Top female poker pro Annie Duke will join Kevin Pollak’s Chat Show live on Sunday, March 14th at 5:00pm PT for an in-depth interview. The internet series is coming up on its one-year anniversary and has featured guests including “The Man Show” host Adam Carolla, “Anchorman” actor David Koechner, and Dave Coulier of “Full House” fame. Duke’s appearance will be archived after its live airing.
Pollak was formerly the host of Bravo’s “Celebrity Poker Showdown” and is a regular in some of Hollywood’s richest home games. Pollak hosted six episodes of the first season of the celebrity poker show alongside pro Phil Gordon before comedian Dave Foley assumed the role. Pollak started his chat show last April and the franchise has become a major hit. We sat down with the talk show host to preview the March 14th episode, which will be sponsored by Poker News Daily.
Poker News Daily: Thanks for joining us. Why bring Annie Duke on Kevin Pollak’s Chat Show?
Kevin Pollak: The choice of Annie Duke was simple and easy. I’ve played with her. I’ve admired her skill and success. Hers is a great story and one worth sharing. My chat show is always about having interesting people on from as many walks of life as possible.
PND: Tell us about your poker background.
Kevin Pollak: I’ve been playing against the pros since 1995 in casinos. Bravo asked me to help them launch “Celebrity Poker Showdown” by hosting the first six episodes. It was an easy choice, but the notion was that I’d just be on six episodes. Bravo didn’t have much original programming at the time other than “Queer Eye for the Straight Guy,” so they replayed it for a year. When I bowed out, people would come up to me and say, “I’m sorry that you got fired.” That was funny. Through Phil Gordon and other players, I got to meet some of the pros and played in cash games with Annie and a few others. I’ve also been in a few higher stakes home games with pros.
PND: You mentioned that Duke has a great story that’s worth sharing. What about her life will be interesting to listeners?
Kevin Pollak: I don’t really like to editorialize who is interesting and why. It’s easy for me to say who is interesting, but it’s all objective. To say how they’re interesting would not do justice. Her relationship to her brother as a pro and how she came to decide to play professionally will be good to hear about. Also, we’d want to discuss what it’s like to be considered the top female player in the game. I can’t wait to hear her take on other pros and their play and how the game has evolved and changed through television.
PND: Does having Duke on help broaden the demographic of your show?
Kevin Pollak: As long as we continue to diversify, which is another reason I’m excited about Annie, I think our so-called demographic will continue to reach further and further and no longer be secular or even specific. I would love for our demographic to be all over the place.
PND: You’ve been hosting the show for nearly one year now. Talk about some of the memorable moments and guests so far.
Kevin Pollak: We’ve tried to hone down interviews to 90 minutes each. Eddie Izzard holds the record at two hours and 31 minutes. I started to realize that we were getting the most in-depth interviews anywhere simply because of the time allotted, so we had two hours with Seth MacFarlane and two hours with Kevin Smith. We’ve had six Academy Award winners on and comedians like Jim Gaffigan, Doug Benson, Paul F. Tompkins, and Dana Carvey. I’m looking forward to more.
