Longtime Commentator James Hartigan On Making Poker Accessible To Everyone

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Longtime Commentator James Hartigan On Making Poker Accessible To Everyone

Presenting poker on television or a live stream is no easy feat. Commentators not only break down hands, discuss players, and update tournament action, but most importantly, must also find a way to make what can sometimes seem a bit boring actually interesting.

Sure, there are some explosive hands here and there, but as any poker fan knows, there is plenty of mundane action as well – not to mention the tanking – that can slow down the action.

Commentators like PokerStars’ James Hartigan must not only have a knowledge of the game, but be adept at providing entertainment value and bridging the gaps between slowdowns and the critical moments to keep viewers tuned in to events that can last for hours.

Hartigan has become one of the best, forging a unique path after turning a background in radio into a poker career that has now reached almost 15 years. And despite his time behind the mic, Hartigan is also pleased to be playing more in recent months, including a deep run in the Hall of Fame event this summer.

“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 passion carries over to his work in the game. The 49-year-old was on hand in Las Vegas for the North American Poker Tour at Resorts World to provide commentary and mix in some play of his own. He spoke with Card Player about his rise from college card games to a career in radio to being the voice of PokerStars events.

Celebrity Interviews To Casinos

Originally from Carshalton, England, Hartigan attended Canterbury Christ Church University and earned degrees in radio, film and television, and English literature. He then began working as broadcast journalist, including stints as a film critic for BBC Radio in Kent and later as a radio news anchor and entertainment reporter.

When not discussing the latest films or reading the news, Hartigan had been a recreational poker player since the 1990s. While in college, he became a regular seven card stud player and then a fan of Late Night Poker, which began airing in the UK in 1999. The show was the first on television to show players’ hole cards and featured regulars like Barny Boatman, Ram Vaswani, Anthony Holden, Al Alvarez, Victoria Coren, Dave “Devilfish” Ulliott, and even comedian 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 eventually led to broadcasting the game when he was invited in 2004 by a public relations agency to play a European Poker Tour event in Dover – a bit of gonzo journalism that perfectly fit with his rekindled love of the game.

“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 score any winnings, the broadcaster met the entire PokerStars team. He soon went from celebrity interview junkets, morning drive-time radio, and reporting on the day’s happenings to traveling to casinos around the world and calling the action in the game’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 partner Joe Stapleton, and the two also host Poker in the Ears, which earned a Global Poker Award for best podcast in 2022. While poker fans may see a seamless production on television and online, events like the EPT and NAPT feature full production teams to bring the action to viewers on television and the PokerStars YouTube channel and other platforms.

In Las Vegas, Hartigan was on hand as players auditioned to be the “loose cannon” on Stars’ Big Game television show, which airs on Fox Sports. The loose cannon brings back that amateur element to televised poker that captivated players during the Moneymaker boom. He believes this approach can bring poker to an audience that may not normally 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 should take an entertainment-first approach, he says, to reach more players who might not spend much of their time analyzing hands or in a card room. That’s the approach he and Stapleton try 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 few moments stick out in Hartigan’s mind from his two decades the game. One of his fondest memories was being in the commentary booth for British television presenter Victoria Coren Mitchell’s EPT London win in 2006. As the voice of the tour and the first to call the live streams for the series, the EPT holds a special place in his heart and the Coren win for $941,513 really stood out. She became the first woman to win an event on the tour and grabbed another 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 memories was the first time he worked with Stapleton, a stand-up comedian by day who got his start as a poker reporter for Card Player before finding the commentary booth. They were first paired together during the NAPT’s first run in the U.S. and Stapleton was unaware that he was being considered for a permanent role.

“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 career that has brought him to some of poker’s biggest stages, Hartigan has seen just about everything one could imagine on the felt, so he knows what it takes to become a poker pro.

“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 experienced players well-versed in the game can still face significant losing streaks. He prefers being a commentator than relying on his skills at the table for a living.

“That’s something I wouldn’t be able to cope with,” he says of the game’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 back on such a unique career, does Hartigan ever miss those radio days and celebrity 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

 

 

 



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