Presenting poker on tv or a reside stream is not any simple feat. Commentators not solely break down fingers, talk about gamers, and replace event motion, however most significantly, should additionally discover a strategy to make what can typically appear a bit boring truly attention-grabbing.
Sure, there are some explosive fingers right here and there, however as any poker fan is aware of, there’s loads of mundane motion as nicely – to not point out the tanking – that may decelerate the motion.
Commentators like PokerStars’ James Hartigan should not solely have a information of the sport, however be adept at offering leisure worth and bridging the gaps between slowdowns and the vital moments to maintain viewers tuned in to occasions that may final for hours.
Hartigan has turn out to be among the finest, forging a novel path after turning a background in radio right into a poker profession that has now reached virtually 15 years. And regardless of his time behind the mic, Hartigan can be happy to be enjoying extra in current months, together with a deep run within the Hall of Fame occasion this summer time.
“Ironically, I’ve played more in the last 12 months than I have in the last 12 years,” he says. “I’ve had the opportunity, since wearing the red spade and becoming a PokerStars ambassador. Now when I’m not working in the booth, when I’m not working on the live streams on TV shows, I’m able to go to live events as a player, at my level. The way I celebrated my midlife crisis last summer was, instead of buying a Porsche, I bought my way into the World Series of Poker main event.”
That ardour carries over to his work within the recreation. The 49-year-old was available in Las Vegas for the North American Poker Tour at Resorts World to supply commentary and blend in some play of his personal. He spoke with Card Player about his rise from faculty card video games to a profession in radio to being the voice of PokerStars occasions.
Celebrity Interviews To Casinos
Originally from Carshalton, England, Hartigan attended Canterbury Christ Church University and earned levels in radio, movie and tv, and English literature. He then started working as broadcast journalist, together with stints as a movie critic for BBC Radio in Kent and later as a radio information anchor and leisure reporter.
When not discussing the most recent movies or studying the information, Hartigan had been a leisure poker participant for the reason that Nineteen Nineties. While in faculty, he turned an everyday seven card stud participant after which a fan of Late Night Poker, which started airing within the UK in 1999. The present was the primary on tv to indicate gamers’ gap playing cards and featured regulars like Barny Boatman, Ram Vaswani, Anthony Holden, Al Alvarez, Victoria Coren, Dave “Devilfish” Ulliott, and even comic Ricky Gervais.
“That’s what introduced me to hold’em and the idea of poker on TV,” he says. “That’s what really kind of got me starting up a home game and had it going as a hobby once again.”
That ultimately led to broadcasting the sport when he was invited in 2004 by a public relations company to play a European Poker Tour occasion in Dover – a little bit of gonzo journalism that completely match along with his rekindled love of the sport.
“The tour had just started,” he says. “They were inviting journalists from high profile publications and broadcast outlets to have the experience of what a major international poker tournament is. I’m like, ‘Yes, thank you.’ I had no problem, fortunately, convincing my editor this was actually a really important story. You got this free trip, got to play, and I’m like, ‘This is a dream.’ This was the height of the poker boom, about a year after Moneymaker. So, it’s everywhere, it’s in movies, it’s on TV.”
While he didn’t rating any winnings, the broadcaster met your complete PokerStars group. He quickly went from superstar interview junkets, morning drive-time radio, and reporting on the day’s happenings to touring to casinos around the globe and calling the motion within the recreation’s new frontier.
“In the months that followed, as the poker boom continued into 2005, they suddenly wanted to start making more TV shows, and there weren’t a lot of people doing poker commentary,” he says. “They put two and two together and made five. Here’s a professional broadcaster who knows the ranking of hands. So let’s try him out.”
“I did a screen test, got the job, and for a few years after that, it was kind of like a part-time gig. I was still mainly a radio presenter, but still did a bit of poker commentary on the side. And then when I took over the EPT full time, when the tour started live streaming, then when we had the PCA and the NAPT, it became my full-time job. And here we are 14 years later and I’m still doing that.”
Manning The Mic
At the microphone, Hartigan is paired with longtime accomplice Joe Stapleton, and the 2 additionally host Poker within the Ears, which earned a Global Poker Award for finest podcast in 2022. While poker followers may even see a seamless manufacturing on tv and on-line, occasions just like the EPT and NAPT characteristic full manufacturing groups to carry the motion to viewers on tv and the PokerStars YouTube channel and different platforms.
