The world of televised poker has seen some major changes over the last decade with live streaming becoming a bigger part of the industry. However, episodic poker shows also still remain popular with the World Series of Poker, World Poker Tour, PokerGO, and other operators still producing programming that may reach a more casual poker audience.
None other than Phil Hellmuth took to Twitter this week to offer a look at his own involvement in this process with the WPT.
Writing Segments, Hitting the Makeup Chair
The 17-time WSOP winner hosts the “Raw Deal” section of the show, offering insight on how players played certain hands or offering some interesting takes on certain situations. He has some considerable involvement in what poker fans see on screen during the segment.
“On the job in LA!” he noted “Started by co-writing four scripts yesterday – that takes a few hours – for today’s four WPT ‘Raw Deal’ segments, then today we do edits, then hit the makeup chair, and then I read the scripts on camera.”
Hellmuth even offered a video of himself in the makeup chair.
“It’s been fun,” he said of the entire process. “It takes me two or three hours, four or five hours sometimes, to help write. Four scripts I wrote yesterday, but that’s on me for doing it last minute.”
Still Hitting the Tables
Hellmuth admitted to playing some high-stakes poker the night before, which may have added to the process. He seems to really enjoy his role on the show and being involved with some of the content poker fans see as the action plays out.
As the poker pro sat in the makeup chair, he also cleared one thing up since this may have been one of the few times where he wasn’t wearing a cap.
“No hat, I do have hair,” he said with a laugh.