Actor Neil Patrick Harris Takes Brutal Cooler in WPT Celebrity Poker Tournament

December 19, 2023

Jon Sofen Senior Editor U.S.

Tough One to Take for Doogie Howser
Big Hands from Celebrity Poker Match
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The final hand wasn't very funny to comedic actor Neil Patrick Harris in Monday's WPT x Daniel Arsham Celebrity Invitational.

Harris ran into a cooler in the six-player celebrity sit-n-go against actress Arden Cho with five players remaining. The winner, entrepreneur Adam Weitsman, won a blue Porsche sculpture designed by Daniel Arsham, who played in the poker game and was the first to bust. Arsham is a world-renowned contemporary artist out of New York, and he designed the World Poker Tour (WPT) Champions Club trophies for the current season.

Weitsman defeated Patrick Bruel heads-up to win the sit-n-go, which was live-streamed on the WPT's YouTube channel. Each player started with 100,000 chips and Cho had nearly half the chips in play at the first break, but she fell back to the pack and eventually busted in third place.

Tough One to Take for Doogie Howser

Harris, who told PokerNews following his bust-out hand that he doesn't play poker and hardly even knows how to play, competed in the 2004 Celebrity Poker Showdown on Bravo. He quickly lost a chunk of his starting stack and only had around 30,000 at the first break a couple hours into play.

Shortly after, he'd move all in with Ax4x and end up hitting trips to crack the AxQx he was up against. An hour later, however, his luck would run out against Cho on a flop of Qx10x10x when he jammed all in with Ax10x for the nut trips, but was drawing to a one-outer or running aces after Cho snap-called and then flipped over QxQx. There'd be no lucky card to come this time around and the celebrity invitational's headliner was out in fifth place.

Harris, who first became famous for his role as Doogie Howser, a 16-year-old prodigy doctor on the early 1990s hit TV sitcom Doogie Howser, MD, stopped to chat with PokerNews on his way out, and he discussed the cooler hand and also the possibility of fourth edition of Harold & Kumar, a comedy movie series he co-starred in as a fictional version of himself.

"I don't play a lot of poker...I knew that I was just getting terrible cards, un-playable cards," Harris said of his performance on Monday.

The five-time Emmy Award-winning actor said he was "so excited" on the final hand when he saw the flop. But that excitement changed to disappointment when he saw Cho's hand.

Harris then turned his attention to the Harold & Kumar brand of movies, and whether fans of the series will ever see a fourth edition. Unfortunately, for those fans, although he didn't completely close the door on the possibility of a Harold & Kumar return, he made it clear the odds of it happening aren't so great.

"I think the producers of Harold & Kumar, after the first movie did okay, and then the second movie did less okay (in the box office), and then the third movie did less okay than the first, they were trending in the wrong direction, and I think they realized that most people just were getting really stoned to watch the movie," the 50-year-old comedic actor explained.

Big Hands from Celebrity Poker Match

The WPT's celebrity event brought about some good action and table talk. Although the quality of play would make the best players in the world roll their eyes — the celebrities aren't pros — the game was entertaining to watch and the commentary from Jeff Platt and Jesse Sylvia was on-point.

We've already mentioned the cooler NPH suffered, but there were some other hands of note, starting with an early bluff Harris pulled off. In that hand, he raised to 1,500 with J♣5♣ and Weitsman defended his big blind with A♣9♣. The flop came out Q♣Q♠6♣, giving both players a flush draw.

Little did NPH know he didn't want to hit his flush, but he raised an under the gun 2,000-chip bet to 4,000. Weitsman called to the turn, which was the 7♠, no help to either player. The action began with a check, then a Harris bet of 3,000, followed by a call. When the 6♥ on the river failed to improve either hand, Weitsman again checked and then folded the best hand (ace-high) to a bet of 4,000 chips.

Cho, who finished in 55th place out of 2,960 in the 2022 WPT World Championship for $71,400, also pulled off a solid bluff against Arsham. On a board of J♦5♦4♦6♦10♦, she had 5♣5♠, which couldn't beat the flush on board, and faced a bet of 5,000 from Arsham, who also didn't have a diamond. But that didn't stop her from raising it up to 20,000 and taking down the pot.

On the final hand of the single-table tournament, Weitsman limped on the button with 9♥8♥ before Bruel made it 73,000 with A♦8♠. A call was made and the flop came out 9♠2♦9♦, bad news for Bruel, who shipped his last 89,000 in the pot drawing thin, needing runner-runner aces or diamonds to scoop the pot and double up. After Weitsman quickly called, the final two cards were of no significance and the game came to an end.

Reality TV Star Princess Love Among 45 Left in WPT World Championship

_{*Image courtesy of World Poker Tour.}

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