Looking on Poker.Org recently, I saw a very cool Paul Oresteen feature about how poker tournament staff become family from all the time they spend together working events and away from the felt as well.
That made me think about how much time the crew working the February WSOP Circuit Graton Poker series is one big, roving-the-poker-world family.
Poker.Org’s Mike Patrick is the newest member of the family, joining the reporting ranks in 2021, while the omnipresent Ryan ‘luccrazy’ Lucchesi dates back to the WSOP circa 2006. Many moons before joining the media ranks, I worked in a Canadian island city of 4,000 that also happened to be the seaside fishing village Mike went to high school in.
Ryan and I have toured the globe, working events in the world’s largest poker room at the Commerce, all the way to a 10-table room in central California where we were on hand for the first-ever tourney win for Victor Paredes, a whopping $2,150 cash.
Off the felt, Ryan and I are co-founders with Hill Kerby of the infamous #FunTour2point0 crew of media staff circumnavigating the pokers. We vow to try all the best craft beer pubs in all the cities at all the venues we venture toward. Hill did not join us this week, extending the family even further as he and wife Dmitra celebrate the birth of their first child.
Graton Resort and Casino has been here 11 years, but my times with Poker Room Manager Greg Steinmetz goes back 20+ years before that, with us roaming the poker halls of downtown Reno for decades.
Tournament Director Jordan Cutter likely works more events these days than anyone else in the game – his closest challenger could well be fellow TD Justin Hammer – as he moves all over the country, from here to joining us at Thunder Valley’s TVPokerRoom (where Cutter and Hammer are regular members of the 7-series-a-year crew) clear across to Florida and Seminole Hard Rock Hollywood (a location a large percentage of this crew hails from).
Crystal the lead Massage Therapist, aka Gutter Bunny (#IYKYK), has removed knots from shoulders in poker rooms around the globe. She and Ryan were comparing notes earlier today about an event both attended with the WPT in St. Maartens in 2013, and tossing in comments about various legendary off-the-felt antics from that tour stop … and many more. We’d tell you the stories, but we’d then have to, well, you get the idea.
From Kate The Great, to Patrick, Ben and Andy, across all the dealers grinding downs at each table, to all the stories and friendships built with players over the decades – this crew has seen every poker story you can come up with, has answered every unusual question you can imagine, and has enjoyed the company of each other in every corner of the globe.
Dan is the founder of PokerLiveUpdates, a veteran poker tournament reporter who can be found wandering somewhat aimlessly through tournament arenas worldwide. As a founding member of FunTour2.0, he searches for the best in craft beer at all locations in the poker world.
