very enjoyable."
For the producer of Late Night Poker, Robert Gardner, the success of the show lies in the decision-making aspect of the game. "I think poker is one of the world's greatest games," he says, "and our job is to show and explain the tension that lies behind each decision taken. Thousands of pounds are won and lost during the series, and it's important that the viewer knows why."
The final of Late Night Poker is on Channel 4 tonight at 1.20 a.m.
