Ep 625 - Chats: James Hartigan: Shaken, not Stirred

This week Jim Reid and the RecPoker RECing Crew interview James Hartigan! A former journalist, film critic and radio presenter, James has been anchoring poker TV shows and live streams for nearly two decades. Best known for his work as the lead commentator on the European Poker Tour, he has also hosted live coverage of the NAPT, PCA, PSPC and World Series of Poker. He won the Global Poker Award for Best Broadcaster in 2023, while the Poker in the Ears podcast, which James co-presents with Joe Stapleton, was named Best Podcast in 2022. We also play Stake/Study Stack with Maria Ho, Sam Grafton and Griffin Benger and we Close The Action with our speed round! Plus of course we raffle away a free prize at the end for folks in the YouTube chat, to help support a local food bank. Join us LIVE on YouTube next Monday at 7:30 ET for free to ask our guests questions in real time, and you can win too! http://x.com/J_Hartigan https://www.youtube.com/@James_Hartigan http://YouTube.com/PokerStars We also go over this week's home game results and discuss these topics: How to help us out - https://rec.poker/support/ Home Games - https://rec.poker/homegame/ Go Premium! - https://rec.poker/premium/ Timestamps: 05:44 James shares what his role is in the poker world 11:36 Making poker stories more exciting 16:40 Journalism into poker commentary 20:01 Balance of information and entertainment 23:26 Getting immersed in the game: resist commenting 30:45 James and Joe’s chemistry makes it more fun 34:36 James talks about the experience in the production 38:32 James on the audition process for the NAPT 42:58 How both Poker Stars and the game changed over time 01:10:14 Home Game Result updates Find our free videos at: http://youtube.com/c/RecPokerCommunity Join the Discord group here: https://discord.gg/9aYSMCCfpv Find more info on our sponsors at: https://RunAces.com Explore our socials and more: https://linktr.ee/therecpokercommunity RecPoker is a vibrant and encouraging poker learning community. We are committed to learning the game, but our priority is building healthy relationships where we can not only grow in the game, but grow in our enjoyment of life. The free membership website at rec.poker is awesome, but it's just a tool to help us build that community. You can join for FREE, giving you access to the groups, forums, and other member benefits. If you want to enjoy the premium content, or become part of the RECing Crew, those options are available and you can get your first month for only $5 using the code RECPOKER. Music by Peter Troolin, [email protected]