KEY POINTS:
Brooke Howard-Smith, is host of Joker Poker (Sunday, 10.30pm, TV3), where you'll see rugby stars, pop singers and comedians test their gaming skills for the chance to win a share of $100,000 for charity.
So this is your pet project?
It really is. I tried to launch
a poker show about a year-and-a-half ago and nobody was really interested, then [production company] Imagination found this fantastic format and did a better job than I'd ever do. I'm a huge poker fan so it's a dream come true.
You should have called it Hot Poker. It certainly seems to be right now.
Certainly in New Zealand. A year ago in America it was the number one pastime and the fastest growing pastime in history, so it's outstripped golf as far as its participation goes.
What's so great about it?
It's an incredible challenge, mentally. It's certainly closer to chess than any other card game. It's very mathematical and that's never been my strongest skill, but it's great challenging myself in that area.
How many beers can you get away with during a game?
I play in a very serious group of poker players and we have a good time. But most of our players are professional so we tend not to drink. I sound like such a nerd.
We're used to seeing you get all worked up about extreme sports. Can't imagine you've got much of a poker face.
I've had to really work on it. [Co-host] Lee Nelson is a brilliant poker player. He gave me a lot of tips.
Do you practise in the mirror?
No, but a lot of it is visual. I think the first thing people are fascinated by is the idea of a human lie detector. Professional poker players wear collars because a good player can count the beats in your jugular and see if your pulse is speeding up, a sign that you're nervous and you're lying.
Is that why you got the job on Target? Because you can tell ... ?
When someone's been sniffing undies, yeah.
So you've gone from a show where you stand up for people so they don't get ripped off, to a show where that's pretty much the aim.
It's probably closer to my natural leanings.
We know some of the guys on the show - Dave Gibson, Doug Howlett, Alan Whetton - are already avid poker players. What about the women?
The amazing thing is they did so well, and it may be because your gender is so naturally gifted at misleading.
No, it's because we can tell when your gender is lying.
It's a combination of the two, how about that? Some of them were a little hesitant at first. They weren't poker players but their first lesson was from Lee. So the girls learned perfect poker and the guys had all been playing boozy, social poker. The girls ate them alive sometimes. Believe me, if there's any reason to watch the show, it's Tania Dalton and Luke McAlister against each other. Luke is terrified. You're talking about a guy who has to run with a ball against 130kg guys and I've never seen him look so afraid because he knows he's getting absolutely slaughtered.
How do you feel about the late timeslot?
The broadcasting tribunal will always see it as gambling so they put it on late. But we're hoping it's that kind of late-night fun show where we can get away with something. There's some language on there, too. When you think you're winning and you get beat that badly, you swear. So it's probably lucky we're not on at 7.30.
