“Live at the Bike” is set to premiere on Poker Central on April 20 at 10 p.m. ET. “Live at the Bike” will be the poker network’s first live show with commentary provided by Nichoel Jurgens and Abe “Limon” Hepner.
“Poker Central is excited to add ‘Live at the Bike’ to our lineup of original programing,” said Dan Russell, SVP of Programming for Poker Central. “The live series will feature real cash games, with talented amateurs and pros facing off every week in one of the most iconic card rooms in L.A.”
“Live at the Bike” launched in 2005 as the first cash games lived streamed directly from the casino floor. The original broadcast team of “Live at the Bike” has found great success in the poker and broadcasting fields.
I spoke with David Tuchman last week, and we discussed how working on “Live at the Bike” gave him the broadcast experience that launched his career.
Born in New York, Tuchman studied theatre and journalism in college. In Los Angeles, he crossed paths with Robert Turner, who was the executive host of the Bicycle Casino at the time.
Turner remembers hiring Tuchman as a house player because of his outgoing personality and passion for poker. When Turner was putting together the broadcast team for “Live at the Bike,” Tuchman was a natural choice.
Live at the Bike Becomes First Live Stream of Cash Games
Another of Turner’s hires, Bart Hanson, had mentioned that he wanted to be a sports broadcaster, so when Turner was casting for “Live at the Bike,” Hanson immediately came to mind. To round out his team, Turner hired two other prop players, Nichoel Jurgens, an aspiring actress, and Shirley Rosario, an Omaha and mixed-game specialist.
“Live at the Bike” owes its decade-long success not only to its on-air talent but to the hardworking team behind-the-scenes: casino operations director Eveliene Dullaart and Kelley O’Hara, director of marketing.
Along with Rick Cloward, who at the time was director of poker operations, Joker Gaming was created to produce “Live at the Bike.”
After securing seed money for the broadcast from a friend of Turner’s and using the technical expertise of iStreamPlanet, “Live at the Bike” was streamed to the world, and the rest is history.
Visit https://www.pokercentral.com/find-us to see if Poker Central is available in your area.
Patricia Chavira is a freelance writer and social media consultant specializing in poker. She writes a column called the “Poker Scene” for Gaming Today. Follow her on Twitter @pinkchippoker.
Robert Turner Poker 