Bother’s Bar’s HORSE Hilarity

By | June 3, 2011
13 Comments

As doubtless you are aware, it’s Game 11 of the Bother Series of Poker this Sunday night, and the Superstack Grand Final in a fortnight’s time – feel free to come join us for either of these events regardless of if you stand a chance to win the league or not, there’s money to be won at both events.

However, for added excitement keep the evening of Sunday July 3rd free because I’m going to be running a one-off HORSE tournament. HORSE is a mixed game where you play ten hands of hold ’em, then ten hands of Omaha Hi/Lo, Razz, Seven card Stud and Seven card Stud Hi/Lo (‘E’ights or better). It is likely that most participants in the BB game are likely to be quite poor at non hold-em games (having attempted Omaha, I include myself in this), hence the hilarity, and you can learn the rules of the games here.

All games are played to limit (bets are standardised so it’s quite difficult to donk off your chips quickly) and the intention is to make this a double-stacked $20+2 tournament. And to make it more exciting as I’m rapidly approaching my 30th birthday, I’m intending on adding a ton of value.

Look out for more details soon!

Hmm…

By | June 2, 2011
12 Comments

An anonymous source at Sony doesn’t like what’s happening behind the scenes of Britain’s Got Talent Edit: it’s been taken down, and Holy Moly bloke on Twitter says it’s untrue.

Might be rubbish, might be genuine, I am sure you will draw your own conclusions. I do, however, largely suspect your own conclusions will correlate with whatever you thought of Simon Cowell in the first place.

There are good reasons why SYCO shows tend to get twice as many viewers as the same sort of thing on the BBC (for example), but you do get the feeling that this year there have been too many balls to juggle and Cowell has taken his eye off one of them and it looks like they’re all going to fall.

Maybe not Impossible after all

By | May 31, 2011
34 Comments

According to a story on Broadcast, Impossible? will be returning to run alongside Big Brother. Good.

Meanwhile The Amazing Race Australia continues to do things much more interestingly than the US one has done for a while – I love the fact there’s a task at each location and not just a series of point to point races in taxis, and particularly liked the idea of having a tough logic puzzle as a roadblock just before the Pit Stop in the same location (although I think they’re missing a trick by not putting such things online for the viewers to have a go at in their own time). I also think they may have missed a trick in not making this the resolving leg of a non-elimination leg, with a team Marked for Elimination and having to endure a 30 minute time penalty if they don’t win, how much more exciting could it have been to watch them sweat it out as they watch the other teams complete the task and pass them?

Meanwhile Meanwhile, it looks like John Archer and Ben Earl are finally off to Vegas tomorrow. Who are they? They’re the guys who managed to fool Penn and Teller. Fool Us finished recording its series recently, looking forward to it!

BANK HOLIDAY Question Too Esoteric For Only Connect

By | May 30, 2011
29 Comments

Well it’s been a while since I’ve done this, but as we’re here let’s do it again. The times in the square brackets are roughly the time you can expect the clue to go up (although it might be a bit earlier/later depending on circumstance), you should ignore them when it comes to making your guesses.

Here are four things, what connects them?

  • Sharpe
  • Spellbound
  • Button Moon
  • Watchdog

Bonus clues for half a point or something:

  • Fame Academy
  • Crackerjack
  • Bruce Forsyth and the Generation Game
  • This Morning
  • The Paul Daniels Magic Show

And the answer is… hidden behind a cut.

Continue reading →

Board of Excitement 29th May – 4th June 2011

By | May 29, 2011
17 Comments

I hope you all enjoy your Bank Holiday. I will be WORKING.

  • Scream if You Know the Answer – this has just been bought by the US Travel Channel dontchaknow. In tonight’s episodes Joe Swash vs Vanilla  Ice, and then Dom Joly vs Kate Silverton. Dom can’t talk now, he’s on Nemesis Inferno etc. (7pm, 7:30pm, Sunday, Watch)
  • Britain’s Got Talent Finals Week – Most nights at 7:30pm on ITV.
  • The Amazing Race Australia – if you’ve not watched a Race for a while, I do recommend having a go with this one. (Seven Network, Monday)
  • Alexander Armstrong’s Big Ask – Panel show where the guests set the questions and Dave Lamb checks the answers. Dave Lamb is on a lot this week, he’s also fronting Gory Games on CBBC weekdaily and also endless repeats of Come Dine With Me on the various Channel 4 channels. (9pm, Monday, Dave)
  • Four Rooms – I doubt I’ll be billing this every week, but episode one of Dickinson’s Real Antiques Den was definitely better than I was expecting. Worth a watch. (8pm, Tuesday, C4)
  • The Apprentice – if you’re wondering why I haven’t been billing this after getting into it last year, it’s mainly because I’m working very lengthy days on Wednesdays at the moment 🙁 (9pm, BBC1, Wednesday)
  • Schlag den Raab – Eurovision host Stefan Raab defends a million Euro from the onslaught of another challenger. (7:15pm, Saturday, Pro Sieben and Hopefully Naughty Streaming)

Also Challenge TV does indeed seem to be showing old stuff next weekend, but Challenge Anneka doesn’t seem to have turned up regrettably, at least on Saturday’s schedule.

Fort Boyard is back, back BACK!

By | May 27, 2011
35 Comments

Hold on to your hats kids, it sounds as though Fort Boyard is deffo coming back to UK screens, but in a twist, it’s going to be for older kids. I believe they will be shooting some US episodes as well. To be honest going by the Contestant Call it sounds like they’re trying quite a few things out (18 year old team captain and 13-15 year old team mates?).

But what of the exciting French show beginning July 2nd? Here’s what we’ve gleaned:

  • 13 new games, two of which are returning faves (the mud wrestling and the fight with the pugil sticks on a beam) with some high-tech twists, apparently.
  • The cells are now decked out in the style of a carnival, the jungle or high tech.
  • Three new characters – the mud wrestler, Justice White and The Firefly.
  • Teams must now get seven keys again.
  • It sounds like The Firefly will help on the high-tech games, whilst Justice White is who the teams go to if they don’t get their seven keys, he’ll give them the chance to make them up for a price.
  • Pere Fouras is now in charge of the Council, and this time, it sounds like a modified version of the betting from 2009 is returning – now this time you win or lose Treasure Room time if you win or lose the bet.
  • Can’t wait!