An Inside Look at the National Heads-Up Poker Championship Part 1

By Dennis Oehring

With the National Heads-Up Poker Championship set to begin filming on Friday, March 2, my week began three days earlier on Tuesday with a series of meetings comprised of all the key people who work behind-the-scenes to make this event truly special. This included the show's director, producers, organizers, announcers, interview team members, and other key NBC Sports personnel who together orchestrated a game plan that came off with nary a hitch.

If you had walked into the tournament area of the Caesars Palace poker room on Monday, you would never believe the transformation that had to take place between then and Friday. The tournament area normally houses 30+ tables and 300+ chairs, all of which had to be removed so that the set could be erected.

The stage hands responsible for doing this I fondly refer to as the "poker roustabouts," and they have to work long hours within a very short period of time to make sure everything is set up and ready for the opening shoot. This includes building a stage, setting up the heads-up tables, creating areas where the audience can be seated, making sure all of the cameras in use are working properly, creating the backdrop, setting up plasma screens for the benefit of the audience, and much, much more. It is a job of astronomical proportions, and my hat is off to all of them.

Wednesday was a lot of fun, as about 20 of the players came in to do promotional shoots in different parts of the casino. These shoots will serve as the openings to the shows, and will be similar to the intros done for Poker After Dark. Wherever the players and cameras went to do these shoots, they were watched by throngs of fans, many taking pictures with the cameras built into their cell phones. Suffice it to say that the players created quite a buzz throughout the casino whenever the cameras were rolling.

In between these shoots, many of the players indulged in a little bit of poker in a back area of the poker room while others just took the opportunity to relax and shoot the breeze with their poker-playing friends. I heard lots of interesting stories from the likes of Todd Brunson, Chris Ferguson, Jennifer Harman, Marco Traniello, Shawn Sheikhan, and Clonie Gowen while watching players such as Carlos Mortensen, Phil Laak, Jamie Gold, Vanessa Rousso, and Jennifer Tilly trying to bust one another in a $5/10 NL game. The atmosphere was good-natured and lighthearted, and everyone seemed to have a good time.

Thursday was spent in more meetings, being introduced to the people working in the truck as I would later have responsibilities there during filming, and rounding up players for interviews prior to the drawing party that took place later that evening at the exclusive nightclub Pure. Working with NBC's public relations people at the entrance to the red carpet enabled me to greet each of the players and their guests before they made their way onto the carpet, where they were photographed by numerous members of the media and the many fans in attendance.

Standing right behind me at the entrance was a Caesars employee who required identification for any of the players who didn't look at least 40 years of age, which resulted in both John D'Agostino and Tuan Le having to go back to their hotel rooms and retrieve their photo IDs before they could even be admitted. Sounds like no big deal, right? But if you've ever been in Caesars Palace, that can be a very long walk depending on where your room is located. Sorry guys, I had nothing to do with it, I promise!

I'll cover the drawing party in more detail in Part 2.