Michael Ian Black is no stranger to poker on TV, but he’s told PokerNews The Big Game on Tour was a completely different beast.

He’s previously played on Celebrity Poker Showdown as far back as 2003. More recently he’s appeared in Hank’s Home Game on PokerStars in 2021, and RunGood Poker Series (RGPS) All-Stars ProAM at the PokerGO Studio later that year.

However, last year he took on his biggest challenge — sitting down to play in the return of The Big Game on Tour. Now ahead of the second five-episode run — featuring new Loose Cannon Lily Newhouse — he spoke with PokerNews about what went on under the lights.

Not Another Day at the Office

Prior to sitting down to play The Big Game on Tour at last year’s NAPT Las Vegas festival, Black admitted that he expected to be “outmatched and outclassed” considering the calibre of opposition he was set to come up against.

“They’re all calm and collected - I’m having a televised freak-out!”

“It’s a game I had no business being in from a skill level,” said Black. “There were great players sitting at the table, all of whom except the Loose Cannon had a lot of experience playing at those stakes. .

“I didn’t want to pretend like this was another day at the office for me, the way most poker players do. They’re all calm and collected - I’m having a televised freak-out!”

The premise of The Big Game is that a Loose Cannon qualifier receives $50,000 to play with and must survive 150 hands. At the end, they keep any profit they’ve made. Black says this offers a new dynamic at the table, especially considering another potential cannon that was involved in the game this time around.

“Lily Newhouse is already an accomplished who just hasn’t had that big score to lift her to the next level. The real Loose Cannon in our series is Dave Klosky, the online furniture entrepreneur, who was a great guy but probably had the least amount of experience of anybody at the table. But he has the advantage of being super rich and not giving a fuck.”

Black is joined by PokerStars Team Pro Sam Grafton and Maria Ho, with whom he’d played with before. Rounding out the line up is former WSOP bracelet winner Phil Laak.

Differences From Nikki’s Episodes

Black said that he had watched the previous five episodes of Nikki Limo’s Big Game run, and called the table “crazy” with so many people willing to mix it up for a lot of money.

“Jennifer and Arden are both pretty splashy and fun, so I guess she could have won a shit load of money if the cards had worked out, but she did awesome. Obviously, having Phil at her table was also a challenge. I can’t tell if I would have rather have been at her table or mine. I think mine just because it stayed relatively sane.”

Nikki Limo Ends Her Loose Cannon Run With A Big Gamble In The Big Game

In contrast, Black says that wrestling with the likes of Sam Grafton was a tricky prospect.

“I knew he would be aggressively bullying. That didn’t bother me because I expected it and knew I would be folding marginal hands to him because we were essentially playing two different games: he was playing a cash game and I was playing a tournament. If I lost my buy-in, that was it for me. But Sam can just reach into his pocket. So I knew I had to be (overly) cautious”

“I Loved Every Second”

While Black is keeping the results of the show close to his chest, he says that he loved the format.

“Everybody knows exactly where we are at every moment of the game, so you can kind of use that strategically. It was my first time playing at those stakes, so this was, by far, the most stressful.

“Despite the stress and the fact that for most of those 150 hands, I wanted to throw up, I loved every second of it. I love the game, take it seriously, have tremendous respect for people who play at a high level, and would love to do more in the poker space.”

The Big Game on Tour airs Saturday, July 27 at 00:00 ET/21:00 PT on FS1. It will also be available on the PokerStars YouTube channel!

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Based in the United Kingdom, Will started working for PokerNews as a freelance live reporter in 2015 and joined the full-time staff in 2019. He now works as Managing Editor. He graduated from the University of Kent in 2017 with a B.A. in German. He also holds an NCTJ Diploma in Sports Journalism.

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