Now comes 'King of New York,' Ferrara's most expensive and ambitious picture to date, with borrowings from a different classic.
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS Oct 06, 2017 11:50 AM. Dan Bilzerian is a professional poker player who was at the scene of the Vegas massacre. Video shows the so-called 'King of Instagram' returning.
Instead of 'Romeo and Juliet,' this one recycles 'Robin Hood,' with Christopher Walken as a New York drug kingpin who wants to use his profits to pay the budget of a hospital for poor people. The Walken character never quite gets around to explaining precisely how he plans to set up his financing, and I am not sure any money actually goes to the poor and sick, but it's a good idea, anyway.
Walken glides through the movie with his usual polished and somehow sinister ease, a man supremely confident of his ability to succeed in an arena where most people end up dead. Part of his genius is to control a large gang of black drug dealers, whose fealty to him is hard to explain, although perhaps they enjoy attending business meetings in his suite at the Plaza Hotel. Eventually the empire breaks up, however, in double-crossings and reprisals, broken loyalties and stool-pigeons, although it will take a viewer more clever than myself to explain exactly what happens in the fragmented labyrinth of the movie's plot.
All of Ferrara's movies make a point of interracial friendships and romance, and Walken has at least two black girlfriends among his other sidekicks. (I do not write 'at least' because I cannot remember the exact number, but because the relationships in this movie are so sketchy that it's hard to be sure.) Is there a point to be made here? No; Ferrara gives us a white leader of a black gang of drug dealers and scarcely seems to notice it.
The movie is much stronger in its particulars than in its over-all drift. There are a couple of genuinely effective scenes, including one where the Walken character is accosted by muggers on the subway, shows them his gun, frightens them, then pulls out money and throws it to them, promising there's more where that came from and that they should simply 'Ask for me at the Plaza.' (The lack of a scene showing the muggers inquiring after Walken at the Plaza's front desk is one of the movie's more regrettable lapses.) I am not sure that Walken is always sure exactly why his character behaves as he does (the screenplay has a cavalier way with details), but he has a way of slinking through the plot that's convincing. Walken is one of the few undeniably charismatic male villains of recent years; he can generate a snakelike charm that makes his worst characters the most memorable, and here he operates on pure style. No gaps in the film's logic, no inconsistencies in the plot, not even a decidedly peculiar ending can discourage him.
He's somehow able to convince us that he knows why everything is happening, even if most of the other characters (and the filmmakers) seem bewildered.
What Ferrara needs for his next film is a sound screenplay.
He has gone about as far as a director can go on pure style, and he apparently isn't one of those filmmakers who can begin with a sketchy script and patch it up as he goes along. His effects are too good, his command of mood is too sure, for him to continue trying to bluff his way through half-written movies like this one. All it did was whet my appetite.
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On August 22 and 23, Poker Night in America is bringing another major streaming event to Schenectady’s 
Rivers Casino & Resort. The King of the Hill poker tournament will feature four top poker superstars in a winner-take-all heads-up poker collision.The tournament is a $50,000 buy-in freezeout. The first night of action will feature two semifinal matches.
The winners of those matches will face off the following evening. The final winner gets the whole pot – a $200,000 prize for two nights of work.
The four combatants are no strangers to big games
Poker Night in America has compiled a murderer’s row of participants for this particular event. The four have $38 million dollars in tournament winnings to their names. They are:
- Phil Hellmuth – the 1989 World Champion is one of the most recognizable faces in poker and is the all-time leader in World Series of Poker bracelets. He has over $21 million in live tournament winnings and is a member of the Poker Hall of Fame. He also won the National Heads-Up Poker Challenge in 2005.
- Doug Polk – the 28-year-old poker wizard has three WSOP bracelets and nearly $4 million in winnings. Under his alias WGCRider, he is one of the best online heads-up no-limit hold’em players and is owner and founder of UpswingPoker.com, a training site for poker players looking to make the leap.
- Daniel Cates – he is one of the top heads-up hold’em players in the world, with live tournament winnings of more than $3 million and online cash game winnings over $11 million. He also participated (or is participating) in the Durrrr Challenge against noted heads-up player Tom Dwan, and after 20,000 hands, is up $1.2 million over Dwan.
- Frank Kassela – also known as “Lights Out,” this poker pro has three WSOP bracelets and over $3 million in live tournament winnings to his name. His most recent win was in the Deuce-to-Seven Lowball Draw. None of his three bracelets are from the same type of poker – his versatility and lethality should be on full display in August.
How to watch PNIA King of the Hill?
Poker Night in America will be broadcasting the event on its Twitch channel. The broadcast will be on a thirty-minute delay, similar to the most recent WSOP broadcast so that PNIA can show the players’ hole cards throughout the matches.
Here is the schedule (all times ET):
| Date | Event | Play Begins | Broadcast Begins |
| August 22nd, 2017 | Round 1 | 3:00 p.m. | 3:30 p.m. |
| August 22nd, 2017 | Round 2 | 8:00 p.m. | 8:30 p.m. |
| August 23rd, 2017 | Final | 5:00 p.m. | 5:30 p.m. |
Poker Night in America has not released the initial pairings or further details about the format yet, but will certainly reveal more about the event in the coming days.
The following two evenings will also feature a 7-handed, invite-only cash game. The streams for that game will start each day at 3:30 p.m. ET. There is no word on the participants for that game, but they will certainly be familiar faces to poker fans.
New casino trying to make its mark
Watch Kings Of New York
The host casino, Rivers Casino & Resort Schenectady, is hoping that this tournament will increase the property’s profile. Though Poker Night in America has broadcast from other Rivers casino properties in the past, this event will be the first time at this resort.
Indeed, this tournament is a big deal for a casino that only opened its doors in February. In fact, the hotel opened mere days ago.
Everything is very new for this casino, and there are some growing pains that the casino is trying to weather. Since Schenectady is a smaller town, media outlets report every hiccup and bump on the road the new property encounters.
For instance, the casino’s revenues are always in the news, and any down weeks appear as harbingers of doom. A fist fight inside the casino between two patrons is an Internet-searchable event and the ebb and flow of employee turnover are on display.
None of these events necessarily mean anything for a nascent business, even with millions of dollars at stake.
Rivers Casino & Resort Schenectady, for its part, is trying to do things right, and is trying to make poker a priority. Within three months of opening, the property’s poker room had hosted the inaugural Capital Region Classic.
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The tournament drew 1,095 players and was a five-day event. 137 competitors split a $272,655 prize pool, and the winner, Robert Saladin, took home just over $45,000 for his efforts.
This tournament, along with the upcoming King of the Hill, might help the casino put its stamp on the region. The presence of “Poker Brat” Hellmuth raises the profile of any gambling facility, to be sure. Hopefully, the casino staff members will remember to take plenty of pictures and get good quotes from the master of berating others at the table.
At any rate, you can catch the action on Poker Night in America this coming August.