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Payback?

By launchpoker, Mar 13, 2008
Payback?


  Perhaps the least exciting phrase ever uttered is the words "and Doogie Howser is going all in!" This either means that somebody is being subjected to re-runs of Celebrity Poker Showdown, or Neil Patrick Harris is spending some quality time in the same airport bathroom as Senator Larry Craig.



  Celebrity Poker Showdown was but a symptom of the epidemic of Hollywood celebrities (usually ones whose better days are behind them) infiltrating the sport of poker. In most cases, the goal was to use Texas Holdem as a defibrillator to help resurrect their sputtering careers. In general, this hasn't made their careers better, it has made poker worse. Wouldn't it be nice to get some payback? Well apparently Daniel Negreanu will be doing just that with an appearance in the highly anticipated film "X-Men Origins: Wolverine".



  This movie is a continuation of the wildly popular X-Men franchise, and features Hugh Jackman resurrecting his role as the iconic character Wolverine. Those who have spent their youth reading X-Men comic books know that Wolverine is a hard drinking, cigar smoking, card playing, ultra-violent superhero. He is the perfect antithesis of the squeaky clean, virginal Captain Americas and Clark Kents of the world. So a card game would not be out of place in a movie about this particular X-Man. Daniel Negreanu will be doing in this film what he does best: playing poker. But even this will be helpful for all the celebrities crossing over to the player's side of the poker table to improve their poker game.



  All joking aside, this is more of a barometer of just how far poker has come. Wolverine is a big budget, block-buster type film, and they have sought out some of poker's most recognizable faces to include in the movie. If The Godfather was being filmed today, they would probably ask Doyle Brunson to act as one of the Corleone heavies.



  On another note, Daniel was not the only player tapped to be at the poker table with Hugh Jackman. They also approached the sport's super villain, Phil Hellmuth. A prior commitment meant that he couldn't make it to Australia to film on the date that he was given, but thousands of poker fans around the globe would have loved to see him go a round or two with the world's most crabby and deadly superhero.