'The Circuit' Moving On Up to Prime Time

When CardPlayer.com launched its Internet radio show The Circuit last December at the Bellagio's Five-Diamond World Poker Classic, "The Poker Authority" never imagined how popular the show would become with die-hard poker players around the world.

With a combination of big names, insightful strategy, and listener interaction, The Circuit has become poker's top radio show in just a short time. Here, you can listen to Haralobos Voulgaris giving advice on how to subtly break down a girl's self-esteem, Steve Dannenmann wax philosophical about crack and transsexuals, Gus Hansen expound upon his experience with backgammon groupies, Harry Demetriou's tale of a man with breast implants, and Phil Hellmuth talking about tournament strategy (sans sunglasses), all at the same web address.

But, during the 2006 World Series of Poker this summer, The Circuit is stepping up to prime time. The show will be broadcast on Sirius Satellite Radio Channel 122 every weekday from 8:06 a.m. to 9 a.m. PDT - right smack-dab in the middle of drive time. As a result, millions of potential listeners across America will soon be late for work because they've just got to know what to do when they have a small pocket pair and are reraised in middle position.

The show is already a top-30 iTunes Sports Podcast, and each episode generates several thousand hits of both its streaming Real Media and downloadable MP3 formats available at CardPlayer.com. Both e-mail and phone questions pour in for each of the show's hosts, as well as each day's guests, from both the U.S. and Canada, but also from such places as the United Kingdom, and as far away as Scandinavia, Australia, and Africa.

The Circuit features Card Player's Scott Huff and poker professionals Gavin Smith and Joe Sebok in an hour-long talk-radio format in which the three talk poker strategy, news, and gossip, and interview guests, all the while peppering the airwaves with their now famous camaraderie and humor, thus providing listeners with a show that is both informative and entertaining. Traveling to all of poker's largest, most prestigious events, The Circuit and its three affable hosts have made quite a name for themselves in the poker world. But it wasn't always that way.

The Past
After spending a grueling 40 days and nights as a Card Player intern at the 2005 World Series of Poker, Huff's hard work was rewarded with a full-time writing position with Card Player. He now acts as tournament content manager, making it happen as Card Player's roving tournament caravan follows the tournament trail.

Card Player tapped Scott to make the show a reality, and a short while later, The Circuit, now approaching its 70th show, was born. Rather than staring out from a basement in the middle of an Indiana cornfield, a fairly nervous Huff and well-known poker professional Mike "The Mouth" Matusow kicked off the first week of programming from the 37th floor of Bellagio without a hitch. And who can blame Huff for being a bit nervous, considering that the show managed to land superstar Daniel Negreanu as its inaugural guest. "I was sick with worry every day," Huff recalled, mentioning the fact that Paul Darden, Mike "The Grinder" Mizrachi, Phil Laak, Joe Cassidy, and Gavin Smith weren't far behind - all in the same week - setting the precedent for all of the larger-than-life names and personalities who would soon don The Circuit's headphones.

It was during that first week that Huff began to see the show take shape. "At one point during the first show, Mike and Daniel just started talking, and I took a step back. The information that came across was some of the most useful I had ever heard," said Huff. "After hearing all of the inside info from the pros, I knew there was a chance to make something really special."

During the Winter Poker Open at the Borgata in Atlantic City, Matusow's personal schedule started to conflict with that of The Circuit. During a week as a guest host, Gavin Smith stepped up to the mike, and Joe Sebok made his first appearance as a guest that same week. The three produced some great shows during the NBC National Heads-Up Poker Championship, and during the 2006 Five-Diamond World Poker Classic championship event, Smith and Sebok were officially announced as co-hosts.

The Cast
Although having been a professional for more than 15 years, Smith has started to catch more and more of the public's eye of late, and in the process he has scooped up more than $2.5 million in tournament winnings. He won two events at the 2005 Mirage Poker Showdown, including the World Poker Tour Championship, which landed him the title of 2005 WPT Player of the Year. He's sometimes referred to on-air as "The Caveman," and while he claims it's unintentional, he comes across to listeners as a strong, silent type with a tight-lipped wealth of poker knowledge.

