When James Hartigan commentated his first poker tournament back in 2005, he never even considered that he’d still be doing it 20 years on. Through that time he’s become one of the most respected voices in the game, forming a fabulous double-act with Joe ‘Stapes’ Stapleton that’s brought you some of the most iconic moments in poker.
“There's always that fear, that eventually I'll get tired of this and fall out of love with the game,” Hartigan admits when we catch up with him at the 2025 EPT Barcelona festival. “But I still love coming in and wondering, ‘What am I going to see today?’ because it’s different all the time.”
PokerStars at the WSOP
There was something different for viewers at the 2025 WSOP this summer. Streams were playing out as normal on PokerGO, behind the paywall, but a deal with PokerGO saw Stapes and Hartigan running their own live streams, for free, on the PokerStars YouTube page.
It wasn’t the first time that Hartigan had done commentary at the WSOP — he was there in 2010, ironically the year that Michael Mizrachi won his first of four Poker Players Championships and made the Main Event final table.
“I got to come back in November to do the live stream of the Main Event final table that year,” Hartigan says. “That was the first time I ever commentated with Phil Hellmuth — that was an experience. Coming back to the WSOP this summer… it was unexpected, but it was great to work with Joe on it.”
Hartigan admits he had to make some adjustments for the non-hold’em tables. He commentated a couple of PLO high rollers and the 9-game Poker Players Championship.
“I don't consider myself to be a PLO expert,” Hartigan tells us. “I know the rules of the game, I can fumble my way through it, but I didn't want to make it sound like I didn't know what I was talking about. But it's always good to be tested, right?”
Kassouf not handled properly
The WSOP was tested by Will Kassouf this summer, in a story that made headlines deep in the Main Event. And poker media was criticised for putting the loud Brit pro on a pedestal and encouraging the behavior (stalling and excessive chatter) that eventually led to him being escorted off the premises and banned for the rest of the series. What did Hartigan make of all that?
“We’ve had Kassouf on the EPT and the UKIPT long before he had his first deep run in the World Series in 2016,” Hartigan says. “And I've always found it interesting that TDs in Europe seem to know how to tackle the Kassouf problem. Not once, but twice, I feel it was not handled particularly well by the staff at the World Series.”
Hartigan’s last stream at the WSOP was on Day 3 when Kassouf was put on the feature table for the first time.
“They shined a spotlight on him, put him on a pedestal, and allowed him to do his thing,” Hartigan says. “They let him run unchecked and almost celebrated it, turning him into the star of the show,” he adds.
“And the problem is, when you feed that, when you feed his ego, or you give him the green light to do that, what you can't then do five days later is get that pendulum and swing it completely in the opposite direction and say, 'you're now on a 15 second shot clock for every single decision and if you say another word, we're going to disqualify you from the tournament'.”
As for wider media coverage, Hartigan says, “There's a difference between covering something and basically heroing someone, right? And I never personally felt at any point that anyone was heroing what he was doing, but let's be honest, it was probably a good thing for poker that that story ended when it did, so we could focus on the real stories and celebrate Kenny [Hallaert]’s achievement of making two final tables in the modern era, Grinder's achievement of winning both the Poker Players Championship and the Main Event, and to celebrate Leo [Marget]’s achievement, to be the first woman to make the final table in the modern era, when the fields have been huge.”
Crossing the streams in Barcelona
Three weeks in Las Vegas is enough for Hartigan — “When you get to that point where you can no longer remember what day of the week it is or what you did the day before, it’s time to leave” — but he admits that he practically lives out of a suitcase now. And home can take many different forms.
“It was nice to, in so many ways, come home to Barcelona,” Hartigan says. “This was the first EPT I ever came to. It was the first we ever live streamed, and with respect to the guys who do the World Series, who do a phenomenal job, I get to work with the best production team in the world on the EPT and we get to produce what I think is the best poker content.”
It’s a very familiar setting for Hartigan, who has personally called some incredible action from Barcelona through the years. But there’s something very different in store for poker fans this weekend, with PokerStars running two live streams on the final two days of the festival for the very first time.
Viewers who tune in for the final two days of the Main Event won’t see or hear Hartigan. Instead, he’s going to be on duty at the Spin & Go Championship, which plays out on Saturday and Sunday on a custom-built set.
“I think it's very clear this is a very exciting competition,” Hartigan says. “We have to acknowledge that Spin & Gos are hugely popular. There are people who play this game and play high volume, and are winning Spin & Go players, so why shouldn’t they have their time in the sun?”
81 players will contest the Spin & Go Championship. The majority qualified online and are all solid Spin & Go players. They’ll be joined by invited influencers and players like Jason Koon, who admitted to us that he’s intrigued to play something new.
“I found out this week, I'm going to be on the floor,” says Hartigan. “I'm gonna be the host of the Spin & Go Championship — ‘bringing the showbiz’ is what I’ve been told. It's going to be a challenge, it's going to be something new and I'm excited to be doing it. But there's always going to be an element of regret in my heart that I have to leave the EPT Main Event behind. I’ve had to put my hands on Joe Stapleton’s shoulder and say, buddy, the ship's now yours. Don't f**k it up.”
The EPT Barcelona Main Event crowns its champion on Sunday. The Spin & Go Championship will play out Saturday and Sunday, and PokerOrg will be there to bring you all the biggest moments as they happen. You can watch both live on the PokerStars YouTube channel.
Additional images courtesy of Eloy Cabas/Jules Pochy/Danny Maxwell/Rational Intellectual Holdings Ltd.