In Las Vegas, Hartigan was available as gamers auditioned to be the “loose cannon” on Stars’ Big Game tv present, which airs on Fox Sports. The unfastened cannon brings again that newbie component to televised poker that captivated gamers through the Moneymaker growth. He believes this method can carry poker to an viewers that will not usually tune in.
“I think the key challenge for what we do is understanding, who is the audience?” Hartigan says. “The Big Game is a classic example. The Big Game I think has genuine mainstream crossover appeal. You’ve got celebrities playing in the game. Last year, we were very lucky to have Michael Ian Black, Arden Cho, and Jen Tilly as someone who straddles the entertainment and poker world. That narrative, that idea of the loose cannon, the everyperson taking on the pros, it kind of game show-ifies poker.”
“You’re talking to an audience that is, for want of a better phrase, not poker literate. So, you have to speak to them in a way that is not using or overloading the conversation with poker speak and is going to turn that audience off. If you’re doing a live stream whether it’s the NAPT main event in Las Vegas or an EPT event, you’re talking to people who are probably more established poker fans. They understand the game. They know what a three-bet is. They don’t need everything explained to them. So you can talk on their level.”
Televised poker ought to take an entertainment-first method, he says, to achieve extra gamers who may not spend a lot of their time analyzing fingers or in a card room. That’s the method he and Stapleton attempt to convey.
“Obviously people want to learn something if you’ve got a great pro alongside you in the booth, like Sam Grafton analyzing the game,” he says. “It’s great that people can develop their game, but… first and foremost has to be entertainment.”
Big Moments
A couple of moments stick out in Hartigan’s thoughts from his twenty years the sport. One of his fondest reminiscences was being within the commentary sales space for British tv presenter Victoria Coren Mitchell’s EPT London win in 2006. As the voice of the tour and the primary to name the reside streams for the collection, the EPT holds a particular place in his coronary heart and the Coren win for $941,513 actually stood out. She turned the primary girl to win an occasion on the tour and grabbed one other EPT win in 2014 for $660,947.
“I’ve always had an affinity with that tour,” he says. “To be there for the moment when Victoria Coren became the first two-time winner, an unlikely two-time winner, but an incredibly popular two-time winner, an event that had mainstream crossover, because Vicky’s a huge celebrity in the UK – that’s a standout moment for me.”
Another of his fondest reminiscences was the primary time he labored with Stapleton, a humorist by day who bought his begin as a poker reporter for Card Player earlier than discovering the commentary sales space. They had been first paired collectively through the NAPT’s first run within the U.S. and Stapleton was unaware that he was being thought of for a everlasting position.
“Joe didn’t know that he was being screen tested,” he says. “He thought he was just coming in to do some guest commentary. I was like, ‘I like this guy. I think he’s got something about him.’ So the very next event we did, which I think was at the Mohegan Sun in Connecticut, was the first live stream we ever did together. That was the beginning of a partnership that’s now lasted more than a decade. I’m very happy that we’ve been able to build that and make that relationship work.”
In a profession that has introduced him to a few of poker’s largest levels, Hartigan has seen nearly all the pieces one might think about on the felt, so he is aware of what it takes to turn out to be a poker professional.
“There’s a lot of work that goes into it,” he says. “I’ve never had the desire to make my living playing poker. I understand it appeals to a lot of people, and I say good luck to them. What they need to understand is that in this day and age with people’s understanding of game theory, you have to put as much time into studying, working, reviewing, and learning as you do playing. If you want to be successful, if you want to be competitive, if you genuinely want to play this game to make money, you have to work at it. It is a job. You don’t just walk up, sit at the table and [expect to win].”
Even skilled gamers well-versed within the recreation can nonetheless face important dropping streaks. He prefers being a commentator than counting on his expertise on the desk for a dwelling.
“That’s something I wouldn’t be able to cope with,” he says of the sport’s variance. “That idea that if I have a bad day at work, at least I know I’m still going to get paid at the end of it rather than losing money. But that’s one of the things that appeals to me. There are people who want to play this game professionally, can play this game professionally, and then they sit right next to people for whom it is entertainment. It’s fun. It’s a hobby, and that’s what it will always be to me. And it’s a hobby I absolutely love.”
Looking again on such a novel profession, does Hartigan ever miss these radio days and superstar interviews?
“It’s weird, I think we always look back at our past through rose-tinted spectacles, and I have days where I’m like, ‘Oh, I miss that.’ And then I have days where I’m like, ‘Why?’ This is a much better gig.”
*Photos courtesy of PokerStars – By Danny Maxwell, Joe Giron
