The World Poker Tour World Championships are currently ongoing at the Wynn Las Vegas, running through December 20. That event features a $40 million guaranteed prize pool, the largest in WPT history. Broadcaster Tony Dunst (seen at left above) is calling the action alongside Vince Van Patten (seen at right above) on WPT’s streaming and televised coverage, and he recently spoke to AA about these particular championships and his broadcasting role. To start with, Dunst said he thinks the game as a whole is in a great place, and better than he expected at the start of this year.
“I think poker and the World Poker Tour are in a really good place right now, and I’m almost a little bit surprised. Because when we came out of the pandemic, it wasn’t surprising to me that there was this huge pent-up demand for live poker; a lot of people picked up the game during the pandemic because they were looking for a hobby that they could do under lockdown. There was just all this pent-up demand in different countries and regions of the world where there hadn’t been any live tournaments in years.”
“The first ones really released that pent-up demand. And a whole lot of people showed up; in 2021, 2022, there were really big numbers. But I didn’t know how much that was going to carry over into 2023, with downturns in the economy and a little bit of the novelty wearing off, I thought ‘Maybe this will wear off a bit, we’ll see lower numbers.’ And I said something to that effect at the start of the year on social media, ‘Hey, maybe we should temper our expectations a little bit, this might be a little bit of a flat year.'”
“And I was dead wrong. The World Series and World Poker Tour numbers have been breaking records across the globe for a lot of this year. A bunch of events that we run every year have managed to retain the numbers we had in 2021, and we increased the guarantee on the WPT championships because the turnout at the end of last year was so incredible. So it’s hard not to feel very positive about the game of poker right now.”
Dunst said there’s a lot to be excited about with this particular tournament too, and it goes beyond just that record-setting guarantee.
“We really blew past the guarantee (of $15 million) last year and wound up creating one of the largest prize pools in poker history (of $29 million), and that was already the largest guarantee in poker history. So now this year’s $40 million shatters that record. I was incredibly excited to see that. I know it’s my job, but really, [last year] was one of the best if not the best event that I’d ever been involved with from a working perspective.”
“The Wynn believes in doing things with such quality, and the excellent attention to detail they have, the quality of staff, it all shows. It is reflected in the way the players came out of the world championships last year, talking about it like ‘We had such a great time, they really catered to all the things poker players want.’ That’s what you want to hear.”
“And as somebody coming from the player side to the corporate side, I’m often the one advocating for these things to be a little more player-friendly, and I just felt like the Tour, the Wynn, everybody that was involved just knocked it out of the park in terms of the attention to detail. And that makes it a positive experience for the players there every day.”
Dunst said the surrounding festival events add to that atmosphere as well.
“The other thing that really stood out to me last year was how many cool off-the-felt activities we had, opportunities for the casual players to interact with pros,” he said. “All these kinds of things really add up to something where casual players can come, check out the tournament, maybe play something that’s buy-in appropriate for them, and have a chance to engage with pros they’ve always admired.”
And Dunst said that brings back memories of his start in poker.
“It really reminded me of the poker scene 20 years ago, when there were a lot of new players getting involved in the game, and I was one of them at the time, who would travel to events,” he said. “I met Mike Sexton the first time I went to one of the big events, and that was one of the highlights of my trip. I love seeing that we’re giving a new generation of players those kinds of experiences.”
On the broadcasting side, Dunst said he’s particularly enjoyed moving into the commentary booth. He started working on these broadcasts in 2010 as host of the Raw Deal final-table hand analysis segment, but moved into the booth with Van Patten in 2017 following famed commentator Mike Sexton‘s retirement after 15 years. Dunst told AA that’s been a great experience for him, and lets him cover more than just individual hands.
“I really like the switch to the booth. As much as I enjoyed doing the Raw Deal, it’s a segment where at times you need to highlight the mistakes of your peers. And I kind of like, especially as I’m aging, I don’t really want to be too super critical of my peers, I want to talk about the game in a broader perspective rather than just highlighting errors. That’s not necessarily all of what the Raw Deal is about, but I like with general commentary how you get to cover everything.”
Dunst is a noted player himself, and said it’s important for him to mix playing with his broadcasting.
“It’s a nice balance for me. If I only play poker all the time, I kind of burn out and get frustrated, whereas if I only do commentary all the time, I miss the gambling, I miss the certainty of it. That’s the world that I came up in. So being able to switch off between the two really allows the grass to be greener on both sides.”
He said both commentary and playing are a lot of fun, and they feed into each other.
“I really enjoy both sides, which is great. I like that balance. And it’s given me motivation to pick up the game again from a theoretical standpoint. In 2018, I kind of looked back at my tournament results and thought ‘I haven’t really done much in tournament poker for a few years, I should get back up on things.’ Especially if I’m going to be doing commentary and analyzing other people’s play, I felt like I should be cutting edge. So it was great motivation for that.”
Dunst is now in his seventh year in the booth, and said the experience there has helped.
“It gets a little bit easier over time. You get a bit more used to what’s expected of you, you know how Vince likes to do his role, and with a little more experience, that all gets ironed out.”
The WPT broadcasts are available on a wide variety of platforms, including television broadcasts on the Bally Sports regional networks and streaming through their website, apps and FAST channels. Dunst said it’s a different audience for the TV and streaming shows, and that influences his approach.
“I think the audience differs a lot depending on which medium they take in the show from. For our television show, I think it’s maybe more casual viewers, so the commentary is maybe a bit more interactive with me talking to Vince about some of the basic strategy of it, I don’t do such a deep dive that I almost stop the show in its tracks breaking down a hand. I don’t want to do that on the television side.”
“Whereas when we have these online streams with all the tables, these things last seven, eight hours. So there’s a lot more time to fill and you’re not editing the dead time out. In that arena, where I think we have an audience that’s way more poker-intensive, less casual, then I’m happy to review the tables and really dive into some of the strategic elements of the game, because that audience appreciates it.”
While Dunst said the interest in poker now is strong, he’s a little disappointed that many states’ moves to legalize sports gambling haven’t yet led to expanded online poker legalization. There are only six states where that’s legal right now, and Dunst said he and other poker players were optimistic movement there would come faster around those other gambling boosts.
“That one’s been a little bittersweet, because with the expansion of gambling, there was a lot of hope within the poker community that we’d see the expansion of online poker in the United States,” he said. “There was a lot of anticipation that the states that legalized sports betting would legalize more gambling at various times, and poker’s going to be roped into those bills, and we’re going to see a bigger role for the online poker economy again. But it hasn’t materialized. So it’s tough to say that those legalizations have had a huge impact on poker, certainly not as much as we were hoping for over the last three to five years when everyone was making bullish predictions.”
But he did say he appreciates that wider sports gambling legalization, even if it hasn’t yet had much of a poker impact.
“I am encouraged that we’re seeing a more honest approach to gambling legalization, because it’s always been going on,” he said. “But I don’t know how much that has really trickled down to poker at this time.”
For those who aren’t yet into poker, Dunst said the broadcasts can be a great way to check it out.
“If they have a curiosity about poker, they should definitely check out televised poker. That’s where you’ll see the biggest prize tables and best players. And if someone’s curious about the lifestyle and travel aspect of it, the WPT does a very good job of showing what it is to make a living at playing poker; where do you go, what are the kinds of places you see, who are the people you spend your time with, where are you eating, where are you sleeping, what is it to walk the felt?”
“And if they are trying to get better at poker, they can learn by watching the best in the game and emulating what they do. And ideally you get commentary from experienced poker players who can offer specific insight and reasoning into the decisions made by the players on the felt. And that can help your game as well.”
[Image from WPT]
