Simon Says Fold
Unless you’ve been living in the Amazon jungle for the past 25 years, there is a good chance you may have seen some of Sam Simon’s work. This creative genius, who loves a good poker hand, has also had a major hand in developing numerous hit television shows including Taxi, Cheers, It’s Garry Shandling’s Show, The Tracy Ullman Show and The Drew Carey Show. His greatest success, however, came as the co-creator of the Fox network’s biggest show, The Simpsons. A proven winner in the television industry, Simon has collected twelve Emmys, a Peabody and a People’s Choice award. He has shown a knack for maximizing returns from his creative investments.
Like many other creative people, Simon is a poker nut. He may claim to be a recreational player, but his love of the game suggests otherwise. No longer pursuing television work full time, he plays the game on a regular basis and recently turned in a solid tournament performance at the 2007 World Series of Poker. Armed with enough knowledge to be a dangerous player, Simon has set his sights on taking home a WSOP title in 2008. If his gift for finding television success is any indicator of his chances, he could become the second celebrity to take down a bracelet. The first was his ex-wife, actress and poker player Jennifer Tilly.
First introduced to the game by his family as a youngster, Simon recalls that he began learning the ins and outs of the game during weekly games at home. “On Sundays, we played Stud on the dining room table and we would order Chinese food. We played small stakes, usually nickels and dimes. We weren’t a real functional family, but something about poker made it possible for my family to make it through the night together. Poker’s a mean-spirited game. Maybe that is why we could do it as a family.”
His love of poker continued to grow as he kept playing during high school and college. It was during those years that Simon began frequenting casinos in
“I don’t think I really knew what I was doing at the time, but then again, a lot of people didn’t know what they were doing back then. It’s not like today when there’s so much information on how to play available.”
After college, Simon shifted poker onto the back burner while he concentrated on his television career. Despite playing regularly while working, it wasn’t until he started watching episodes of the World Poker Tour that he began to think seriously about the game again.
“After watching several episodes and getting excited about playing. I found myself at a dog park one day where I met up with writer David Steinberg. He invited me to his Wednesday home game. It wasn’t a high-stakes game and featured a $5/$5 limit, but
some of the players were real serious and scholarly about the game. They would reconstruct hands and discuss the results. Playing with these guys inspired me to read some books and learn more about the game.”
Bitten by the poker bug again, Simon began reading poker strategy books and started playing regularly in small buy-in tournaments at Hollywood Park Casino. He also began
testing himself against online players PokerStars.com and now admits that he prefers to play online unless he is with friends.
“When you play live at a casino, you sit with some of the biggest jerks in the world. Some of these guys are really angry. I also like online play, because I don’t have to get dressed up to play and I can smoke cigars. Also, you can be a lot braver online.”
Like thousands of other poker players, Simon decided to test his mettle at the 2007 WSOP. After going deep in several events, he capped his WSOP by finishing 329th in the Main Event, earning a cash of $39,445. According to Simon, he enjoyed the Main Event, but he found a sense of irony in his results.
“Last year, Phil Hellmuth won his 11th bracelet and he proved he’s probably the greatest No Limit tournament player ever. I’m not very good, but I finished 329th, which was way ahead of Hellmuth, so I don’t know what that says about how good the tournament play was. I did have a $100,000 last-longer bet with Norm McDonald that was featured on ESPN which I won. That was fun.”
A fan of the split games like
“Norm has a theory that applies to No Limit and I think it is pretty accurate. ‘No Limit Hold’em takes a minute to learn and fi ve minutes to master.’ There is something to be said about the wisdom of that line. It is fun to be able to compete successfully in a game that you are not really that good or experienced at. There is just so much luck involved
in the game and if you are willing to shove all of your chips in the middle, you can make people who are better than you fold,” he says.
Simon also says he likes the fact that the No Limit world championship is open to everyone.
“It’s wild that you are allowed to buy your way into the championship event in poker and win it. If you were a golfer and you could buy your way into the Masters, you would have to play your best golf just to be respectable, but there is no way you are going to win it.
