Sports media ace Nick Wright will take over as co-host of No Gamble, No Future later this year, replacing the outbound Jeff Platt after eight seasons of the splashy PokerGO series.
The co-host of FS1's First Things First has been a frequent player on poker livestreams and he's already a regular at the PokerGO Studio, where Platt held down tapings of the episodic series with Brent Hanks for several years. Platt recently left for WSOP and the show has since moved into more live content, setting up for a chance for Wright and Hanks to take the show in a new direction.
"This show will crossover into sports," Hanks said at the tail end of Wednesday night's livestream, which also featured Antonio Esfandiari. "That is part of the initiative that Nick and I are working on."
The livestream era
One can probably expect a rotating crew of familiar sports stars and media personalities, capitalizing on Wright's extended social circle in every league. There will also be a new angle for the presentation and a focus on livestreams from the Las Vegas studio.
"We're moving into the livestream era," Hanks explained further. "We're going to double dip livestreams every single time we film."
All of the new elements also come together nicely for the shows newest sponsor, Jared Bleznick, and his Blez Online sportscard platform. One of the ongoing features of a Bleznick appearance has been the card breaks, and we can expect a lot more of those.
"We'll be featuring a great deal of Jared Bleznick," Hanks said.
The new season featuring Wright will likely film in the late spring and summer months.
Welcome to NGNF
Meanwhile, the new host of NGNF played the biggest hand of his life near the end of Wednesday night's broadcast.
It started with Wright's raise to $2,600 from the button with 
and a call from 'Tickets' in the small blind with 
before Esfandiari joined in the big blind with 
.
A 
flop gave Wright two pair and he started the betting with $3,200. That pushed 'Tickets' out of the way before Esfandiari met the bet with second pair, setting up a 
on the turn. Esfandiari checked that turn and Wright tossed out $12,000, a call that didn't take much time.
The 
river fell and Esfandiari checked again, leading to a $55,200 shove from Wright.
"I might have to pay you off here, my friend," Esfandiari said before settling in for a very long think.
He would eventually emerge with the call and send Wright the biggest pot of his life and a tidy end-of-night profit that tipped over $114K. Esfandiari took the late hit but still ended up with a tidy profit of $245K. Check out the full broadcast:
Images courtesy of Antonio Abrego/PokerGO.
