The Best of Rob & Amber: Against the Odds

The Best of “Rob & Amber: Against the Odds” by Roxanne McDonald

“Perks and Payback: Reality Lifestyles of the Pokeristas” is one fantastic episode. The best one yet.

I already mentioned I have an affinity for “Rob and Amber: Against the Odds.” I grew up in New England, right down the road a piece from Rob–and his accent, for starters, gets me in the zone of recall. Also relevant is how some of Rob and Ambers activities remind me what my brother (who is still back East) would love.

So I dedicate this discussion to him (as if this little piece of writing were a great novel, huh?)

Finally, this episode (8) offers more than the usual social experiment, relationship problems, and ho-hum moments. Instead, it is packed with exciting events attended by two people who are simpatico—who respect and love each other and do not backstab, malign, or speak for each other out of turn.Coming down off playing and regenerating his enthusiasm after having placed second (which seems to be his fate, he says) at the Poker Dome Smackdown speed poker tournament, Rob and Amber participate in a sailboat competition and then Rob escorts Amber to the Really [Reality TV] Awards. There they are prepped to be presenters of the best reality TV show (which turns out to be Big Brother, yay!). Looking over the script, they agree that the dialogue sucks, as it suggests they are an argumentative couple. So Rob re-writes the script! LOL. He does have big ol balls. (If you have been watching you will note his ego often precedes his actions. Oh, wait, that’s what made him a big name in reality TV to begin with.)

Next, the couple goes off to make an appearance at a Rhode Island charity dinner (in Vegas). I have to watch the re-run to catch the name of the charity, but I did get how Rob and Amber again discussed how lucky they have been to live such a healthy and wealthy lifestyle and so supporting other worthy causes is a must for them. See what I mean? These guys have at least a modicum of respect and understanding….

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Rob and Amber Making a Real[ity] Living

Rob and Amber Making a Real[ity] Living by Roxanne McDonald

Rob and Amber Mariano have obviously found their working niche: by way of Survivor, Amazing Race, a publicly aired wedding, and now a poker career/reality TV show.

Rob and Amber Mariano have obviously found their working niche: by way of Survivor, Amazing Race, a publicly aired wedding, and now a poker career/reality TV show.

Rob offers a rational on his and his wife’s new show “Rob and Amber: Against the Odds” when he says that there is no way he can go back to doing construction work for a living. While he explains that he and amber have been all over the world, he also admits to being in love with or

obsessed with poker, now—all of which (the travel, the Vegas scene) are far too exciting to give up.
Amber is not so convinced, wishing for some down time in their Pensacola home where she can stay in one place, garden, do domestic duties, and just relax from being always on the go for the last five years. Amber also fears failure (losing their Survivor winnings, for starters) and chooses—in the first episode—to be the more rational one of the two, telling Rob at one point that he is not a poker star but a simple reality star, so, she tells him, he should deal with it.

Rob has rational moments of his own. He explains how fortunate he and Amber have been to have such wonderful opportunities (as those afforded by “Survivor”, “Amazing Race,” and now, “…Against the Odds”)…but they would not have had any of them had they not been willing to take the necessary risks. Good point, Boston.

Also noticeable in the first episode of “Rob & Amber: Against the Odds” is how respectful each is toward the other. Sure, they have tiffs and a couple of major disagreements, but Amber says to the cameras that while she is scared [of such a risk as signing on as a professional poker player’s wife], she also wants to be a supportive wife. And Rob says that while he may have had his feelings hurt by her what-if-we-lose reaction, Amber is his wife and he loves her and will comply with her final decision of whether or not to risk a Vegas venture.

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Rob and Amber: Against the Odds, but with an Audience?

Rob and Amber: Against the Odds, but with an Audience? by Roxanne McDonald

Rob and Amber have made a living on being reality TV stars. Will their new show make them any more (or less) popular?

They started as competitors on season four, “Survivor: Marquesas.” They fell in love. They dabbled on “Survivor All-Stars,” in season eight. They took their show on the road of “The Amazing Race,” in season seven. And now Rob and Amber Mariano will further the exploitation, take advantage of their reality fame, by doing their own show—“Rob and Amber: Against the Odds.”

Originally titled “The Rob & Amber Show,” the new reality

TV program is set to run for ten half-hour segments on FOX Reality, set to premiere in January of 2007. The premise of the show involves the ever ambitious, ever industrious Rob, who will take on the challenge of playing professional poker in Las Vegas. The Morianos will risk their earlier “earnings” in the casinos as the cameras roll to witness whether Mariano—executive produce of the new show, along with Linda Ellman, Rob George, Christopher Meindl, of Ellman Productions–will blow the newlyweds’ “Survivor” and “Amazing Race” winnings or whether he will parlay it as he plans.

Rob will have a poker tutor, the professional player Dan Negreanu, according to Las Vegas Review-Journal, and will play the odds of the tables while his wife Amber works on her projects, one of which includes, says Linda Ellman, setting up the couple’s Las Vegas apartment to “surprise” her husband.

The bigger gamble might be airing their troubles and tribulations as Rob “learns” and as Amber fidgets—having become accustomed, one would think, to competing right alongside Rob. The risk is the money, sure, but the risk is also trying to keep popular with television audiences.

I loved Rob from the start, mostly for silly reasons: his Boston accent recalls for me the childhood time spent growing up in New Hampshire. Every time he spoke, it was as if I had been given another whiff of Grandma’s perfume or something. The familiarity kept me coming back to first “Survivor” and then to “Amazing Race” as much as did the love of both those shows in general.

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