Rob and Amber: Against the Odds

In my Hub last week, I missed out on a very important piece of their recent history, as someone pointed out in the comments. I knew there was another reality show in there somewhere, but I wasn't able to turn anything up when searching for Rob and Amber news. Having now found it, I set my TIVO for a Season Pass of Rob and Amber: Against the Odds, and have since caught up, thanks to a few marathons on Fox Reality Channel.

It turns out it's the same ol' Rob, and the same ol' Amber. They've been living in Pensacola, Florida, since they got married, and Rob decided on the first episode of Rob and Amber: Against the Odds that he wanted to become a professional poker player. It certainly sounds a little far-fetched, and you just have to think that it was part of the idea behind this reality show. I mean, it's not like Fox Reality said let's film your daily lives, and the first day they did, Rob just happened to decide on a career change.

Yet, forced reality or no, Rob and Amber uproot and move to Las Vegas for a "three-month trial period," which just happens to be the same length of their commitment to Fox Reality. Amazing. I have never been a fan of Amber's, but have always been a fan of Rob's. I know he can be a little egotistical, but I still like him. He makes me laugh and he's not very pretentious. He is what he is, whether you like him or not. He's a game player and very competitive. He hates to lose.

I still see Amber as the coattail rider, whichever Survivor she's on, she got to where she was because of the people she aligned with. Jerri dragged Amber behind her all the way to the jury, and Amber was smart enough to fall for Rob in Survivor: All Stars, as she knew he would carry her with him to final two, putting her in position to win. Rob seemed to do the lion's share of the scheming on That Amazing Race, and it's hard to think of Amber doing it with someone else, and still succeeding.

Watching their latest show as it followed them around in Las Vegas, I found Rob and Amber are still the same. She's not doing anything in Las Vegas, other than following him around, to the extent of wearing a shirt that says, "Poker Wife." On the last day of the series they sit together deciding whether they should stay in Las Vegas or not after their three-month trial period. But who are they kidding? We all know Amber will stay or go, depending on what Rob wants. If he's done, so is she. If he has more poker left in him, she has more poker wife.

Rob plays poker on the show the same way he played Survivor and The Amazing Race. He still hates to lose. Rob makes these big schemes while playing that are against everything his poker tutor taught him. He has to do it his way. He still does whatever he wants, to the point of missing Amber's high school reunion, because he chose to not travel with her, just to get in a few more hours of playing poker. When his later flight is cancelled due to weather, he stays home by himself, while Amber goes solo to her reunion. Just when I'm getting mad at him, he takes his big winnings and buys her the dress and shoes she wanted, and surprises her with them.

How can you be mad at the guy after that? Not that Amber doesn't have her own peccadilloes there in Las Vegas. Their bed rivals that of my 10 year old daughter's, in that it's covered with stuffed animals. I just can't see my husband consenting to sleeping in a bed filled with stuffed animals. As it is, I have to sneak our living dogs on there at night after he goes to sleep. Sure, Rob complains about it, saying he feels like he's sleeping in Wild Kingdom, yet he still does it.

After three months of living in Las Vegas, Rob and Amber aim to decide on their future, whether they should move back to Pensacola or stay in Las Vegas. Amber admits that while she wasn't too sure about Las Vegas in the beginning, she was really growing to like it. Just when it looked like they would be making that decision, while sitting in a hot tub, they get a phone call from their agent, telling them CBS called with an offer to do The Amazing Race: All Stars.

We are expected to believe that the filming of their daily life is set for three months, and on the day it's to start, Rob just happens to decide he wants to be a professional poker player. Then on the day they're set to make a decision on whether to stay or not, they get that call from CBS. Of course a lot of it is a set up, but Rob and Amber are nontheless enjoyable as they usually are, even if it's not all that spontaneous.

They, of course, decide to take on The Amazing Race again, and it has to make you wonder what they'll do after that. Will Rob return to poker or will he be done with it and looking for the next adventure. Will Amber finally get tired of following and seek out something of her own? Much of this depends on the outcome of the Race. Last time they came in second, and they've just proved on Against the Odds that they're the same people they were back then.

This much is sure ... Rob will be scheming and Amber will be following.