Tilt (American TV series)

Tilt
Created byBrian Koppelman
David Levien
StarringChris Bauer
Eddie Cibrian
Kristin Lehman
Todd Williams
Michael Madsen
Michael Murphy
ComposerLou Natale
Country of originUnited States
Original languageEnglish
No. of seasons1
No. of episodes9
Production
Running time60 minutes
(with commercials)
Production companiesKoppelman/Levien
Orly Adelson Productions
Whizbang Films
Original release
NetworkESPN
ReleaseJanuary 13 (2005-01-13) –
March 13, 2005 (2005-03-13)
Infobox instructions (only shown in preview)

Tilt is an American drama television series set against the backdrop of the (fictional) World Championship of Poker tournament in Las Vegas, and with the tagline "You're playing poker. They're playing you." The series first aired on January 13, 2005, and is the second original drama series from ESPN, following Playmakers. It was created by Brian Koppelman and David Levien, who co-wrote the poker-themed feature film Rounders.

The series title refers to being "on tilt", which is poker jargon for letting frustration or other emotional stress interfere with one's poker-playing judgment. While that term is applicable to any form of poker, only one form of the game—no-limit Texas hold'em—is featured in the series. This was presumably meant to capitalize on the growing popularity of no-limit hold'em in the mid-2000s (decade), which was due in part to ESPN's own coverage of the annual World Series of Poker (WSOP), the event upon which the "World Championship of Poker" (WCOP) depicted in Tilt is presumably based.

Tilt is a nine-episode mini-series and was not renewed beyond that. A DVD set of the entire nine-episode run of the series was released on June 14, 2005, about three months after "The Last Hand" ran on ESPN.