This past year has been an excellent one for poker documentaries (theatrical releases, not so much, as evidenced by Runner Runner and its slightly more than $7 million take in over 3000 theaters in the United States last weekend). One poker documentary, completed earlier this year, has gone under the radar to the poker community, however. That should change with its premiere on DirecTV this evening.
The poker documentary Drawing Dead: The Highs and Lows of Online Poker will premiere at 8PM (Eastern Time) on DirecTV’s Audience Network as a part of their “Something to Talk About” series and it is a film that the poker community needs to pay some attention to. For those that don’t have DirecTV or are outside of the United States, the download of Drawing Dead will be available on the documentary’s website today also. The man responsible for the documentary, Mike Weeks, has stated that there will be more screenings of the film in cities across the country by request (people can request a screening by going to Tugg.com).
Directed, produced and written by Weeks in his first ever attempt at filmmaking, the documentary takes an unblinking look at both sides of the poker equation. In looking at the two stars of the film, Weeks has presented a cautionary tale as well as an excellent look at the last decade of the poker (especially the online version) in the United States.
One star of Drawing Dead is a player known to many in the poker community. Dusty “Leatherass” Schmidt takes the “high” end of the show, a position that he is more than qualified for. After making roughly $4 million in seven years of online play, Schmidt is recognized as one of the best online players in the genre (and the shots in the film of him 18-tabling PokerStars will stun the viewer – I know I have difficulties in even doing two tables!).
The other star of the show is Michael Korpi, who takes on the “low” side of the title. An excellent violinist from Seattle (his music is prominently featured in the documentary), Korpi is the story that poker doesn’t normally tell, that of an admitted compulsive gambler (within minutes of the opening of the film, Korpi is introduced as a “gambling addict”). While Schmidt’s story is familiar to all in the poker community, Korpi’s is the one that should have more attention paid to it.
Korpi, upon entering college, convinced a classmate to use their credit card to sign him up for an online poker site. “It wasn’t about the money, it was about the rush,” Korpi admits but, in continuing to seek that rush, he continually lost money at online poker. With his friend’s credit card number locked into his account, he continued to use it – and continue to lose – until it resulted in thousands of dollars in losses. In 2006, Korpi was suspended from college for the credit card fraud against his classmate.
Still not recognizing he had an issue, Korpi moved onto a second school in 2007 and, in 2010 (and only one semester from graduation), did the same thing to another classmate to earn another expulsion. At that point, Korpi was diagnosed as a compulsive gambler. To clear his head and to raise awareness of problem gambling, Korpi made a walking trek from Seattle to Boston, which is where Weeks follows him.
In diverting back and forth between Schmidt and Korpi, Drawing Dead examines both sides, without judgment, and lets the viewer come to their own conclusions. Weeks straddles the line between making it a love affair with poker (but it is a subject he knows well from the amount of recent historical information he puts in) or an indictment of the industry (Weeks notes in his narration, “For every one Dusty, there are a thousand Michael’s”). In doing this, Weeks has created a documentary that is at once a cautionary tale while also celebrating the brief history of online poker.
If there is a nitpicky point on Drawing Dead it is that Weeks tries to put too much into the film. He tries to explain the explosion of the game (especially the World Series of Poker) during the 2000s, the UIGEA and “Black Friday” all while telling the stories of Schmidt and Korpi. That information, for hardcore poker fans, is already known and, for someone just looking for a good documentary, is a bit of a distraction.
Drawing Dead is the full story behind poker – online or live, good and bad – and, as such, there should be more attention paid to the film. The information provided is outstanding, it is researched well and a viewer might see a bit of themselves by the time they have reached the end of the 75 minute film. Put this one up there with some of the other fine documentaries about the poker world that has come out in the past year.
Writer’s note: Tomorrow we will interview Mike Weeks, the man behind Drawing Dead, to gain more insight into the picture.
