Poking holes in Vegas’ glitz

You have to give ESPN credit: The cable sports giant doesn’t give up easily.

Its first dramatic series, “Playmakers,” was a moderate success in 2003-04, but rather than jeopardize a profitable partnership with the NFL by continuing the program’s unflattering portrayal of professional football players, ESPN bit the bullet and pulled the plug after one season.

Now the network’s second dramatic series, “Tilt,” presents an equally uncomplimentary view of two things we can’t seem to get enough of on television: poker and Las Vegas.

“Tilt” isn’t exactly about poker. It’s more about cheating at poker, and the show gives the clear impression that nothing about this world is on the up-and-up. The best players are smart, steely-eyed strategists who double-cross and switch allegiances like senators in the late Roman Empire.

Of course, there is no National League of Poker to wield its marketing and advertising clout to deter such depictions. And it remains to be seen how it will affect the ratings of ESPN’s annual serialized coverage of the World Series of Poker to characterize it as one big con.

Dark and tense with a touch of faded glitz, “Tilt” is a distinctly old school view of Sin City, featuring three good-looking young guns -- Eddie (Eddie Cibrian), Clark (Todd Williams) and Miami (Kristin Lehman) -- who each have their own reason for wanting to take down the reigning king of Vegas poker, the Matador, Don Everest (Michael Madsen). Marshaled together a month before the World Series by the older and wiser Seymour (Kenneth Welsh), the trio begin to build their war chests as they prepare to gore the Matador.

Madsen is well cast as the been-there, done-that old warrior who’s not about to let anyone onto his turf. The Matador might still be the guy to beat in Vegas, but it’s been a decade since he’s won a world championship, and he’s not above exerting a little violence to find out who might be watching him. The gravel-voiced actor, who has appeared in Quentin Tarantino movies, provides an added layer of menace -- you’re never quite sure when he might reach across the table and lop off an opponent’s ear with a razor.

The first episode was written, produced and directed by the series’ creators, Brian Koppelman and David Levien, who wrote the 1998 Matt Damon-Edward Norton poker film “Rounders.” They pack their sub-Mamet dialogue with plenty of jargon and manage to make things, at least initially, intriguing. Although “Tilt’s” premiere moves quickly and sets up the main characters amid an environment of big pinkie rings and ugly shirts, the show lacks any elements that would distinguish it from countless other Vegas-set entertainments. The challenge will be to take what feels like a movie premise and stretch it out over the course of a season.

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‘Tilt’

Where: ESPN

When: 9 p.m.

Ratings: TV-MA (may be unsuitable for children under the age of 17).

Michael Madsen...Don

“The Matador” Everest

Chris Bauer...Lee Nickel

Kristin Lehman...Miami

Todd Williams...Clark Marcellin

Don McManus...Bart “Lowball”

Rogers

Eddie Cibrian...Eddie Towne

Executive producers, Brian Koppelman, David Levien, Orly Adelson. Creators, Brian Koppelman and David Levien.