Joe Stapleton is the commentator for The PokerStars.net Big Game show on Fox. His inspiring story of a rise to fame in the world of televised poker is one of the most compelling stories of the year, which Stapleton retells in this exclusive interview with Poker News Daily. Stapleton recently ranked second in a poll out of all poker commentators in terms of popularity.
During this part 1 of a two part interview series, we get to know Joe Stapleton and how he went from being a lowly tournament chip count reporter to holding down one of the most sought after commentary jobs in the business. He talks about starting from the ground up and what it took to get this tremendous opportunity. Stapleton also talks about his typical week in the production office, which involves a ton of hours in the booth making comments. But his work goes well beyond that as he reviews hours of film before the recording session even takes place, and details his commitment to creating a show specifically aimed for poker players and not the general television viewing public.
If you’ve ever been curious about what it takes to become a television personality in the poker industry and how to climb the ranks, this is a can’t miss interview with one of the real “good guys” of the poker industry.
The PokerStars.net Big Game is one of the big hits in poker television this year which features a big buy-in cash game with one of the players acting as the “loose cannon” to play with the pros. This loose cannon is an internet qualifier who is given $100,000 in cash to play and whatever they win above that amount, they can keep. The show has featured PokerStars pros such as Daniel Negreanu and Jason Mercier and also brought in other big names, such as UB.com’s Phil Hellmuth and PartyPoker’s Tony G.