Sam Simon chewing on a stogie during Day 2b.

What do you do when you have the most talked about home game in Hollywood, have 12 Emmys collecting dust on your mantle and earn close to $10 million a year from a show you don’t really work on anymore? You take your chance at the World Series of Poker Main Event.

Sam Simon, co-creator of the the Simpsons, has found success as a producer, writer and a poker player. Simon has five career WSOP cashes, including a deep run in the 2007 Main Event where he finished 329th of 6,358. He also has a brand new show to his credit called Sam’s Game where viewers are treated to an uncensored look into the funniest game in Hollywood.

You’ve got a new show on PlayboyTV called Sam’s Game, can you tell me a little about it?

The Playboy channel called and they asked if they could film my home game. We shot it at the Palms Hotel in the Playboy Suite. The game is pretty well known around Hollywood as really fun, there’s a lot of comedians and comedy writers in it. The only change that Playboy wanted was we had to have a Playmate playing, a bunny dealing and bunnies waiting on us hand and foot. I had to agree to that, which was a tough bullet to bite. We had Norm McDonald, Artie Lange, Dave Attell, Jennifer Tilly, Phil Laak and Brande Roderick from Celebrity Apprentice. A lot of people have come up to me and said they’re getting a kick out of it. That’s always nice. I was wondering if people would criticize the play on the forums, because there’s a lot to criticize. They’re just average players, but it’s fun to see their whole cards.

Who’s the best poker player in Hollywood?

Well I think Jennifer Tilly is the best tournament player in Hollywood. She does well and has a bracelet. Overall, I’d have to say that Tobey Maguire is a great poker player. He’s really, really good. Obviously, he doesn’t want to come to things like this, he’s just too big a star and people would just bug him too much. He’s excellent. I don’t think Gabe Kaplan is Hollywood anymore. That was a long time ago and things have changed a lot.

Ok, word association time. I’m giving you a name and want the first thing in your head. Norm McDonald.

I think he’s one of the funniest people.

Dave Attell.

Dave is very funny, I think of jokes when I think of him. His act is very funny but he writes a lot for other people. For some reason, as great of a performer he is, I associate him with writing those one liner jokes.

Artie Lange.

Character. Lately he’s become kind of a victim of it. He was great on my show. The first night we shot I kind of felt like Joe Buck. I love Artie and have known him for a long time. He was being very wild and I don’t think he knows how to play that well. I’m torn between thinking he was playing a character that didn’t how to play or if he just doesn’t know how to play. He is a gambler, so I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt - but his play was the most interesting. There’s clips on YouTube of it. He was just out here. The thing about Artie is that he’s so entertaining and brings people so much happiness you just wish he was a little happier himself. But I think he’s on that path.

Which Simpsons character would have the best chance to win the Main Event?

Lisa is a genius, she’s analytical, she does math and she figured out how to beat pro football. But then Bart is a reckless personality. I think they would meet heads-up at the final table and both be great. Homer obviously would be horrible.

The field is slightly larger than it was in 2007. What odds do you give yourself going deeper than 329th?

I don’t know, I started today with a pretty short stack. I had a really tough table on Day 1. I’m going to be patient. It’s really hard. I think they won’t get to the money until Day 4. The most fun I’ve ever had playing poker is when they go hand for hand in the Main Event. You get a 15 minute break after every hand and I was all in twice though. The atmosphere was great.

How many Emmys are worth a WSOP bracelet?

I don’t know, is there someone willing to trade? I think I lost the first 11 times I was nominated, but since then I’ve won - I think a dozen. My name isn’t even on those things anymore. Having lost so many times before I started winning I convinced myself that they don’t mean anything. They are a popularity contest and if you’re a new show you get rewarded. But winning a bracelet is a real accomplishment unto itself. If it ever happened I’d be thrilled.

Can you tell me about the Sam Simon Foundation?

Our mission is to save the lives of dogs and improve the lives of people. We are the largest provider of spay/neuter in the county of Los Angeles. Our flagship program is rescuing dogs from city shelters where they have four days to live. We train them to be certified assistants to the deaf. We also do pet visitations in retirement homes and Alzheimer’s wards. We just started a new program that Senator Al Franken called me about, his interest is in training dogs to help veterans with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. We are in the process of picking out our first batch of dogs to help our vets. We’ll see how that goes. I’m very proud of it. It’s an idea I had and I’ve had good ideas and bad ideas, but this is a good one. But playing that King-Queen suited (before the interview) was a bad idea.

If you could pick one player to play heads-up for a bracelet and win, who would it be?

I would play my six year old stepdaughter Cooper. If they wanted to add it as a bracelet event I’d be thrilled.

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