'Drawing Dead' Online Poker Documentary Airs Tonight

The poker documentary ‘Drawing Dead: The Highs and Lows of Online Poker’ will be shown for the first time at 8PM (ET) tonight on DirecTV, or viewers outside the USA will be able to watch the show on the documentary’s website.
The new documentary is the work of first time filmmaker Mike Weeks, who admits that poker has always been a part of his life ever since playing penny ante poker with his father as a young boy. Week’s story is then one which many a player can relate to, especially in an industry where less than 1% of players are believed to be break-even or better. After initial success in which Weeks says online poker helped fund his first semester at college, the business major then hit a downward spiral resulting in addiction, unemployment and wearing “the same pair of sweatpants for a week straight.”
It was Mike Weeks’ own experience of online poker which subsequently led to him making ‘Drawing Dead,’ explaining: “I’m tired of seeing only one side of the poker world, so I made a short film showing both sides: the highs AND the lows.”
In his poker documentary, Week’s chiefly examines the different online poker experiences of two men, the first of which is Dusty “Leatherass” Schmidt, who is recognized as one of the best online players, having made roughly $4 million over seven years of play.
The other star portraying the lows of the game is Michael Korpi, a violinist from Seattle who subsequently became a compulsive gambler and was suspended from college for credit card fraud as he sought more money to fund his losing online poker habit. As Weeks notes in his narration; “For every one Dusty, there are a thousand Michaels.”
In addition, the 75 minute film features plenty of interviews with experts in the field, including ESPN analyst Lon McEachern, 2006 WSOP Main Event champion Jaime Gold, Problem Gambling psychologist Dr. Henry Lesieu and Neurologist Dr. David Linden. As such, Drawing Dead tries to present a balanced view of the story behind online poker and is one of the finest documentaries on the subject that has come out in the past year.