Antonio Esfandiari is one of the most recognizable and popular poker players in the world. The future Hall-of-Famer is not only an excellent poker player but also a natural for televised poker, due to his outgoing personality and fantastic sense of humor. Esfandiari’s poker talents and table talk will be on display this Friday night as “The Magician” is part of the announced lineup for Hustler Casino Live.
The three-time WSOP bracelet winner has been a regular on the popular televised poker series “Poker After Dark” since its inception in 2007. Esfandiari was most recently on the show in 2020. He was also the first player to take on Phil Hellmuth in PokerGO’s High Stakes Duel last year. It’s safe to assume he’ll take some heat at the table on Friday night for losing all three of his heads-up matches to Hellmuth.
Friday night’s game will start at 5pm PST. The no-limit hold’em action will start at $50/$100, but don’t be surprised if Esfandiari attempts to bump up the action with some straddles and side bets.
Hustler Casino Live off to a strong start
Hustler Casino Live officially debuted on August 3. Early reviews on Twitter and in the YouTube comment section have been overwhelmingly positive. One consistent compliment that keeps coming up is how good the production value is.
These compliments are warranted. The camera work and graphics are outstanding, as viewers can see on the Hustler Casino Live YouTube page that archives the live-streams into on-demand videos. David Tuchman and Bart Hanson have also done a great job of calling the action, mixing their knowledge of poker and obvious chemistry on the mic to find a good balance between a professional and casual vibe.
The only real criticism that has been made about the early episodes is the lack of star power and high-stakes play. That’s obviously about to change on Friday night with the blinds bumped up to $50/$100 and Antonio Esfandiari joining the mix. Esfandiari will also be joined by GGPoker Team China representative Andy Stacks on Friday.
Andy Stacks is one of the biggest stars on Live at the Bike, another Los-Angeles-based poker live-stream show. Hustler Casino Live co-producer Nick Vertucci will also be in the mix. If you haven’t had the chance to check out this free poker stream yet, this is an episode that you won’t want to miss. You can watch it live at 5pm PST on YouTube or on demand after the broadcast has ended.
Featured Image Credit: Flickr - World Poker Tour
