In this episode of Chats with Tats, David Tuchman talks about his job as the live stream commentator for the World Series of Poker Live Stream.
More than the events and gold bracelets, it’s also about the people. That’s how live stream commentator David Tuchman describes the World Series of Poker.
“This is kind of like a weird summer camp for adults, you know, where you might not see some of your friends for months and months and months, and then you get to hang out,” Tuchman told CalvinAyre.com.
The WSOP veteran has been covering the summer tournaments since 2011, when he was hired by ESPN to cover the poker TV live stream for the first time. The sports broadcaster dropped the program the following year, but Caesars Interactive Entertainment’s Seth Palansky asked Tuchman to return for the hosting gig.
“I loved it, so I was interested and actually out of the blue, I asked the producer, a buddy of mine, I said, ‘Hey, so who’s doing the live streams?’ And they told me Seth Palansky was in charge of World Series of Poker. [I] picked up my phone and gave Seth a call, and we chatted. Seth actually said, ‘Hey, you’re name came up and we weren’t sure if you’d be interested in doing it because our budget is obviously a much smaller budget than ESPN is.’ I was like, yeah, I wanna do it. This is my passion. I really enjoy this,” he explained.
And the rest is history. Tuchman said he looks forward not only to the big event, but also to the other tournaments held each summer.
“I love the seniors event ‘cause I love the thought that somebody’s grandson is at home watching and would go, ‘Grandpa, look. I knew he was gonna play poker.’ You know there’s something that’s great about that and it gives such a great feeling [when] you get over 4,000 people to come out at seniors event. It’s fantastic,” Tuchman said.
The live commentator, however, admitted that as much as he loves coming back every summer, there’s one thing that he—and the other hosts—dreads the most: the long hours.
“I love it. I mean, I’m not gonna lie. I love my job but it doesn’t mean I don’t want the day to end occasionally,” he noted.
Still, Tuchman doesn’t plan on changing careers anytime soon.
“I could’ve taken my dad’s position over at a very successful accounting firm in Manhattan… and I was like, no, I don’t want to do that. I want to do something that I love, something that I’m passionate about,” Tuchman stressed.