In poker, you can buy your way into the world championship and play badly and still win. It’s a pretty amazing thing.”
Despite having great success in television, Simon is finding it harder to achieve the same success in poker. He acknowledges that winning a poker tournament is a “million times” tougher than writing a television show, because with television he can fix his mistakes but he can’t do the same thing during a game.
Fortunately for Simon, some of what he has learned from his prestigious career has helped him at the tables. “I have always been very involved in negotiating my contracts and I think that I have done well, because I have used some of the attitude that is required at the tables during the process. There have definitely been times when I have taken risks and gambled by turning down sure things for the bigger payout. That’s a major reason why I have done well with my deals and done reasonably well at the tables,” he says.
One thing that hasn’t translated from his career to the tables is his celebrity status. Often seen as just another anonymous face at the tables, Simon enjoys not being recognized.
“I like having to be resourceful and not being catered to. When I sit at the table, I know it’s not about what I have done in the past or who I am. It’s a level playing field and I like the challenge of being just a poker player who gets cards like everyone else.”
One example of Simon’s table anonymity occurred during last year’s Main Event when he busted noted pro Dan Harrington.
“I thought he knew who I was, because we had talked a bunch at the table; but then he was interviewed and he was told that the guy that busted him was the creator of The Simpsons, and he said, ‘Who?’”
Playing more for the challenge of the game and the spirit of competition than the money, Simon makes it clear that he wants to be competitive with the pros but says he has little chance of ever becoming one.
“I made situation comedies and was successful at it. With that, you give away the product and make people happy. Professional poker is about taking people’s hard-earned money. It just isn’t right for me.”
A philanthropist at heart and the founder of the non-profit group The Sam Simon Foundation, Simon’s charitable nature also makes it tough for him to cross the threshold between being an amateur player and a pro who plays for a living.
“I’m a little put off by the predatory nature of being a professional poker player. Not so much in the tournaments, because it’s kind of like playing the lottery, but defi nitely in the cash games. There are some really dangerous characters, and you have to be careful or you’ll go broke. I would also feel uncomfortable as a pro because I would be taking other people’s money on a regular basis when I know I’m better than they are.”
Just because he decided not to turn pro doesn’t mean that his game shouldn’t be respected by those he plays with. Simon is definitely someone to be aware of at the tables, frequently showing the creativity and drive that has made him successful people in television history.
Simon is now playing daily in preparation for this year’s WSOP and plans to move to
Editor’s note: Later in the evening after his interview with BLUFF, Simon went on to win the Hollywood Park Poker Derby $100 multi-rebuy tournament, beating 350 players to take home the first-place prize in the $100,000 guaranteed tournament.
The Home Game
When asked about his home game, Simon said things were always interesting when you play with a bunch of writers and comedians.
“It’s kind of funny, because they change the name of the games constantly. There was this game we played called Mini- Draw. It is a high/low split game where you get three cards followed by a round of betting. Then the fl op comes out. You are trying to draw to the best five cards. You can play your hand or you can play two cards on the board. You then have the option of getting one card or two cards. You can discard one and get two or you can draw one card.
“First it was called Mini-Draw, then just Mini. Then they started calling it The Dreamers Game and they began constantly saying, “I want to play Mini-Draw, the Dreamers Game.” Then it changed to Dreamer, but now it’s called Awesome, because they think it is the most awesome game. That’s how writers think.”
The game has an all-star talent roster with regular appearances from celebs Norm McDonald and Drew Carey, and features frequent guests like Amir Vahedi, Jamie Gold, Jennifer Tilly, Ben Affleck, and Hank Azaria.
After starting out at $10/$20, Simon dropped the stakes. The game is now a $1/$2 game because Simon hated the thought of people coming to his house to play poker for fun and having them leave $20,000 down. Despite the smaller stakes, the game is highly competitive and, according to Simon, “No one wants to lose.”
