It was with great sadness that the poker community learnt of the death of visionary TV producer Rob Gardner in August. Rob was the creative driving force behind
Late Night Poker, the
Channel 4 show that did so much to popularise the game across Europe in the late 1990s.
Just last month I cited
Late Night Poker as the catalyst for not just my own entry into the game, but for an entire generation gaining exposure to the balletic machinations in the battles that unfold in no-limit hold'em.
In a moving tribute to his close friend, Jesse May said, "He had more ideas than any man I've ever known or will. He loved drama, television, and never even once considered thinking inside of the box. There are so many people who claim to have invented it, but if you spent any time with Rob at all, you'd know he's the only one nutty enough to have dreamt up televised poker.
"Rob was the one who had the fire that burned for the idea. He was the only one who could dream it up, write it down on a piece of A4 paper, and then sit in front of the
Channel 4 commissioner in 1998 with a straight face and tell him that people coming home from the pub were going to love this at 3 a.m. And they did.
Late Night Poker was Rob's baby. And he knew what it was that would make it great. He saw the drama, he saw the humanity. And when people reminisce about why those early televised poker shows were so good and are still so good, they know they like them but they don't know why. It's because of what Rob Gardner gave them.
"For me, he was the spirit of what the world of poker is supposed to be. The last time we were in Vegas together, this past February for the
Super Bowl, Rob and I left the Strip one night and headed Downtown. We prowled Binion's and drank coffee at the Starbucks outside the Golden Nugget, where you sit out in the chill at 3 a.m. and just watch Vegas happen.
"I've lost part of me [today]. We've lost our partner, our muse, and our friend. Rest in peace, Rob. We won't forget you."
Rob's last written work, "An Open Letter From the Man Who Invented Televised Poker," penned a couple of weeks before his untimely death, can be read in this issue.
Card Player extends its sincere sympathies to his family, friends, and colleagues. The world will be a lesser place without him.