"Reading some of the message boards, I see that some listeners think I'm holding back," said Smith. "I don't really have a problem exposing any of my secrets, so I might try to open up a little more." Of course, it's radio, so Smith is certainly far from being silent, but when seated next to his nearly polar opposite co-host Sebok, it might just come across that way.

Unlike Smith, Sebok is a relative newcomer to the professional poker world, and didn't gain visibility until the 2005 World Series of Poker when he made a few final-table appearances. Since then, Joe's been on a tear, winning the championship event at this year's Heavenly Hold'em tournament and following in Smith's footsteps by winning an event at this year's Mirage Poker Showdown. Oh, and he's Barry Greenstein's son.

Sebok's role on the show more closely mirrors his real-life persona - laid-back and loquacious. Despite his more gregarious nature on the show, he faces the same requests for more poker insight that Smith does, but he has a slightly different response. "It's not the kind of show in which we'll ever tell people exactly what to do," he stated. "We give a lot of very subtle poker information, and if people listen, it's going to help; but hopefully, we entertain people, too."

The Dynamic
As easy as the trio makes it seem, it's anything but. With no "home-field advantage," The Circuit is forced to record from a traveling studio, which consists of anything ranging from a suite, to a stage, to a corner of a tournament area.

Due to the nature of the tournament circuit, at any given time, either Smith, Sebok, or the show's guests could be playing in that day's event. While this provides poker's most timely content, it also can present logistical nightmares. When asked if playing professionally and then rushing over to talk poker on the air is difficult, Smith answered, "The hardest part is when you bust out of a tournament and all you want to do is go home, and you have to do the show; but actually, it helps. It makes you think about the game a little bit more."

As usual, Sebok offered an opposite opinion: "My first year [as a player] has given me a lot of confidence, so I have a lot to prove. I love the show. I'm dedicated to do it, we all believe in it, and I think we have caught lightning in a bottle, but I'm a poker player first."

This begs the question: When booking guests who could at any time be eliminated from a tournament, how do you keep them from tilting right out of the studio and back to their hotel rooms? Sebok answered thusly, "We know the personalities - both as players and who they are as people - so we can get a lot of people to come in. It's like we're sitting around drinking beers in a bar. We're going to cut each other up, and we're going to talk poker. People feed off how comfortable that is."

Another answer is teamwork. Each of the show's three hosts, as well as producer Danny Egelhoff (who mixes and edits the show), wears many hats, and contributes to the writing, producing, and wrangling of talent for the show.

Smith commented, "The biggest reason for our success is that Danny and Scott are absolute masters at what they're doing. They both have so much talent. They make the show."

Huff also shared most of the credit. "What makes it successful is the ability of the co-hosts and the producer to infuse all of our personalities," he said.

The Future
Strangely, the show's future seems to be the only thing Gavin and Joe agree upon. Providing a satellite radio pun, Smith said, "I think the sky's the limit. I think that we have the best guests, the best poker content, the best advice out there, and Scott is the best I've ever heard. I think he's superentertaining. I think we put out a fabulous product. I think we could go anywhere."

Sebok agreed. "We have high hopes, and I would love it if it became a national massive thing. If poker keeps growing, they're going to need more shows, like a Baseball Tonight, and I think the three of us are perfectly set up for that."

Huff, who is still working diligently to tighten up the show and take it in the right direction, can be his own harshest critic. But, he is still excited about offering The Circuit listeners the best poker content - period. "Maybe we haven't even really seen the poker explosion yet," he said. "As long as poker continues to grow to a point where people want this kind of entertainment, the show can go as high as poker goes."

With this entertaining and knowledgeable trio at the controls, count on CardPlayer.com's The Circuit to continuously roll out goods that can help take your game to the next level.

Sirius
CardPlayer.com's The Circuit is now available weekdays (Monday-Friday) from 8:06 a.m. to 9 a.m. PDT on Sirius satellite radio Channel 122. Hear the best poker radio show around as it joins big names like ESPN, Howard Stern, Maxim and E! Entertainment on this satellite radio provider.

Bellagio
Bellagio Resort Casino is where The Circuit got its start. Bellagio's continued support of the show will be on display all summer long as its world-famous poker room becomes The Circuit's permanent studio during the 37th-annual World Series of Poker. Come play some poker and watch the show recorded live.