Creative Director Nolan Dalla’s television feature cash game show Poker Night in America started filming on 8 August, with the hosting Empire State Poker Classic Main Event kicking off today. The list of accomplished participants got released just before the start.
Nolan Dalla announced early August that he would be acting as Creative Director to Rush Productions’ Poker Night in America, a cash game show specifically organised for the television and filming in New York. The list of participants includes a number of renowned and accomplished poker personalities and it had just been revealed before starting filming on 8 August.
The show aims at changing the way poker is televised by mixing game play, interviews and unscripted reality-style coverage. Qualified players were welcome to join as Dalla was reportedly seeking “some wild cards in this deck of jokers” and they would be even flown to New York. However, participants had to have the funds to enter the game, that is, they would have had to invest $5,000 to $20,000 from their own bankrolls, as Pokerfuse reports.
The names of the participating players now released, a West Coast as well as an East Coast crew had been selected: Mike ‘The Mouth’ Matusow, Phil Laak, Greg Mueller, David Williams, Layne ‘Back To Back’ Flack, Gavin Smith, David ‘ODB’ Baker, Shawn Buchanan, David Levi, Tom Schneider and Eli Elezra are joined by Lauren Billings and Kristy Arnett through the open casting in the former. The latter group consists of Will ‘The Thrill’ Failla, Matt Glantz, Shaun Deeb, Dwyte Pilgrim, Amanda Musumeci, Dennis Philips and Darvin Moon, among others.
The $1,500 Main Event of the Empire State Poker Classic launches on 9 August, with the $25/$50 televised cash game show starting a day before. The whole fest takes place at the Turning Stone Casino and Resort in New York.