Sam Simon’s Stats
Nominated for 22 Emmys (won 12):
Taxi: Writer/Producer
Cheers: Writer/Producer
The Tracy Ullman Show: Executive Producer/Writer
It’s Garry Shandling’s Show: Creative Consultant/Writer
The Simpsons: Developer/Executive Producer/Character Designer/
Creative Supervisor
Barney Miller: Writer
The Drew Carey Show: Writer/Consulting Producer/Director
The Michael Richards Show: Director
The Norm Show: Director
Friends: Director
The George Carlin Show: Director
Other Awards:
Professional Sports:
Managed former World Boxing Organization heavyweight champion Lamon Brewster
2004 WBO Manager of the Year
Charitable Interests:
The Sam Simon Foundation: Founder
Save the Children: Board member
Current Project:
Working on a pilot TV show with Norm McDonald
The Simpsons
Simon has won nine Primetime Emmys for his work on The Simpsons, the longest-
running sitcom in television history. Although the writers have never done an episode specifically on poker, they did do a gaming-based episode on sports betting in which Lisa Simpson successfully learns to pick winning football teams.
“According to people like Art Manteras and other top fi gures in the sports betting industry, this was the only fiction about sports betting that they could tell was written by degenerate gamblers,” Simon said.
BLUFF asked Simon to profile the Simpson family as card players and to give readers the inside scoop on how they would play and who would be the best player. Here are his thoughts.
Homer: He is a dope and he would play any two cards. He would be bad. If he did hit a
flop after playing his 7-2 off-suit, he would jump up and down on his chair and start shouting. He’s totally hopeless.
Marge: I don’t think she has enough gamble in her. She’s way too conservative.
Lisa: Lisa would be a good player. We know she can do the math because she could pick the football teams and she is an analytical genius. She’s along the lines of a Chris Ferguson-type of player and she would do well.
Bart: I think Bart could be the most successful player, because he’s a bad boy and there are the “Bad Boys” of poker. He would be very aggressive and good for the game. If the cameras got on him, he would be like Phil Laak, and his antics in front of the ESPN camera would endear him to the poker-playing audience.
Maggie: She’s too young to play live, but she could play online. I don’t think she would be very good though, because she is a baby.
The Ex-Factor
Sam Simon is one of the nicest guys you can meet at the tables, and his friendly relationship with his ex-wife, WSOP-bracelet and WPT-winner Jennifer Tilly is proof of his warm personality. Still good friends, Tilly and Simon frequently play in his home game, and the two remain close. According to Simon, Tilly was his connection to the poker community and he is proud of her success.
“Jennifer and I used to play at casinos, but it wasn’t serious. It was strictly recreational at the time. People ask who taught Jennifer how to play poker, me or Phil [Laak], and I tell them that I taught her that a flush beats a straight, while Phil taught her how to reraise from the big blind when you think the button is on a steal. He’s the guy who really took her game to a more sophisticated level.”
Simon has nothing but praise for Tilly’s accomplishments and he believes they are no fluke.
“As for Jennifer winning the bracelet, I remember her calling me after it happened. It was kind of surreal and an amazing thing. If you watched her play when she won her WPT title, she showed she can play with the best of them. One thing I’ve noticed is that poker has a brutal atmosphere. People say Phil Hellmuth is lucky, despite the fact that he has eleven bracelets. Obviously, he’s not and he’s one of the greatest ever, but people love to hate on him. Jennifer gets the same thing and so I don’t think she gets her due. I believe she is going to win another bracelet and she’ll win more WPT titles. She’s really a student of the game.”
Simon is such a nice guy that he even has a good relationship with Tilly’s current beau, Laak. After receiving an offer to play in the second season of High Stakes Poker, Simon decided he needed to watch someone play in a big game so he could see what it takes to be successful. He ended up sweating Laak at one of the Bellagio’s bigger cash games and left amazed at Laak’s fortitude.
“He had a really successful session, but I quickly realized after watching him for a while that I didn’t have the stomach to make the moves he did. I asked him about one hand where he had an A-K and his opponent kept raising him. I could tell the guy didn’t have aces, but I thought he might have pocket kings. Phil made this huge bet and the guy laid down his hand. When I asked how he knew that the guy didn’t have kings, he responded, “I didn’t. That was a donk move.” You have to be tough to play those games.
